He was part owner of Lionel, LLC, a company that makes toy trains and model railroad accessories. In 2008 Lionel emerged from bankruptcy and his shares of the company were wiped out. At this time his status with Lionel is unknown, according to Lionel CEO Jerry Calabrese he is still a consultant for Lionel. He was instrumental in the design of the Lionel Legacy control system for model trains and it is believed he will continue to develop the system. Young has been named as co-inventor on seven U.S. Patents related to model trains.
Lionel changed hands again in 1995, when Kughn sold controlling interest in the company to an investment group that included rock star Neil Young and the holding company Wellspring Capital Management, which was headed by former Paramount Communications chairman Martin Davis (he had left the board of Viacom, which bought Paramount the previous year). The new company became known as Lionel LLC.
Additionally, Young, who at that time had a 20% stake in the company[1], helped finance the development of Trainmaster Command Control, a technology similar to Digital Command Control which permits, among other things, the operation of Lionel trains by remote control. In order to proliferate this standard, Lionel has licensed it to several of its competitors, including K-Line. This technology was the brainchild of Neil Young. It was originally licensed to Lionel under the Liontech name. Another element of Young's vision was the creation of "Railsounds II" a sound system that would faithfully reproduce the sound of a particular locomotive, with electronics and loudspeaker built into each model.
Following the reorganisation plan, Neil Young is no longer a minority shareholder in the Lionel company; however, Calabrese insists that the company wants Young to remain involved, claiming that Neil will have an "ongoing role in the company", but that this role is "up to [Neil]" [1]. The pair had organised a meeting on March 28, 2008, although any formal findings from this meeting are yet to be announced. As of May 1, Lionel is fully out of bankruptcy.
