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Brass Imports

lot 3 pair brass Bettendorf freight trucks PRR 2D-F8?

lot 3 pair brass Bettendorf freight trucks PRR 2D-F8?

 9 $34.11 9h 55m
lot 2 pair brass Andrews freight trucks

lot 2 pair brass Andrews freight trucks

 11 $51.00 9h 58m
lot 2 pair brass trolley trucks

lot 2 pair brass trolley trucks

 7 $71.01 10h
PRR SW-1 Switcher By Precision O BRASS FP

PRR SW-1 Switcher By Precision O BRASS FP

9 $572.00 13h 28m
NYC, Std. 70' Hvywt. Chair Car By Precision O BRASS FP

NYC, Std. 70' Hvywt. Chair Car By Precision O BRASS FP

7 $276.95 13h 40m
WSLC Westside Lumber Shay #12 by Sunset O BRASS CP

WSLC Westside Lumber Shay #12 by Sunset O BRASS CP

7 $995.00 14h 11m
2 rail O-scale brass tank car US Hobbies? rough

2 rail O-scale brass tank car US Hobbies? rough

5 $40.95 14h 11m
BRASS O Scale Santa Fe 4-8-4 Tender (Only) by Max Grey

BRASS O Scale Santa Fe 4-8-4 Tender (Only) by Max Grey

 7 $78.99 16h 1m
HO Scale Brass Pieces

HO Scale Brass Pieces

 - $0.99 18h 41m
SUNSET O SCALE BRASS GE 44 TON PENNSYLVANIA RR F P MNT!

SUNSET O SCALE BRASS GE 44 TON PENNSYLVANIA RR F P MNT!

 -
 $375.00
$450.00		 19h 20m
Japan Brass Steam Chest - Huge - Scale Standard Gauge

Japan Brass Steam Chest - Huge - Scale Standard Gauge

 1 $24.99 19h 24m
Old BRASS 2-Rail Kitbashed 4-8-0 Camelback W Tender

Old BRASS 2-Rail Kitbashed 4-8-0 Camelback W Tender

 9 $56.00 20h
NJ Custom Brass Daiyoung GE 44-ton O scale loco

NJ Custom Brass Daiyoung GE 44-ton O scale loco

 - $600.00 20h 34m
Kemtron O Scale C-16 Alligator Brass Crossheads

Kemtron O Scale C-16 Alligator Brass Crossheads

 - $9.99 20h 46m
PRR Sunset Models 2-rail Q2 duplex Locomotive O scale

PRR Sunset Models 2-rail Q2 duplex Locomotive O scale

 - $1,280.00 1d 6h 15m
Key Brass Frisco Red Race Horse E8's AA

Key Brass Frisco Red Race Horse E8's AA

 - $2,250.00 1d 8h 28m
O-Scale Brass Through Plate Girder Bridge (Rounded Top)

O-Scale Brass Through Plate Girder Bridge (Rounded Top)

 $298.00 1d 11h 58m
BRASS O Scale Pennsylvania 2-10-4 Steam Loco Max Gray

BRASS O Scale Pennsylvania 2-10-4 Steam Loco Max Gray

 11 $301.01 1d 16h 22m
BRASS O Scale Union Pacific M-10000 by Overland

BRASS O Scale Union Pacific M-10000 by Overland

 13 $390.00 1d 16h 49m
BLUE MOUNTAIN HOBBIES O-61 YODER BRASS HOPPER COAL LOAD

BLUE MOUNTAIN HOBBIES O-61 YODER BRASS HOPPER COAL LOAD

 $6.00 1d 17h 3m

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.