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

Live Steam

8 EA 1 1 2" SCALE JOURNAL BOXES WITH NEEDLE BEARINGS

8 EA 1 1 2" SCALE JOURNAL BOXES WITH NEEDLE BEARINGS

-
$100.00
$150.00
35m
BUILD YOUR OWN LIVE STEAM ENGINE - PLANS ON CD

BUILD YOUR OWN LIVE STEAM ENGINE - PLANS ON CD

- $0.89 2h 27m
live steam frame pieces 7.5" train car

live steam frame pieces 7.5" train car

$36.00 3h 1m
live steam stake pockets  7.5" train car

live steam stake pockets 7.5" train car

$60.00 3h 4m
BEST plastic-safe synthetic oil for Live Steam,  READ!!!

BEST plastic-safe synthetic oil for Live Steam, READ!!!

$5.99 8h 36m
Mamod Prince of Wales Steam Set COLLECTORS ITEM.

Mamod Prince of Wales Steam Set COLLECTORS ITEM.

$530.00 19h 11m
TEFLON VALVE STEM PACKING 5 32" X 18"

TEFLON VALVE STEM PACKING 5 32" X 18"

$2.99 20h 32m
Miniature railway snap track

Miniature railway snap track

$2.25 1d 18m
Stuart No.501 Babcock Boiler & Spirit Burner 4 Steam En

Stuart No.501 Babcock Boiler & Spirit Burner 4 Steam En

- $199.99 1d 1h 15m
The Steam Donkey Engine - Book - By William M. Harris

The Steam Donkey Engine - Book - By William M. Harris

$9.95 1d 3h 37m
5 Boxes Esbit Fuel for Wilesco Mamod Jensen Live Steam

5 Boxes Esbit Fuel for Wilesco Mamod Jensen Live Steam

1 $19.85 1d 9h 14m
TRUCK 12" GAUGE  FROM  LAWNTRACKS

TRUCK 12" GAUGE FROM LAWNTRACKS

$150.00 1d 12h 31m
Engineering Model & Blueprints Miniature Vertical Steam

Engineering Model & Blueprints Miniature Vertical Steam

$116.95 1d 13h 41m
1 1 2" scale old Mercer loco brake casting parts kit

1 1 2" scale old Mercer loco brake casting parts kit

- $50.00 1d 17h 32m
ACCUCRAFT ROYAL HUDSON 082A run with Aster live steam

ACCUCRAFT ROYAL HUDSON 082A run with Aster live steam

-
$3,750.00
$4,285.00
1d 19h 16m
GAS BURNERS FOR FORGES,  FURNACES & KILNS-SPECIAL PRICE!

GAS BURNERS FOR FORGES, FURNACES & KILNS-SPECIAL PRICE!

$13.95 1d 20h 46m
"SCALE LIVE STEAM"  SMALL COAL SCOOP FOR 1" SCALE

"SCALE LIVE STEAM" SMALL COAL SCOOP FOR 1" SCALE

$3.50 1d 20h 52m
"LIVE STEAM"  COAL SCOOP FOR  1 1 2" SCALE STEAMERS

"LIVE STEAM" COAL SCOOP FOR 1 1 2" SCALE STEAMERS

$3.75 1d 20h 56m
FALK NO. 1 LOCOMOTIVE - BOOK - BY WILLIAM M. HARRIS

FALK NO. 1 LOCOMOTIVE - BOOK - BY WILLIAM M. HARRIS

$9.95 1d 20h 59m
The PENNSYLVANIA A3 Switcher By KOZO HIRAOKA

The PENNSYLVANIA A3 Switcher By KOZO HIRAOKA

$44.95 1d 22h 55m

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.