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Graham Farish

Graham Farish N Scale GWR Railcar 371-626 Mint in Box

Graham Farish N Scale GWR Railcar 371-626 Mint in Box

 1 $55.00 3d 13h 14m
N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT Coal Winding House Building

N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT Coal Winding House Building

 $24.50 3d 15h 19m
Graham Farish 1979 Catalog Poster Brochure & Brochure

Graham Farish 1979 Catalog Poster Brochure & Brochure

 - $4.99 3d 21h 20m
NEW ! N scale Bachmann FOUR 20' Containers 379-350A

NEW ! N scale Bachmann FOUR 20' Containers 379-350A

$7.99 4d 15h 56m
Graham Farish 35005 Merchant Navy Canadian Pacific

Graham Farish 35005 Merchant Navy Canadian Pacific

$181.99 8d 16h 57m
Graham Farish 370025 0-6-0 STARTER SET N-GAUGE MIB

Graham Farish 370025 0-6-0 STARTER SET N-GAUGE MIB

 $82.50 8d 17h 52m
N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT North Light Factory Building

N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT North Light Factory Building

 $21.50 9d 15h 12m
N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT N.L. Factory Building Exten.

N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT N.L. Factory Building Exten.

 $21.50 9d 15h 14m
Graham Farish 370055 Master Cutler Steam Set MIB

Graham Farish 370055 Master Cutler Steam Set MIB

 $194.95 9d 17h 58m
Graham Farish 370105 150 DMU Sprinter Train Set MIB

Graham Farish 370105 150 DMU Sprinter Train Set MIB

 $149.95 9d 18h 3m
Graham Farish 370251 Diesel Fuel Freight Set MIB

Graham Farish 370251 Diesel Fuel Freight Set MIB

 $194.95 10d 14h 18m
Graham Farish 370252 Diesel Railfreight Set MIB

Graham Farish 370252 Diesel Railfreight Set MIB

 $173.95 10d 14h 23m
N scale Bachmann FOUR-Pack CONTAINERS ( 2-20' & 2-40')

N scale Bachmann FOUR-Pack CONTAINERS ( 2-20' & 2-40')

 $9.99 14d 20h 36m
N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT Coal Field Pit Head Lift

N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT Coal Field Pit Head Lift

 $24.50 18d 11h 35m
N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT BREWERY Factory Building

N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT BREWERY Factory Building

 $29.95 20d 15h 53m
N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT B U ENGINE SHED Building

N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT B U ENGINE SHED Building

$24.50 23d 15h 37m
N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT BREWERY Boiler Building

N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT BREWERY Boiler Building

 $11.95 23d 15h 58m
N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT 4-Door OUTHOUSE BUILDING

N scale Bachmann PRE-BUILT 4-Door OUTHOUSE BUILDING

 $9.95 23d 16h 33m
N scale Graham Farish PRE-BUILT Market Station Building

N scale Graham Farish PRE-BUILT Market Station Building

 $18.95 27d 15h 34m
N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT BREWERY Hops Kiln Building

N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT BREWERY Hops Kiln Building

 $19.95 27d 15h 35m

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.