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

Brass Imports

N SCALE OVERLAND BRASS CONRAIL NEW!

N SCALE OVERLAND BRASS CONRAIL NEW!

$250.00 2h 58m
KEY Imports #2929 Brass Locomotive AT&SF 4-8-4

KEY Imports #2929 Brass Locomotive AT&SF 4-8-4

 - $750.00 9h 45m
LOT D22 - N SCALE BRASS 4-6-2 OLD TYME STEAM LOCO & TDR

LOT D22 - N SCALE BRASS 4-6-2 OLD TYME STEAM LOCO & TDR

 11 $142.49 10h 11m
LOT D21 - N SCALE BRASS PRECISION SCALE N-8 CABIN CAR

LOT D21 - N SCALE BRASS PRECISION SCALE N-8 CABIN CAR

 5 $82.81 10h 14m
LOT D20 - N SCALE BRASS ALCO RSD-4 5 1600HP

LOT D20 - N SCALE BRASS ALCO RSD-4 5 1600HP

 16 $192.50 10h 15m
LOT D19 - N SCALE BRASS OVERLAND JORDAN SPREADER

LOT D19 - N SCALE BRASS OVERLAND JORDAN SPREADER

 12 $210.71 10h 18m
LOT D17 - N SCALE BRASS HALLMARK UP STEEL CABOOSE

LOT D17 - N SCALE BRASS HALLMARK UP STEEL CABOOSE

 8 $77.66 10h 22m
LOT D16 - N SCALE BRASS NJ INT'L NYC MILK REEFER

LOT D16 - N SCALE BRASS NJ INT'L NYC MILK REEFER

 6 $46.00 10h 23m
N SCALE BRASS SP DAYLIGHT 10 CAR SET

N SCALE BRASS SP DAYLIGHT 10 CAR SET

 -
 $698.00
$785.00		 1d 10h 28m
Hallmark F7 - A&B Reading, N Scale

Hallmark F7 - A&B Reading, N Scale

 - $125.00 1d 18h 31m
KEY IMPORTS ORIGINAL EARLY SAMHOGSA BIG BOY BRASS LOCO

KEY IMPORTS ORIGINAL EARLY SAMHOGSA BIG BOY BRASS LOCO

 $885.00 1d 19h 57m
N-BRASS KEY SP 4-8-4 GS-4 #4449 F P DAYLIGHT

N-BRASS KEY SP 4-8-4 GS-4 #4449 F P DAYLIGHT

 $449.95 1d 21h 32m
N-BRASS OMI 30013.1 U.P. CA-6 CABOOSE F P YELLOW #25305

N-BRASS OMI 30013.1 U.P. CA-6 CABOOSE F P YELLOW #25305

 $149.95 1d 21h 53m
Pecos River Brass 12-1 Pullman

Pecos River Brass 12-1 Pullman

- $75.00 1d 23h 7m
Pecos River Brass ATSF Santa Fe Heavyweight Chair Car

Pecos River Brass ATSF Santa Fe Heavyweight Chair Car

 - $75.00 1d 23h 13m
Pecos River Brass BN ACF 70 Ton Covered Hopper

Pecos River Brass BN ACF 70 Ton Covered Hopper

 1 $35.00 1d 23h 18m
Pecos River Brass BN ACF 70 Ton Open Hopper

Pecos River Brass BN ACF 70 Ton Open Hopper

 1 $35.00 1d 23h 21m
Brass set of 5 Western Railcraft P.E. cars Built

Brass set of 5 Western Railcraft P.E. cars Built

 2
 $0.20
$1,000.00		 2d 10h 49m
HALLMARK N-SCALE UNION PACIFIC SD60

HALLMARK N-SCALE UNION PACIFIC SD60

 - $200.00 2d 19h 19m
HALLMARK N-SCALE UNION PACIFIC SD60

HALLMARK N-SCALE UNION PACIFIC SD60

 - $200.00 2d 19h 23m

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.