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N SCALE TRACK LOT AND LIFT BRIDGE BY POLA ATLAS BACHMAN

N SCALE TRACK LOT AND LIFT BRIDGE BY POLA ATLAS BACHMAN

 7 $30.00 18m
NIB - - N Scale Kato F7 B Unit: Santa Fe

NIB - - N Scale Kato F7 B Unit: Santa Fe

 $72.00 23m
N SCALE DELIVERY TRUCK 1 PIECE

N SCALE DELIVERY TRUCK 1 PIECE

 - $4.99 34m
THREE ATLAS N SCALE LEHIGH VALLEY LV AIRSLIDE HOPPERS

THREE ATLAS N SCALE LEHIGH VALLEY LV AIRSLIDE HOPPERS

 3 $24.00 43m
Wheels of Time SP Harriman Baggage Cars - Two Tone Gray

Wheels of Time SP Harriman Baggage Cars - Two Tone Gray

 - $65.00 1h 24m
500x Building Model Train 1:150 Scale Painted Figures N

500x Building Model Train 1:150 Scale Painted Figures N

 $18.44 2h 7m
t6030-30pcs Scale Train Layout Set Model Trees TT N

t6030-30pcs Scale Train Layout Set Model Trees TT N

 $10.06 2h 37m
NEW N sc R-T-R AURORA UNITED CARBON Center Flow Car

NEW N sc R-T-R AURORA UNITED CARBON Center Flow Car

 1 $9.99 2h 56m
300x Building Model Train 1:150 Scale Painted Figures N

300x Building Model Train 1:150 Scale Painted Figures N

 $11.68 3h 37m
Enoshima Railway Type 2000 "MEIJI" 2 cars - Modemo NT86

Enoshima Railway Type 2000 "MEIJI" 2 cars - Modemo NT86

 $98.00 4h 39m
NS85B- 20 pcs Scale Train Layout Set Model Trees N HO

NS85B- 20 pcs Scale Train Layout Set Model Trees N HO

 $9.99 5h 8m
50x Building Train Layout Set N Scale 1 160 Model Car

50x Building Train Layout Set N Scale 1 160 Model Car

 $9.19 5h 37m
Bachman N Scale Complete Electric Train Set

Bachman N Scale Complete Electric Train Set

 $69.99 6h
Bachman N Scale Complete Electric Train Set

Bachman N Scale Complete Electric Train Set

 $59.99 6h 11m
t4524-100pcs Scale Train Layout Set Model Trees TT N Z

t4524-100pcs Scale Train Layout Set Model Trees TT N Z

 $17.53 6h 37m
Tomix Kato Train Locomotive House (2 tracks) N Scale

Tomix Kato Train Locomotive House (2 tracks) N Scale

 $18.99 7h 18m
Tomix Kato Train 4063 N-Scale Lawson Convenience Store

Tomix Kato Train 4063 N-Scale Lawson Convenience Store

 $28.99 7h 19m
TEXAS MEXICAN - TOFC FLATCAR - CUSTOM DECAL

TEXAS MEXICAN - TOFC FLATCAR - CUSTOM DECAL

 $5.50 7h 24m
EXACTRAIL#50610-1 NORFOLK & WESTERN

EXACTRAIL#50610-1 NORFOLK & WESTERN

 $15.91 9h 5m
EXACTRAIL#50610-2 NORFOLK & WESTERN

EXACTRAIL#50610-2 NORFOLK & WESTERN

 $18.72 9h 5m

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.