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 48690

Marklin 48690

$59.99 15m
Marklin Steam Locomotive HO #34113 NEW

Marklin Steam Locomotive HO #34113 NEW

1 $259.99 24m
marklin 4885

marklin 4885

$20.00 35m
Trix 66158

Trix 66158

$110.00 36m
marklin 4850

marklin 4850

$20.00 36m
marklin 46428

marklin 46428

$30.00 43m
marklin 4872

marklin 4872

$20.00 1h 8m
marklin 46191

marklin 46191

$20.00 1h 13m
marklin 46949

marklin 46949

$25.00 1h 16m
marklin 48601

marklin 48601

$25.00 1h 19m
Marklin 3514; Steam loco class Wurttemberg C,  MIB

Marklin 3514; Steam loco class Wurttemberg C, MIB

$279.00 2h 4m
Roller test stand H0 - AC DC+Digital - Made in Germany

Roller test stand H0 - AC DC+Digital - Made in Germany

$115.00 2h 8m
Herpa 1 87 = HO VW Polo 2-Door Minikit

Herpa 1 87 = HO VW Polo 2-Door Minikit

- $5.99 2h 29m
Wiking 1 87 HO Scale Feuerwehr Opel Rekord D

Wiking 1 87 HO Scale Feuerwehr Opel Rekord D

1 $4.99 2h 29m
Wiking 1 87 HO Scale Feuerwehr VW Passat Variant

Wiking 1 87 HO Scale Feuerwehr VW Passat Variant

1 $4.99 2h 29m
Busch #48522 Notarzt Mercedes Benz M Klasse 1 87

Busch #48522 Notarzt Mercedes Benz M Klasse 1 87

1 $4.99 2h 29m
Wiking #0710931 Notarzt VW Touareg 1 87

Wiking #0710931 Notarzt VW Touareg 1 87

1 $4.99 2h 30m
Wiking 00780832 VW Golf Variant ADAC - 1 87 = HO Scale

Wiking 00780832 VW Golf Variant ADAC - 1 87 = HO Scale

1 $4.99 2h 30m
Marklin 46948 Flat Car w 2 Lanz Bulldog Tractors NIB HO

Marklin 46948 Flat Car w 2 Lanz Bulldog Tractors NIB HO

$55.70 2h 31m
Marklin 1995 Special CLUB Promo Car WESTERN Scenery MiB

Marklin 1995 Special CLUB Promo Car WESTERN Scenery MiB

$49.99 3h 12m

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.