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IHC HO 4-4-0 steam loco Green Bay & Western

IHC HO 4-4-0 steam loco Green Bay & Western

 7 $22.45 9h 41m
Rivarossi HO smoothside roomette MP lot of 2

Rivarossi HO smoothside roomette MP lot of 2

 2 $9.99 11h 4m
HO Scale 2-8-2 Mikado Great Northern Ry No. 3377

HO Scale 2-8-2 Mikado Great Northern Ry No. 3377

 - $85.00 11h 13m
IHC Southern Sleeper HO Scale NEW!

IHC Southern Sleeper HO Scale NEW!

2 $7.99 12h 38m
Lot 2 IHC ho scale Frisco Freight Cars NRFB MINT!!!!!

Lot 2 IHC ho scale Frisco Freight Cars NRFB MINT!!!!!

 1 $5.00 14h 54m
IHC Old Time Freight Car HO D. L.& W. New

IHC Old Time Freight Car HO D. L.& W. New

 1 $4.95 15h 42m
IHC Old Time Freight Car HO Central RR of NJ #8184 New

IHC Old Time Freight Car HO Central RR of NJ #8184 New

 1 $4.95 15h 44m
IHC #25005 Premier Gold Steam 4-6-2 Pacific, DCC Ready

IHC #25005 Premier Gold Steam 4-6-2 Pacific, DCC Ready

$99.95 16h 40m
IHC Canadian National 4-8-2Mountain Steam Engine (Used)

IHC Canadian National 4-8-2Mountain Steam Engine (Used)

 2 $36.00 17h 20m
Model Power 2-8-2 Canadian Pacific Steam Engine (Used)

Model Power 2-8-2 Canadian Pacific Steam Engine (Used)

 2 $31.00 17h 31m
IHC O&A Old time Derrick car kit

IHC O&A Old time Derrick car kit

 -
 $7.95
$8.95		 18h 41m
NEW R-T-R HO MILES NAHX 50368 3 Bay Covered Hopper

NEW R-T-R HO MILES NAHX 50368 3 Bay Covered Hopper

 - $4.99 19h 56m
IHC HO scale passenger cars Pennsylvania

IHC HO scale passenger cars Pennsylvania

 3 $12.12 20h 8m
IHC HO scale steam engine 2-6-0 Mogul New Haven

IHC HO scale steam engine 2-6-0 Mogul New Haven

 3 $13.11 20h 10m
HO IHC PASSENGER BAGGAGE & SLEEPER CAR JERSEY CENTRAL

HO IHC PASSENGER BAGGAGE & SLEEPER CAR JERSEY CENTRAL

 - $34.00 20h 19m
HO SCALE IHC 6 WHEEL SPRUNG PASSENGER TRUCKS SILVER

HO SCALE IHC 6 WHEEL SPRUNG PASSENGER TRUCKS SILVER

 - $18.50 20h 20m
HO SCALE IHC 6 WHEEL SPRUNG PASSENGER TRUCKS BLACK

HO SCALE IHC 6 WHEEL SPRUNG PASSENGER TRUCKS BLACK

 - $18.50 20h 28m
NEW 4 HO R-T-R C&O CS Passenger Cars

NEW 4 HO R-T-R C&O CS Passenger Cars

 - $39.99 20h 31m
NEW Gift Quality 5 HO R-T-R GN HW Passenger Cars

NEW Gift Quality 5 HO R-T-R GN HW Passenger Cars

 - $49.99 20h 33m
NEW 3 HO R-T-R SANTA FE SF HW Passenger Cars

NEW 3 HO R-T-R SANTA FE SF HW Passenger Cars

 - $29.99 20h 57m

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.