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USA Trains

SET OF 4 USA TRAINS RUBBER TRACTION TIRES FOR DIESELS

SET OF 4 USA TRAINS RUBBER TRACTION TIRES FOR DIESELS

 3 $2.00 8h 58m
2 USA TRAINS MODERN SPRUNG ROLLER BEARING TYPE TRUCKS

2 USA TRAINS MODERN SPRUNG ROLLER BEARING TYPE TRUCKS

 3 $6.02 8h 58m
USA G Scale Diesel NW-2 Switcher Santa Fe blue yellow

USA G Scale Diesel NW-2 Switcher Santa Fe blue yellow

 $220.00 10h 20m
G SCALE USA 79 BEAR WIZ REEFER NIB

G SCALE USA 79 BEAR WIZ REEFER NIB

 8 $104.45 13h 52m
USA TRAINS REEFER CAR SAMUEL ADAMS OCTOBER FEST G SCALE

USA TRAINS REEFER CAR SAMUEL ADAMS OCTOBER FEST G SCALE

 $82.95 14h 9m
10 USA Trains Delton G gauge knuckle couplers

10 USA Trains Delton G gauge knuckle couplers

1 $0.99 15h 40m
USA TRAINS R22402 NYC PA1 PB1 A&B SET NEW YORK CENTRAL

USA TRAINS R22402 NYC PA1 PB1 A&B SET NEW YORK CENTRAL

 7
 $171.38
$249.95		 17h 58m
USA TRAINS R22410 ERIE PA1 PB1 A&B SET ERIE LACKAWANA

USA TRAINS R22410 ERIE PA1 PB1 A&B SET ERIE LACKAWANA

5
 $36.00
$249.95		 17h 58m
USA TRAINS R22408 LEHIGH VALLEY PA1 PB1 A&B SET POWERED

USA TRAINS R22408 LEHIGH VALLEY PA1 PB1 A&B SET POWERED

 2
 $120.75
$249.95		 17h 59m
USA TRAINS (GARDEN RAILROAD PORTALS)

USA TRAINS (GARDEN RAILROAD PORTALS)

 - $9.00 20h 37m
G SCALE SOUND SYSTEM 3" SPEAKER & WIRES 8 OHM, 1 2 WATT

G SCALE SOUND SYSTEM 3" SPEAKER & WIRES 8 OHM, 1 2 WATT

 $11.99 20h 54m
G SCALE SOUND SYST 2.6" SPEAKER & WIRES 8 OHM, 1 2 WATT

G SCALE SOUND SYST 2.6" SPEAKER & WIRES 8 OHM, 1 2 WATT

 $11.99 20h 57m
WIRE 24 AWG STRANDED HOOK UP WIRES (5' x 4 COLORS) 20'

WIRE 24 AWG STRANDED HOOK UP WIRES (5' x 4 COLORS) 20'

 $5.99 21h 6m
G SCALE SOUND SYSTEM VOLUME REMOTE CONTROL SWITCH

G SCALE SOUND SYSTEM VOLUME REMOTE CONTROL SWITCH

 $11.99 21h 14m
G SCALE SOUND SYSTEM ON-OFF SWITCH (DOUBLE POLE)

G SCALE SOUND SYSTEM ON-OFF SWITCH (DOUBLE POLE)

 $11.99 21h 19m
USA R22616 UP MP LGB, Aristocraft, Bachman, USA Trains

USA R22616 UP MP LGB, Aristocraft, Bachman, USA Trains

 $300.00 23h 50m
USA Trains BNSF Covered Hopper

USA Trains BNSF Covered Hopper

 1 $55.00 1d 6h 24m
G SCALE SOUND SYSTEM SIERRA SOUNDTRAXX + FULL INSTALL

G SCALE SOUND SYSTEM SIERRA SOUNDTRAXX + FULL INSTALL

 $250.00 1d 9h 1m
USA G SCALE DIESEL PA-1 "B & O" BALTIMORE&OHIO R-22501

USA G SCALE DIESEL PA-1 "B & O" BALTIMORE&OHIO R-22501

 $219.99 1d 9h 14m
USA G SCALE PA-1 "NEW YORK CENTRAL" R-22502 "N.Y.C."

USA G SCALE PA-1 "NEW YORK CENTRAL" R-22502 "N.Y.C."

 $219.99 1d 9h 17m

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.