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Buildings

N - Exxon Service Station w Extras NIB Model Power#1503

N - Exxon Service Station w Extras NIB Model Power#1503

 $17.99 18m
N scale NMRA headquarters and station

N scale NMRA headquarters and station

 1 $10.00 26m
N Remco Maintenance Builtup Model Power 490-2573 -

N Remco Maintenance Builtup Model Power 490-2573 -

 $21.24 50m
NEW ~ TRAVELING CRANE COAL STATION ~ Deluxe N Scale Kit

NEW ~ TRAVELING CRANE COAL STATION ~ Deluxe N Scale Kit

 12 $36.80 1h 2m
NEW ~ GLACIER GRAVEL COMPANY ~ Walthers N Scale Kit

NEW ~ GLACIER GRAVEL COMPANY ~ Walthers N Scale Kit

 11 $24.01 1h 4m
Retired ~ FACTORY OFFICE ~ N Scale Penny Auction

Retired ~ FACTORY OFFICE ~ N Scale Penny Auction

 8 $5.50 1h 6m
Detailed ~ FACTORY BUILDING with FIGURE ~ N Scale

Detailed ~ FACTORY BUILDING with FIGURE ~ N Scale

 6 $9.00 1h 8m
Detailed ~ INDUSTRIAL TANK FARM by Walthers ~ N Scale

Detailed ~ INDUSTRIAL TANK FARM by Walthers ~ N Scale

 10 $21.90 1h 10m
Weathered ~ CROSSING SHANTY by Walthers ~ N Scale

Weathered ~ CROSSING SHANTY by Walthers ~ N Scale

6 $5.75 1h 12m
N Scale Yard Switch Tower Work Tool Shed Buildings

N Scale Yard Switch Tower Work Tool Shed Buildings

 - $5.99 1h 14m
Weathered ~ INDUSTRIAL WAREHOUSE with FIGURES ~ N Scale

Weathered ~ INDUSTRIAL WAREHOUSE with FIGURES ~ N Scale

 7 $5.50 1h 14m
NEW ~ WATER TOWER ~ JV Models WOOD N Scale Kit

NEW ~ WATER TOWER ~ JV Models WOOD N Scale Kit

 11 $9.67 1h 16m
NEW ~ 2 BUNK HOUSES ~ JV Models WOOD N Scale Kit

NEW ~ 2 BUNK HOUSES ~ JV Models WOOD N Scale Kit

6 $8.50 1h 18m
Detailed ~ OIL FACILITY OFFICE ~ N Scale Penny Auction

Detailed ~ OIL FACILITY OFFICE ~ N Scale Penny Auction

 8 $9.60 1h 20m
Detailed ~ TRAIN DEPOT by Walthers ~ N Scale

Detailed ~ TRAIN DEPOT by Walthers ~ N Scale

8 $7.50 1h 28m
FREIGHT STATION by Heljan ~ N Scale Penny Auction

FREIGHT STATION by Heljan ~ N Scale Penny Auction

7 $5.77 1h 30m
NEW ~ SIGNAL TOWER & SPEEDER SHED ~ WOOD N Scale Kit

NEW ~ SIGNAL TOWER & SPEEDER SHED ~ WOOD N Scale Kit

5 $8.50 1h 32m
NEWLY Detailed ~ RAILROAD HOTEL ~ N Scale Penny Auction

NEWLY Detailed ~ RAILROAD HOTEL ~ N Scale Penny Auction

 9 $5.50 1h 34m
NEW ~ STYRENE for SCRATCHBUILDERS Lot ~ N Scale

NEW ~ STYRENE for SCRATCHBUILDERS Lot ~ N Scale

 4 $9.26 1h 35m
Detailed ~ DOWNTOWN PRINT SHOP ~ N Scale Penny Auction

Detailed ~ DOWNTOWN PRINT SHOP ~ N Scale Penny Auction

 7 $3.75 1h 36m

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.