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

Atlas

Walthers 40' Hi Cube Container "Itel"

Walthers 40' Hi Cube Container "Itel"

$5.52 18m
N SD7 SD9 SD24 26 C628 C630 GP38 GP40 SCALE SPEED MOTOR

N SD7 SD9 SD24 26 C628 C630 GP38 GP40 SCALE SPEED MOTOR

$24.95 20m
Walthers 40' Hi Cube Container   "APL"

Walthers 40' Hi Cube Container "APL"

$5.52 20m
N UNDECORATED SHELL ASSY ATLAS  KATO GP-7

N UNDECORATED SHELL ASSY ATLAS KATO GP-7

$15.95 22m
N Atlas C-630 Penn Central RR #6318 DCC NIB

N Atlas C-630 Penn Central RR #6318 DCC NIB

4 $71.25 23m
N Atlas C-630 Canadian National RR #2024 DCC NIB

N Atlas C-630 Canadian National RR #2024 DCC NIB

4 $67.40 25m
N Atlas C-628 Delaware & Hudson RR #611 DCC NIB

N Atlas C-628 Delaware & Hudson RR #611 DCC NIB

- $60.00 26m
N Atlas C-628 Louisville & Nashville RR #1405 DCC NIB

N Atlas C-628 Louisville & Nashville RR #1405 DCC NIB

- $60.00 28m
PENNSYLVANIA  E8A SHELL RIVAROSSI SHELL    N Scale

PENNSYLVANIA E8A SHELL RIVAROSSI SHELL N Scale

$6.99 44m
N  MISSOURI PACIFIC  #5010 SD50  NIB MINT ATLAS N

N MISSOURI PACIFIC #5010 SD50 NIB MINT ATLAS N

$74.95 1h 1m
N NEW YORK CENTRAL RS2 s #8213 & 8219 KATO N RS-2

N NEW YORK CENTRAL RS2 s #8213 & 8219 KATO N RS-2

$179.95 1h 13m
N  UNION PACIFIC SD60M #6220 NIB  Atlas N

N UNION PACIFIC SD60M #6220 NIB Atlas N

$74.95 2h 59m
Atlas N Scale Norfolk and Western EMD SD-9  locomotive

Atlas N Scale Norfolk and Western EMD SD-9 locomotive

- $42.50 3h 1m
Atlas N Scale Conrail 6921 EMD SD-9  locomotive

Atlas N Scale Conrail 6921 EMD SD-9 locomotive

- $44.50 3h 2m
Atlas N Scale Conrail 6915 EMD SD-9  locomotive

Atlas N Scale Conrail 6915 EMD SD-9 locomotive

- $42.50 3h 2m
Vintage Atlas misc. boxcars & tankers Lot of 8 NO RES.

Vintage Atlas misc. boxcars & tankers Lot of 8 NO RES.

1 $5.99 3h 9m
ATLAS KATO UNION PACIFIC GP30 #702

ATLAS KATO UNION PACIFIC GP30 #702

- $55.00 7h 38m
ATLAS KATO UNION PACIFIC GP30 #717

ATLAS KATO UNION PACIFIC GP30 #717

- $55.00 7h 40m
Atlas 43863 N Bathtub Coalveyor OGSX road #1

Atlas 43863 N Bathtub Coalveyor OGSX road #1

-
$12.00
$14.95
9h 47m
N RARE SER #509 Special Run Associated Minerals # 35570

N RARE SER #509 Special Run Associated Minerals # 35570

$15.49 10h

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.