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L.G.B

LGB G SCALE CHRISTMAS FLAT CAR WITH 4 TRAINS, LGB 42100

LGB G SCALE CHRISTMAS FLAT CAR WITH 4 TRAINS, LGB 42100

 $148.79 1h 31m
LGB G "THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN" 1999 LGB 36079 L LIGHTED

LGB G "THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN" 1999 LGB 36079 L LIGHTED

 $158.09 2h 11m
LGB RIO GRANDE STOCK CAR #4068 LIKE NOS

LGB RIO GRANDE STOCK CAR #4068 LIKE NOS

 $99.00 3h 34m
ARISTO-CRAFT (CREST) LUBRICATION PASTE #CRE-29606 (4)

ARISTO-CRAFT (CREST) LUBRICATION PASTE #CRE-29606 (4)

 - $6.99 10h 58m
LEHMANN RIGI SKI LIFT TRAM CAR NEW IN BOX

LEHMANN RIGI SKI LIFT TRAM CAR NEW IN BOX

 1 $9.00 11h
LGB 46833 ARAL TANK CAR MIB

LGB 46833 ARAL TANK CAR MIB

 $219.99 11h 2m
LGB 2064 Railbus - Triebwagen - Great cond, NR

LGB 2064 Railbus - Triebwagen - Great cond, NR

15 $100.01 11h 14m
LGB 2064 Railbus - Triebwagen - Great cond, box, NR

LGB 2064 Railbus - Triebwagen - Great cond, box, NR

 7 $90.34 11h 14m
LGB 42123 PERSIL TANK CAR MIB

LGB 42123 PERSIL TANK CAR MIB

 $149.99 11h 15m
LGB: 23390 RhB Railcar Train ABe 4 4 #33

LGB: 23390 RhB Railcar Train ABe 4 4 #33

 $849.98 11h 24m
LGB 41283 MOB BOX CAR GK 522 GETAZ ROMANG MIB

LGB 41283 MOB BOX CAR GK 522 GETAZ ROMANG MIB

 $179.98 11h 30m
LGB 43300 StLB BOX CAR G 4009 MIB

LGB 43300 StLB BOX CAR G 4009 MIB

 $149.99 11h 48m
LGB 44410 DR HOPPER CAR BM BERGAN MIB

LGB 44410 DR HOPPER CAR BM BERGAN MIB

 $129.98 12h 5m
LGB 46670 Coors Malt Milk Boxcar

LGB 46670 Coors Malt Milk Boxcar

 2 $56.55 12h 14m
LGB 44910 McDonalds Boxcar - You Deserve a Break Today

LGB 44910 McDonalds Boxcar - You Deserve a Break Today

 3 $54.40 12h 24m
LGB 4028 CC 1992 LGB National Convention Boxcar - NY

LGB 4028 CC 1992 LGB National Convention Boxcar - NY

 - $50.00 12h 29m
1 NEW ARCH BAR TRUCK LGB?

1 NEW ARCH BAR TRUCK LGB?

 5 $3.25 12h 31m
LGB 42413 Silberhutte Hopper Car

LGB 42413 Silberhutte Hopper Car

 1 $45.00 12h 34m
LGB 42362 Transport Sheep Car with Sound

LGB 42362 Transport Sheep Car with Sound

 3 $65.10 12h 39m
LGB Lehmann Gnomy No. 990 - 2 locomotives - 25th Anniv

LGB Lehmann Gnomy No. 990 - 2 locomotives - 25th Anniv

 1 $5.00 12h 54m

Lionel news

  • Fascinating facts about the invention of
    Lionel Trains     by Joshua Lionel Cowen in 1901.

    LIONEL TRAINS AT A GLANCE: Joshua Lionel Cowen was an inventive guy and had always been very interested in trains. In 1901, he fitted a small motor under a model of a railroad flatcar, powered by a battery on 30 inches of track and the Lionel electric train was born. The first Lionel train was designed to attract window-shopping New Yorkers using the power of animated display. Since its humble beginning Lionel has sold more than 50 million train sets and today produces more than 300 miles of track each year. Joshua Lionel Cowen was an inventive guy and had always been very interested in trains. When he was seven, he whittled a miniature locomotive from wood. It exploded, however, when he tried to fit it with a tiny steam engine. Joshua had never forgotten his childhood experiment. In 1901, he fitted a small motor under a model of a railroad flatcar, a battery and 30 inches of track and the Lionel electric train was born. Joshua  was born on Henry St. in Manhattan’s Lower East Side on August 25, 1877. He preferred playing ball, bicycling, hiking and tinkering with mechanical toys to formal education, and soon became fascinated with electricity, its transmission and its storage in batteries. Cowen did so well in school that in 1893 he entered the College of the City of New York. But, he could not adjust to the confines of a formal education. In short order he dropped out, returned, again dropped out, enrolled at Columbia University, and dropped out there to become an apprentice to Henner & Anderson, an early dry cell battery manufacturer. Then he took a job at the Acme Lamp Company in New York as a battery lamp assembler. During his spare time he liked experimenting, one of many mechanically inclined young men who liked to tinker with things. These jobs gave Cowen the experience he needed to launch Lionel. In 1899, he patented a device for igniting photographers’ flash powder by using dry cell batteries to heat a wire fuse. Cowen than parlayed this into a defense contract to equip 24,000 Navy mines with detonators. His ignorance of armament manufacture did not stop him. He used mercuric fulminate, a sensitive and powerful explosive (his supplier’s deliveryman told him, "The company said you should always keep a good deal around. It’s better to be dead than maimed"), and delivered the fuses to the Brooklyn Navy Yard on time by horse-drawn wagon at a gallop. In January 1900, he filed his second patent which improved on the his first design but again failed to give details. On September 5, 1900, Cowen and a colleague from Acme, Harry C. Grant, started a business in lower Manhattan called the Lionel Manufacturing Company, but they had nothing to manufacture. One hot day when Cowen was sitting in his office waiting for a cool breeze he got the idea of an electric fan. He quickly assembled and marketed the electric fan, but the weather soon cooled and so did public interest. Soon after, Cowen was walking through lower Manhattan when he stopped at a toy store window where he saw, among the toys, a push train. He then had the vision of it going around a circle of track without needing attention. This was the vision which started a legend.