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Bowser

HO Bowser C&O 100 Ton 3 Bay Hopper Kits 3 Pack New

HO Bowser C&O 100 Ton 3 Bay Hopper Kits 3 Pack New

- $19.99 9h 33m
HO Bowser Union Pacific Covered Hopper Train Car #56480

HO Bowser Union Pacific Covered Hopper Train Car #56480

1 $4.99 9h 35m
HO Bowser Missouri illinois Covered Hopper Kits 3 Pack

HO Bowser Missouri illinois Covered Hopper Kits 3 Pack

1 $19.99 9h 36m
HO Bowser LS&MS GLa Type 2 Bay Hopper Kits 3 Pack New!

HO Bowser LS&MS GLa Type 2 Bay Hopper Kits 3 Pack New!

1 $19.99 9h 38m
Partially Assembled Bowser 4-6-6-4 Challenger Loco

Partially Assembled Bowser 4-6-6-4 Challenger Loco

6 $83.85 9h 40m
BOWSER "EXECUTIVE LINE" PLATE HIGHWAY TRAILERS X 3

BOWSER "EXECUTIVE LINE" PLATE HIGHWAY TRAILERS X 3

$27.99 12h 44m
BOWSER "EXECUTIVE LINE" PLATE HIGHWAY TRAILERS X 3

BOWSER "EXECUTIVE LINE" PLATE HIGHWAY TRAILERS X 3

$27.99 12h 47m
HO Bowser Westmoreland Coal Co. 2 Bay Hopper Train Car

HO Bowser Westmoreland Coal Co. 2 Bay Hopper Train Car

- $4.99 13h 51m
HO Bowser Penn Central 70 Ton 14 Panel Hopper Train Car

HO Bowser Penn Central 70 Ton 14 Panel Hopper Train Car

- $4.99 13h 57m
Bowser HO 5011 ARMATURE FOR 50620 Motor 501 A

Bowser HO 5011 ARMATURE FOR 50620 Motor 501 A

- $19.99 15h 16m
HO Bowser Chessie 70 Ton Covered Hopper Kits 3 Pack New

HO Bowser Chessie 70 Ton Covered Hopper Kits 3 Pack New

-
$25.85
$29.85
15h 42m
Bowser PRR GS 40' Gondola #301122

Bowser PRR GS 40' Gondola #301122

-
$9.95
$11.50
17h 56m
Bowser RTR PRR K11 40' Stock Car #130532

Bowser RTR PRR K11 40' Stock Car #130532

-
$16.45
$18.25
18h 6m
BOWSER TRAIN LOCOMOTIVE PRR M-1a MOUNTAIN built kit

BOWSER TRAIN LOCOMOTIVE PRR M-1a MOUNTAIN built kit

5 $74.85 18h 21m
Bowser DC-71 Motor Gearhead PRR Steam Engine # 1004

Bowser DC-71 Motor Gearhead PRR Steam Engine # 1004

2 $2.31 19h 10m
Bowser Motor Gearhead PRR Steam Engine # 8941

Bowser Motor Gearhead PRR Steam Engine # 8941

2 $2.31 19h 13m
HO Train Bowser 50' Double Door Box Car GTW

HO Train Bowser 50' Double Door Box Car GTW

-
$6.99
$9.99
19h 17m
Brass Side Piping Unit for Bowser,  Penn Line H9 2-8-0

Brass Side Piping Unit for Bowser, Penn Line H9 2-8-0

1 $7.95 19h 35m
Brass Side Piping Unit for Bowser,  Penn Line K4 Pacific

Brass Side Piping Unit for Bowser, Penn Line K4 Pacific

- $7.95 19h 35m
Yardbird D8125 remotor kit Bowser Penn Line E6,  H9

Yardbird D8125 remotor kit Bowser Penn Line E6, H9

1 $29.50 19h 38m

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.