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

Marklin

Marklin Lapel Pin ( NEW )

Marklin Lapel Pin ( NEW )

1 $0.99 25m
Marklin Vintage Depressed 6 Axle Rail Car all Metal

Marklin Vintage Depressed 6 Axle Rail Car all Metal

1 $19.95 36m
Marklin 4013 346 5 1956 Metal Postal Car w box

Marklin 4013 346 5 1956 Metal Postal Car w box

- $75.00 1h
New Marklin 6604 Delta Control Unit

New Marklin 6604 Delta Control Unit

-
$25.00
$49.00
1h 15m
Faller Early Wooden HO Rail Way Station (heliB1)

Faller Early Wooden HO Rail Way Station (heliB1)

$290.00 1h 40m
Fleischmann Pennsylvania Rail Road Boxcar (heliB1)

Fleischmann Pennsylvania Rail Road Boxcar (heliB1)

$210.00 1h 41m
Marklin #4005 6 Wheel Passenger Coach (heliB1)

Marklin #4005 6 Wheel Passenger Coach (heliB1)

$75.00 1h 45m
Marklin 2100 Early Starter Set (heliB1)

Marklin 2100 Early Starter Set (heliB1)

$450.00 1h 45m
Marklin Gauge OHO #4451 Gondola This (heliB1)

Marklin Gauge OHO #4451 Gondola This (heliB1)

$65.00 1h 46m
Marklin Gauge OHO 4459 Double Tipp (heliB1)

Marklin Gauge OHO 4459 Double Tipp (heliB1)

$65.00 1h 46m
Marklin HO Rail Way Station 14 x 5 Overall (heliB1)

Marklin HO Rail Way Station 14 x 5 Overall (heliB1)

$390.00 1h 46m
Marklin Railway Station 10-1 4 x 5 With (heliB1)

Marklin Railway Station 10-1 4 x 5 With (heliB1)

$190.00 1h 46m
Marklin Round House 7028 LN This (heliB1)

Marklin Round House 7028 LN This (heliB1)

$300.00 1h 46m
Marklin Set FM 289 3 With Large Oval of (heliB1)

Marklin Set FM 289 3 With Large Oval of (heliB1)

$650.00 1h 46m
Marklin Turn Table 7186 First Version Mint (heliB1)

Marklin Turn Table 7186 First Version Mint (heliB1)

$450.00 1h 46m
Marklin Western Pacific 4571 Boxcar Mint (heliB1)

Marklin Western Pacific 4571 Boxcar Mint (heliB1)

$200.00 1h 46m
Marklin 39980 Railbus with Control Car in box

Marklin 39980 Railbus with Control Car in box

9 $202.50 1h 59m
Marklin 34972 Old Timer DRG CL-34 Locomotive in box

Marklin 34972 Old Timer DRG CL-34 Locomotive in box

3 $202.00 1h 59m
Marklin 37136 Swiss Fed Railway Tank  Locomotive in box

Marklin 37136 Swiss Fed Railway Tank Locomotive in box

11 $180.00 1h 59m
Marklin 3750 ICE "Elisabeth" Locomotive Set in box

Marklin 3750 ICE "Elisabeth" Locomotive Set in box

9 $152.50 1h 59m

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.