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

N- Con-Cor 332121 - gas turbine tender - UP - OOP NIB !

N- Con-Cor 332121 - gas turbine tender - UP - OOP NIB !

13 $61.00 22m
N- Con-Cor 332103 - gas turbine & tender - UP - OOP NIB

N- Con-Cor 332103 - gas turbine & tender - UP - OOP NIB

17 $228.49 26m
CON COR 3808  Union Pacific Big Locomotive-over 5" long

CON COR 3808 Union Pacific Big Locomotive-over 5" long

5 $20.50 43m
CON COR? Amtrak 314 Locomotive- N gauge

CON COR? Amtrak 314 Locomotive- N gauge

10 $13.00 1h
Con-Cor N Scale 89' Flatcar Trailer Train Sea Container

Con-Cor N Scale 89' Flatcar Trailer Train Sea Container

- $9.99 1h 1m
Con Cor N Scale Gas Turbine Pennsy Freight Cat #3321G

Con Cor N Scale Gas Turbine Pennsy Freight Cat #3321G

- $120.00 1h 5m
N Scale Con-Cor Santa Fe 60' Box Car w MTL couplers

N Scale Con-Cor Santa Fe 60' Box Car w MTL couplers

- $2.99 15h 24m
N Scale Con-Cor Santa Fe Reefer - 3 pack lot

N Scale Con-Cor Santa Fe Reefer - 3 pack lot

3 $8.49 15h 26m
N scale: 4-6-4 U.P. Steam Loco and Tender by Con-Cor

N scale: 4-6-4 U.P. Steam Loco and Tender by Con-Cor

$119.99 17h 54m
Con-Cor N Scale Pioneer Zephyr 4-Car Set - Excellent

Con-Cor N Scale Pioneer Zephyr 4-Car Set - Excellent

3 $201.50 21h 6m
Con-Cor by Rivarossi N Scale Heavy Mikado Locomotive GN

Con-Cor by Rivarossi N Scale Heavy Mikado Locomotive GN

15 $46.30 22h 18m
Con-Cor N Scale "New York Central" Special Premier Set

Con-Cor N Scale "New York Central" Special Premier Set

- $200.00 23h 18m
Amtrak 748 N 6W-1200 Powered Cow Con-Cor N Scale

Amtrak 748 N 6W-1200 Powered Cow Con-Cor N Scale

3 $27.00 23h 23m
CON-COR * FUNNEL-FLOW TANKER 46ft UNION TANK -  N Scale

CON-COR * FUNNEL-FLOW TANKER 46ft UNION TANK - N Scale

- $14.95 23h 43m
Con-Cor Monon The Hoosier Line Limited Edition Set

Con-Cor Monon The Hoosier Line Limited Edition Set

- $199.99 1d 1h 15m
N Scale Con Cor Amtrak observation passenger kit lot 1

N Scale Con Cor Amtrak observation passenger kit lot 1

- $10.99 1d 1h 30m
N Scale Con Cor Amtrak observation passenger kit lot 2

N Scale Con Cor Amtrak observation passenger kit lot 2

1 $10.99 1d 1h 30m
Con-Cor N Scale VERY RARE BN Executive Passenger Set!!!

Con-Cor N Scale VERY RARE BN Executive Passenger Set!!!

- $209.99 1d 1h 40m
Con-Cor Chesapeake & Ohio E8 + 5 HWT passenger car set

Con-Cor Chesapeake & Ohio E8 + 5 HWT passenger car set

1 $69.99 1d 12h 46m
NEW CON-COR "N" SCALE UP HD CRANE CAR & FLAT CAR-MIB831

NEW CON-COR "N" SCALE UP HD CRANE CAR & FLAT CAR-MIB831

-
$14.99
$19.99
1d 14h 34m

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.