Lionel trains store model trains sets model railroads and train accessories Auction info
Lionel trains store Con-Cor For Sale Used Con-Cor Cheap Con-Cor

Con-Cor

Con-Cor Smooth Side Passenger Car Set choose paint sche

Con-Cor Smooth Side Passenger Car Set choose paint sche

 $107.99 22m
Three Santa Fe Trailers N scale

Three Santa Fe Trailers N scale

 1 $6.99 40m
Union Pacific 50' Boxcar N SCALE

Union Pacific 50' Boxcar N SCALE

- $4.99 1h 10m
Con-Cor S P Daylight E-8 Diesel Powered A & Dummy B

Con-Cor S P Daylight E-8 Diesel Powered A & Dummy B

-
 $144.00
$199.00		 1h 16m
Union Pacific smooth side observation car N SCALE

Union Pacific smooth side observation car N SCALE

- $9.99 1h 20m
Passenger car set, N scale- SP Daylight by Con-Cor

Passenger car set, N scale- SP Daylight by Con-Cor

 12 $40.00 1h 39m
Passenger car set, N scale- B&O by Con-Cor

Passenger car set, N scale- B&O by Con-Cor

 5 $48.00 1h 41m
Con-Cor N Heavyweight Passenger Set Pullman Green

Con-Cor N Heavyweight Passenger Set Pullman Green

 $107.95 2h 11m
Con-Cor N Heavyweight Passenger Set, New York Central

Con-Cor N Heavyweight Passenger Set, New York Central

 $109.99 2h 27m
CONCOR RIVAROSSI CRESENT LIMITED 7 PASSENGER SET

CONCOR RIVAROSSI CRESENT LIMITED 7 PASSENGER SET

 $189.99 3h 8m
Con Cor N scale GATX Tanker Car Item # 160101-1

Con Cor N scale GATX Tanker Car Item # 160101-1

 $14.98 3h 17m
Con Cor 6 Car Train set

Con Cor 6 Car Train set

 - $35.00 4h 16m
Con Cor Norfolk Southern 3 bay PS2 covered hopper

Con Cor Norfolk Southern 3 bay PS2 covered hopper

 -
 $1.00
$3.50		 5h
CONCOR SEKISUI GN N GAUGE PA DIESEL ENGINE

CONCOR SEKISUI GN N GAUGE PA DIESEL ENGINE

 - $49.99 7h 9m
CON-COR N SCALE #001-555302-3 60' BOX CAR UP #960092

CON-COR N SCALE #001-555302-3 60' BOX CAR UP #960092

 1 $9.99 7h 26m
CON-COR N SCALE #1013 GREAT NORTHERN #33103

CON-COR N SCALE #1013 GREAT NORTHERN #33103

 - $9.99 7h 26m
CON-COR N SCALE #1451-Q PANEL BXCR PENN CENTRAL #160125

CON-COR N SCALE #1451-Q PANEL BXCR PENN CENTRAL #160125

 - $9.99 7h 26m
CON-COR N SCALE PENN CENTRAL BOX CAR #160125

CON-COR N SCALE PENN CENTRAL BOX CAR #160125

 - $9.99 7h 26m
CON-COR N SCALE THE ROCK BOX CAR #57026

CON-COR N SCALE THE ROCK BOX CAR #57026

 - $9.99 7h 26m
N scale CON COR 40 foot hi cube boxcar

N scale CON COR 40 foot hi cube boxcar

 - $7.99 7h 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.