Lionel trains store model trains sets model railroads and train accessories Auction info
Lionel trains store Hornby For Sale Used Hornby Cheap Hornby

Hornby

Hornby HO Lighted Pullman 1st Class Parlour Car NIB

Hornby HO Lighted Pullman 1st Class Parlour Car NIB

 - $20.00 16h 6m
Hornby HO Set of 4 British Southern Railway Coaches NIB

Hornby HO Set of 4 British Southern Railway Coaches NIB

 2 $37.00 16h 16m
Hornby HO 2 BR Inter-City Mk.III Railway Coaches MIB

Hornby HO 2 BR Inter-City Mk.III Railway Coaches MIB

 6 $31.00 16h 53m
Hornby HO Set of 3 British Royal Train Coaches MIB

Hornby HO Set of 3 British Royal Train Coaches MIB

 5 $36.00 17h 1m
Triang 3576 Green Short Gondola Thin Lettering

Triang 3576 Green Short Gondola Thin Lettering

 - $2.93 21h 40m
Two British open wagons from Wrenn (like Hornby)

Two British open wagons from Wrenn (like Hornby)

 1 $11.00 1d 12h 52m
Three British open wagons from Wrenn, like Hornby

Three British open wagons from Wrenn, like Hornby

 1 $24.00 1d 12h 57m
Wrenn Passengr Fruit Van in Red, Box, Excellent

Wrenn Passengr Fruit Van in Red, Box, Excellent

 1 $9.00 1d 13h 4m
Wrenn British Rail Paracels Van in Blue, W5012, box

Wrenn British Rail Paracels Van in Blue, W5012, box

 1 $9.00 1d 13h 12m
Wrenn Watneys Beer Van, Red, W5011

Wrenn Watneys Beer Van, Red, W5011

 - $9.00 1d 13h 17m
Hornby HO Set of 4 British Railway Coaches NIB

Hornby HO Set of 4 British Railway Coaches NIB

 - $35.00 1d 16h 41m
Hornby HO 2 BR Coronation Scot Coaches MIB

Hornby HO 2 BR Coronation Scot Coaches MIB

 1 $15.00 1d 17h 16m
Hornby HO 3 British Virgin Railways Coaches NIB

Hornby HO 3 British Virgin Railways Coaches NIB

 1 $25.00 1d 17h 20m
Vintage Triang Hornby Passenger Car #R444 w Box

Vintage Triang Hornby Passenger Car #R444 w Box

 1 $9.99 1d 18h 18m
Vintage Triang Hornby Diesel Locamotive #R55 CN w Box

Vintage Triang Hornby Diesel Locamotive #R55 CN w Box

 1 $9.99 1d 18h 18m
Vintage Triang Hornby Observatory Car #R445 w Box

Vintage Triang Hornby Observatory Car #R445 w Box

 1 $9.99 1d 18h 18m
Minix No. 9 Simca 1900

Minix No. 9 Simca 1900

 - $4.50 1d 22h 48m
Hornby HO Set of 4 European Pullman Parlour Coaches NIB

Hornby HO Set of 4 European Pullman Parlour Coaches NIB

 - $35.00 2d 18h 43m
HORNBY 69567 BR RAILWAYS TANK LOCOMOTIVE 0-6-2

HORNBY 69567 BR RAILWAYS TANK LOCOMOTIVE 0-6-2

 - $19.99 2d 19h 8m
WRENN RAILWAYS METAL 2-6-4 GWR GREEN TANK LOCO- BOXED!

WRENN RAILWAYS METAL 2-6-4 GWR GREEN TANK LOCO- BOXED!

 5 $76.00 2d 19h 25m

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.