Lionel trains store model trains sets model railroads and train accessories Auction info
Lionel trains store Graham Farish For Sale Used Graham Farish Cheap Graham Farish

Graham Farish

NEW ! N scale Bachmann FOUR 20' Containers 379-352A

NEW ! N scale Bachmann FOUR 20' Containers 379-352A

$7.99 54m
N scale Bachmann PRE BUILT STATION MSTR. HOUSE Building

N scale Bachmann PRE BUILT STATION MSTR. HOUSE Building

 $14.95 6h 41m
N scale SceneCraft PRE BUILT COUNTRY STATION Building

N scale SceneCraft PRE BUILT COUNTRY STATION Building

 $15.95 2d 4h 14m
N scale Scenecraft PRE BUILT SCHOOL CHAPEL 376-755

N scale Scenecraft PRE BUILT SCHOOL CHAPEL 376-755

$13.95 2d 4h 28m
N scale Graham Farish PRE BUILT Modern HOUSE 376-756

N scale Graham Farish PRE BUILT Modern HOUSE 376-756

$15.95 2d 4h 47m
N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT Aggregate Weigh Station

N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT Aggregate Weigh Station

$22.95 2d 5h 33m
NEW ! N scale Bachmann FOUR 20' Containers 379-353A

NEW ! N scale Bachmann FOUR 20' Containers 379-353A

$7.99 2d 5h 42m
NEW ! N scale Bachmann FOUR 20' Containers 379-350A

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

$7.99 2d 5h 47m
NEW ! N scale Bachmann TWO 45' Containers 379-374A

NEW ! N scale Bachmann TWO 45' Containers 379-374A

$7.99 2d 6h 5m
N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT House Under Construction

N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT House Under Construction

 $29.95 2d 7h 6m
BEST plastic-safe synthetic oil for Graham Farish, READ

BEST plastic-safe synthetic oil for Graham Farish, READ

 $5.99 2d 16h 2m
N scale Graham Farish PRE-BUILT MH Station Building

N scale Graham Farish PRE-BUILT MH Station Building

 $18.95 3d 4h 14m
N scale Graham Farish PRE-BUILT (2) Sta. Platform Ramps

N scale Graham Farish PRE-BUILT (2) Sta. Platform Ramps

 $6.95 3d 4h 20m
N scale Graham Farish PRE-BUILT Station Platforms 4 pcs

N scale Graham Farish PRE-BUILT Station Platforms 4 pcs

 $9.95 3d 4h 21m
N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT Hampton Lodge Building

N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT Hampton Lodge Building

$19.95 4d 4h 14m
N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT Stone Station Building

N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT Stone Station Building

 $29.95 4d 4h 15m
371-425 170 1 Turbostar 2 Car DMU "Midland Machine" (N)

371-425 170 1 Turbostar 2 Car DMU "Midland Machine" (N)

 $146.99 4d 4h 27m
371-435 168 1 Clubman 3 Car DMU "Chiltern Railways"

371-435 168 1 Clubman 3 Car DMU "Chiltern Railways"

 $136.99 4d 4h 28m
372-227 Crab 42765 BR Lined Black Early Emblem (N)

372-227 Crab 42765 BR Lined Black Early Emblem (N)

 $125.99 4d 4h 28m
N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT Riveted Water Tank 42-037

N scale Scenecraft PRE-BUILT Riveted Water Tank 42-037

 $17.95 4d 4h 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.