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ARNOLD RAPIDO N  NOT SURE OF MFG.VINTAGE SANTA FE SWITC

ARNOLD RAPIDO N NOT SURE OF MFG.VINTAGE SANTA FE SWITC

2 $10.45 1h 41m
ARNOLD RAPIDO N VINTAGE PENN CENTRAL DIESEL, #274, DIECA

ARNOLD RAPIDO N VINTAGE PENN CENTRAL DIESEL, #274, DIECA

- $9.95 1h 43m
4 Arnold & MRC N Scale Train Cars,  Boxcars,  Flat ++

4 Arnold & MRC N Scale Train Cars, Boxcars, Flat ++

2 $5.50 2h 2m
B&O 9077 Alco S-2 Switcher Arnold Rapido N

B&O 9077 Alco S-2 Switcher Arnold Rapido N

1 $34.95 2h 2m
Vintage Arnold-Rapido Hopper lot N&W, NYC, BM (3 cars)

Vintage Arnold-Rapido Hopper lot N&W, NYC, BM (3 cars)

- $9.99 2h 3m
Vintage Arnold-Rapido New Haven boxcar 4003

Vintage Arnold-Rapido New Haven boxcar 4003

- $2.50 2h 8m
ARNOLD N Scale VW Volkswagen Transport Rail Car w 8 VWs

ARNOLD N Scale VW Volkswagen Transport Rail Car w 8 VWs

1 $25.00 2h 10m
Vintage Atlas Shell Oil 3 dome tank car w case

Vintage Atlas Shell Oil 3 dome tank car w case

- $4.99 2h 15m
BRAWA HO Scale Rail Inspection Car-VW Bus

BRAWA HO Scale Rail Inspection Car-VW Bus

- $125.00 2h 16m
Vintage Atlas CN flatcar w Transformer load

Vintage Atlas CN flatcar w Transformer load

2 $5.99 2h 19m
Vintage MiniTrix CN Flatcar w Trailer load

Vintage MiniTrix CN Flatcar w Trailer load

- $4.99 2h 23m
ARNOLD   RAPIDO (5) LONG COUPLERS  #0790  NOS

ARNOLD RAPIDO (5) LONG COUPLERS #0790 NOS

- $7.99 3h 39m
Custom Painted Montana RailLink Wrecking Crane Set

Custom Painted Montana RailLink Wrecking Crane Set

- $59.95 3h 43m
Custom Painted Wrecking Crane Set - Great Northern

Custom Painted Wrecking Crane Set - Great Northern

1 $64.95 4h 22m
Arnold Rapido Branchline Coach,  Green #0303

Arnold Rapido Branchline Coach, Green #0303

1 $9.95 4h 28m
Arnold Rapido Branchline Coach,  Green #0304

Arnold Rapido Branchline Coach, Green #0304

1 $9.95 4h 29m
Arnold Rapido Branchline Baggage,  Green #0305

Arnold Rapido Branchline Baggage, Green #0305

1 $9.95 4h 30m
Arnold Rapido Flat Car with Steel Coils #0496

Arnold Rapido Flat Car with Steel Coils #0496

2 $18.61 4h 33m
Arnold Rapido Steam Engine Locomotive #0220

Arnold Rapido Steam Engine Locomotive #0220

7 $42.00 4h 36m
Arnold Rapido Steam Engine Locomotive #0225

Arnold Rapido Steam Engine Locomotive #0225

5 $62.51 4h 37m

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.