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LIMA ELECTRIC OVERHEAD 2 RAIL ITEM # 208136 LG P BOX

LIMA ELECTRIC OVERHEAD 2 RAIL ITEM # 208136 LG P BOX

 1 $39.95 1h 23m
Lima NY Central Mechanical Refrigerator Car circa 1970s

Lima NY Central Mechanical Refrigerator Car circa 1970s

 - $9.99 3h 24m
Lima Burlington 83116 Gondola circa 1970's

Lima Burlington 83116 Gondola circa 1970's

 - $9.99 3h 25m
LIMA DIESEL ELECTRIC WITH BOX H.O. SCALE 2 RAIL

LIMA DIESEL ELECTRIC WITH BOX H.O. SCALE 2 RAIL

- $39.95 4h 56m
MRC LIMA H.O. ALCO 420 LEHIGH VALLEY # 408 PB101

MRC LIMA H.O. ALCO 420 LEHIGH VALLEY # 408 PB101

 -
 $60.00
$100.00		 9h 23m
Lehigh Valley 408 C-420 MRC Lima PB 101HO

Lehigh Valley 408 C-420 MRC Lima PB 101HO

 - $24.95 9h 39m
LIMA Lot of freight cars

LIMA Lot of freight cars

1 $1.00 1d 4h 29m
LIMA DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE

LIMA DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE

 - $23.50 1d 4h 36m
BEST plastic-safe synthetic oil for Lima, PLEASE READ!

BEST plastic-safe synthetic oil for Lima, PLEASE READ!

 $5.99 1d 10h 44m
Lima Michigan Central Mill Gon w Custom Industrial LOAD

Lima Michigan Central Mill Gon w Custom Industrial LOAD

 1 $8.00 1d 10h 56m
2 Lima HO Scale Tractor trailers, Atlantic Container

2 Lima HO Scale Tractor trailers, Atlantic Container

 1 $1.99 1d 12h 10m
LIMA HO SCALE VINTAGE BOX CAR PACIFIC FRUIT EXPRESS

LIMA HO SCALE VINTAGE BOX CAR PACIFIC FRUIT EXPRESS

 - $4.99 1d 16h 37m
LIMA HO SCALE VINTAGE TENDER NEW YORK CENTRAL COAL CAR

LIMA HO SCALE VINTAGE TENDER NEW YORK CENTRAL COAL CAR

 - $4.99 1d 16h 37m
LIMA HO ATSF 999056 SANTA FE BAY WINDOW CABOOSE

LIMA HO ATSF 999056 SANTA FE BAY WINDOW CABOOSE

 $5.00 2d 29m
Lima HO 208081L U.P. C-420 #4115 NIB

Lima HO 208081L U.P. C-420 #4115 NIB

 $124.50 2d 4h 40m
LIMA EUROPE EXPRESS

LIMA EUROPE EXPRESS

 - $29.00 2d 5h 47m
Lima # 309168 Euro Style Passenger Train Car

Lima # 309168 Euro Style Passenger Train Car

 - $12.99 2d 5h 58m
MRC Lima HO scale Union Pacific Alco C-420, NIB

MRC Lima HO scale Union Pacific Alco C-420, NIB

 - $49.99 2d 10h 49m
Airfix Lima OO COLDSTREAM GUARDSMAN Steam Locomotive MB

Airfix Lima OO COLDSTREAM GUARDSMAN Steam Locomotive MB

 1 $49.99 2d 18h 55m
Lima HO Australian Prototype Passenger Set w Diesel

Lima HO Australian Prototype Passenger Set w Diesel

 $250.00 3d 1h 1m

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.