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 Shinohara #6 LH Switch - NIB

N Shinohara #6 LH Switch - NIB

- $5.00 8h 1m
CON COR N SCALE BOX CAR 1454

CON COR N SCALE BOX CAR 1454

1 $1.99 12h 43m
 CONCOR  RIVAROSSI  CRESTENT  LIMITED  STEAM  ENGINE

CONCOR RIVAROSSI CRESTENT LIMITED STEAM ENGINE

8 $35.89 15h 23m
Con Cor Anniversary 50' Boxcar 1976 1452c

Con Cor Anniversary 50' Boxcar 1976 1452c

2 $3.24 15h 32m
Con Cor-Norfolk & Western Box Car --N Scale

Con Cor-Norfolk & Western Box Car --N Scale

2 $1.25 15h 35m
Con Cor-Chessie System (C&O) Box Car --N Scale

Con Cor-Chessie System (C&O) Box Car --N Scale

1 $0.99 15h 38m
CON-COR RIVAROSSI N SCALE 6" HYWEIGHT COMBINE B & O EXC

CON-COR RIVAROSSI N SCALE 6" HYWEIGHT COMBINE B & O EXC

- $9.95 15h 52m
RIVAROSSI N SCALE UNION PACIFIC 4-8-8-4 BIG BOY

RIVAROSSI N SCALE UNION PACIFIC 4-8-8-4 BIG BOY

20 $128.00 16h 33m
Con Cor N Scale Gas Turbine Pennsy Freight Cat #3321G

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

- $120.00 16h 36m
Con-Cor N 39 FT Tank Car Shell Oil

Con-Cor N 39 FT Tank Car Shell Oil

- $5.99 17h 47m
Con-Cor 50 Ft. DD Boxcar Louisville & Nashville

Con-Cor 50 Ft. DD Boxcar Louisville & Nashville

- $6.99 18h 2m
Con Cor-R. Lavin & Sons Inc. Box Car --N Scale

Con Cor-R. Lavin & Sons Inc. Box Car --N Scale

2 $1.04 19h 14m
Con Cor Kato-Pennsylvania Tank Car --N Scale

Con Cor Kato-Pennsylvania Tank Car --N Scale

12 $8.60 19h 18m
Con Cor- CNW EMD F3A  Locomotive--N Scale

Con Cor- CNW EMD F3A Locomotive--N Scale

4 $22.50 19h 47m
CON COR 3 BEER BOXCAR LOT 1675 K, B, M MILLER OLY HAMMS

CON COR 3 BEER BOXCAR LOT 1675 K, B, M MILLER OLY HAMMS

5 $26.00 20h
CON COR 3 BEER BOXCAR LOT 1675 A, H, L

CON COR 3 BEER BOXCAR LOT 1675 A, H, L

2 $8.50 20h
CON COR 3 BEER BOXCAR LOT 1675 F, C, G

CON COR 3 BEER BOXCAR LOT 1675 F, C, G

3 $2.00 20h
CON COR 3 BEER BOXCAR LOT 1675-J,  1351-T,  1051-G

CON COR 3 BEER BOXCAR LOT 1675-J, 1351-T, 1051-G

3 $10.50 20h
CON COR 4 BEER BOXCAR LOT 1351-J Q H R BUD SCHLITZ PRIM

CON COR 4 BEER BOXCAR LOT 1351-J Q H R BUD SCHLITZ PRIM

5 $16.00 20h
con-cor LOCOMOTIVE 4-6-4 SOUTHERN PACIFIC

con-cor LOCOMOTIVE 4-6-4 SOUTHERN PACIFIC

10 $34.00 20h

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.