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Trinity 5161 Cu.grain hopper BNSF #472229.orig.box

Trinity 5161 Cu.grain hopper BNSF #472229.orig.box

 2 $10.00 2h 51m
4750 cu.ft.3 bay hopper BNSF swoosh #470192 orig.box

4750 cu.ft.3 bay hopper BNSF swoosh #470192 orig.box

 2 $10.00 2h 56m
Intermountain, N Scale, EMD F3A, Banger & Aroostook #46

Intermountain, N Scale, EMD F3A, Banger & Aroostook #46

 $65.00 4h 1m
Intermountain EMD F7B Loco BN Burlington Northern #717

Intermountain EMD F7B Loco BN Burlington Northern #717

 5 $22.50 7h 55m
Intermountain SD45T-2 CN Canadian National DMIR #402

Intermountain SD45T-2 CN Canadian National DMIR #402

 7 $66.01 7h 58m
N- IM 66002 - 12 panel 40' boxcar GN Great Northern NIB

N- IM 66002 - 12 panel 40' boxcar GN Great Northern NIB

 4 $10.51 8h 6m
N- IM 66003 - 12 panel 40' boxcar GN Great Northern NIB

N- IM 66003 - 12 panel 40' boxcar GN Great Northern NIB

 4 $10.51 8h 10m
Intermountain SD40T-2 Diesel IORY Indiana & Ohio #4071

Intermountain SD40T-2 Diesel IORY Indiana & Ohio #4071

3 $39.00 8h 10m
N Scale Intermountain Western Maryland 28800

N Scale Intermountain Western Maryland 28800

 1 $5.99 10h 5m
N Scale Intermountain Western Maryland 28792

N Scale Intermountain Western Maryland 28792

 1 $5.99 10h 8m
N Scale Intermountain Western Maryland 28587

N Scale Intermountain Western Maryland 28587

 1 $5.99 10h 10m
N Scale Intermountain Western Maryland 28501

N Scale Intermountain Western Maryland 28501

 2 $6.50 10h 11m
N Scale Intermountain ATSF Santa Fe SD45-2 diesel loco

N Scale Intermountain ATSF Santa Fe SD45-2 diesel loco

 - $69.99 10h 47m
N Scale Intermountain ATSF Santa Fe SD45-2 diesel loco

N Scale Intermountain ATSF Santa Fe SD45-2 diesel loco

 - $69.99 10h 48m
Intermountain, N Scale, EMD F3A, Banger & Aroostook #47

Intermountain, N Scale, EMD F3A, Banger & Aroostook #47

 - $65.00 1d 6h 29m
Intermountain, N Scale, EMD F3A, Banger & Aroostook #45

Intermountain, N Scale, EMD F3A, Banger & Aroostook #45

 1 $65.00 1d 6h 31m
Intermountain, N Scale, EMD F3A, Banger & Aroostook #44

Intermountain, N Scale, EMD F3A, Banger & Aroostook #44

 1 $65.00 1d 6h 32m
INTRMTN PWRS N SCALE CAN. PAC SET #387500, 387504, 387509

INTRMTN PWRS N SCALE CAN. PAC SET #387500, 387504, 387509

 4 $81.01 1d 9h 24m
INTRMTN PWRS N ALBERTA TAKE A BREAK #628395 CYL. HPR

INTRMTN PWRS N ALBERTA TAKE A BREAK #628395 CYL. HPR

 4 $28.01 1d 9h 27m
INTRMTN N CANADIAN NATIONAL #370654 ENVIR.MODE CYLND HP

INTRMTN N CANADIAN NATIONAL #370654 ENVIR.MODE CYLND HP

 4 $29.01 1d 9h 31m

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.