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Lionel trains store Brass Imports For Sale Used Brass Imports Cheap Brass Imports

Brass Imports

Key Imports, N scale 4-8-4 steam loco, #68436

Key Imports, N scale 4-8-4 steam loco, #68436

 1 $619.00 1h 47m
VINTAGE NIB GLASKASTEN LOCOMOTIVE METAL KIT FR GERMANY

VINTAGE NIB GLASKASTEN LOCOMOTIVE METAL KIT FR GERMANY

 1 $29.99 10h 44m
Railway Classics 1954 CB&Q DENVER ZEPHYR DECAL SET (N)

Railway Classics 1954 CB&Q DENVER ZEPHYR DECAL SET (N)

 $24.00 1d 3h 28m
N - Fulgurex SBB Ae 8 14 Brass Engine 4207 Mint Cond.

N - Fulgurex SBB Ae 8 14 Brass Engine 4207 Mint Cond.

 - $699.99 1d 8h 45m
N - Fulgurex Endo JNR New Tokaido Sinkansen Set Mint

N - Fulgurex Endo JNR New Tokaido Sinkansen Set Mint

 - $499.99 1d 8h 54m
Hallmark brass Samhongsa N Santa Fe ATSF 8-40 CW

Hallmark brass Samhongsa N Santa Fe ATSF 8-40 CW

3 $69.00 1d 10h 6m
Overland Caboose CA-5 UP Union Pacific N scale MIB

Overland Caboose CA-5 UP Union Pacific N scale MIB

 7 $46.00 1d 10h 29m
Overland Caboose Utah railway UP Union Pacific N MIB

Overland Caboose Utah railway UP Union Pacific N MIB

 3 $26.00 1d 10h 34m
Key Samhongsa brass 2-8-8-4 SP southern pacific coal

Key Samhongsa brass 2-8-8-4 SP southern pacific coal

 1 $495.00 1d 11h 4m
Hallmark brass Samhongsa N 2-10-4 ATSF Santa Fe #5011

Hallmark brass Samhongsa N 2-10-4 ATSF Santa Fe #5011

 13 $631.99 1d 11h 9m
Hallmark N-Scale Brass CB&Q U30C

Hallmark N-Scale Brass CB&Q U30C

 1 $40.00 2d 1h 23m
Hallmark N-Scale Brass Rock Island U23C

Hallmark N-Scale Brass Rock Island U23C

 2 $41.00 2d 1h 28m
OMI N-Scale Brass Chessie C&O Caboose

OMI N-Scale Brass Chessie C&O Caboose

 - $70.00 2d 1h 36m
Hallmark N-Scale Brass BN F9 AB Set

Hallmark N-Scale Brass BN F9 AB Set

 - $80.00 2d 1h 41m
OMI N-Scale Brass CB&Q caboose

OMI N-Scale Brass CB&Q caboose

 1 $50.00 2d 1h 46m
Hallmark N-Scale Brass NS DASH8-40C

Hallmark N-Scale Brass NS DASH8-40C

 6 $70.99 2d 1h 51m
Oriental Limited N-Scale Brass NYS&W ALCO RS-3

Oriental Limited N-Scale Brass NYS&W ALCO RS-3

 1 $50.00 2d 1h 58m
Hallmark N-Scale Brass C&NW F3 AB Set

Hallmark N-Scale Brass C&NW F3 AB Set

- $100.00 2d 2h 4m
ConCor N-Scale Brass PRR Caboose

ConCor N-Scale Brass PRR Caboose

 - $30.00 2d 6h 50m
Hallmark N-Scale Brass Frisco F3 AB Set, Freight Scheme

Hallmark N-Scale Brass Frisco F3 AB Set, Freight Scheme

 - $70.00 2d 6h 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.