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

Walthers

N Scale - CONCRETE - K BARRIER MODERN DIVIDERS - KIT

N Scale - CONCRETE - K BARRIER MODERN DIVIDERS - KIT

 $6.95 29m
N - DOUBLE TRACK CUT STONE TRUSS BRIDGE ABUTMENT-RESIN

N - DOUBLE TRACK CUT STONE TRUSS BRIDGE ABUTMENT-RESIN

 $9.95 31m
N Scale #7841 Burlington Northern GP38-2 Diesel NIB

N Scale #7841 Burlington Northern GP38-2 Diesel NIB

 - $24.99 33m
N Scale #7842 CSX GP38-2 Diesel NIB

N Scale #7842 CSX GP38-2 Diesel NIB

 - $24.99 33m
N Scale - SANTA FE WESTERN BRICK MAINLINE DEPOT KIT

N Scale - SANTA FE WESTERN BRICK MAINLINE DEPOT KIT

 $29.95 34m
N Scale- COUNTRY FARM - GRAIN BINS SMALL -RESIN BUILT

N Scale- COUNTRY FARM - GRAIN BINS SMALL -RESIN BUILT

 $24.95 40m
N - UNION STATION - PASSENGER DEPOT- MULTI TRACk -KIT

N - UNION STATION - PASSENGER DEPOT- MULTI TRACk -KIT

 $49.95 43m
Proto 2000 N Scale Heritage B&M 0-8-0 Loco & Tender NIB

Proto 2000 N Scale Heritage B&M 0-8-0 Loco & Tender NIB

 - $99.99 46m
N Scale Train Set - FLORIDA EAST COAST

N Scale Train Set - FLORIDA EAST COAST

 1 $69.99 1h 11m
Walthers Cornerstone #3818 N Scale Pella Depot Kit NIB

Walthers Cornerstone #3818 N Scale Pella Depot Kit NIB

 2 $19.99 1h 30m
Walthers Cornerstone #3805 N Scale Brick Depot w Freigh

Walthers Cornerstone #3805 N Scale Brick Depot w Freigh

 2 $24.99 1h 30m
N Scale-MODERN HIGHWAY OVERPASS w PIERS 150 ft - KIT

N Scale-MODERN HIGHWAY OVERPASS w PIERS 150 ft - KIT

 $39.95 2h 3m
N - DOUBLE TRACK CUT STONE TRUSS BRIDGE ABUTMENT-RESIN

N - DOUBLE TRACK CUT STONE TRUSS BRIDGE ABUTMENT-RESIN

 $9.95 2h 3m
Burlington Northern 2151 GP-38-2 Lifelike Proto N

Burlington Northern 2151 GP-38-2 Lifelike Proto N

 - $39.95 2h 3m
N Scale- MODERN FEED MILL ELEVATOR -GRAIN HANDLING KIT

N Scale- MODERN FEED MILL ELEVATOR -GRAIN HANDLING KIT

 $39.95 2h 47m
RARE N scale Craftsman NIB Laser cut Wood House

RARE N scale Craftsman NIB Laser cut Wood House

 - $14.95 3h 14m
RARE N scale Deluxe Con Cor NIB 3pk JB Hunt Containers

RARE N scale Deluxe Con Cor NIB 3pk JB Hunt Containers

 3 $18.50 3h 16m
RARE N scale American NIB 2pk Alaska 20' Tank Container

RARE N scale American NIB 2pk Alaska 20' Tank Container

 1 $6.95 3h 17m
RARE N scale American NIB 2pk UP 20' Tank Container

RARE N scale American NIB 2pk UP 20' Tank Container

 1 $6.95 3h 18m
RARE N scale American NIB 2pk Stolt 20' Tank Container

RARE N scale American NIB 2pk Stolt 20' Tank Container

 1 $6.95 3h 19m

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.