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LIONEL Lone Ranger Add-on 3-Pack #6-11162

LIONEL Lone Ranger Add-on 3-Pack #6-11162

$159.99 15m
LIONEL O SCALE MAINLINE CANTILEVER SIGNAL BRIDGE #22931

LIONEL O SCALE MAINLINE CANTILEVER SIGNAL BRIDGE #22931

$49.98 16m
LIONEL OPERAT 394 ROTARY BEACON SILVER 53 LIKE N BRIGHT

LIONEL OPERAT 394 ROTARY BEACON SILVER 53 LIKE N BRIGHT

$65.00 17m
TCA 1981 convention car 6-0511

TCA 1981 convention car 6-0511

$39.00 19m
Lot of used lionel O-27 switches and cross track

Lot of used lionel O-27 switches and cross track

- $6.99 21m
LIONEL16749MIDGET MINES COALDUMP CAR 0 027 6479NIB 97

LIONEL16749MIDGET MINES COALDUMP CAR 0 027 6479NIB 97

$39.00 41m
10, BA9S 6V 9V 12V 24V INDICATOR LIGHT BULB LED, GL12

10, BA9S 6V 9V 12V 24V INDICATOR LIGHT BULB LED, GL12

-
$0.99
$1.99
46m
10, BA9S, T4W, 57, 182, 257, 363 Bulb Light Socket Fixture, 9S

10, BA9S, T4W, 57, 182, 257, 363 Bulb Light Socket Fixture, 9S

-
$0.99
$1.99
47m
10, BA9S 6V 9V 12V 24V INDICATOR LIGHT BULB LED, RL12

10, BA9S 6V 9V 12V 24V INDICATOR LIGHT BULB LED, RL12

-
$0.99
$1.99
47m
10, BA9S, T4W, 1895 Bayonet Bulb Light Socket Fixture, 9S

10, BA9S, T4W, 1895 Bayonet Bulb Light Socket Fixture, 9S

-
$0.99
$1.99
47m
10, BA9S 6V 9V 12V 24V INDICATOR LIGHT BULB LED, YL12

10, BA9S 6V 9V 12V 24V INDICATOR LIGHT BULB LED, YL12

-
$0.99
$1.99
47m
20, White E10 24V Led Bulb Light Lamp for LIONEL 1447, WL

20, White E10 24V Led Bulb Light Lamp for LIONEL 1447, WL

-
$9.89
$10.99
56m
LIONEL 36899 NEW HAVEN DERRICK CRANE BOOM TRAIN CAR NEW

LIONEL 36899 NEW HAVEN DERRICK CRANE BOOM TRAIN CAR NEW

$35.95 58m
  Marx Stream line Train set

Marx Stream line Train set

5 $52.25 59m
Lionel 6-28052 Norfolk and Western Class A  TMCC

Lionel 6-28052 Norfolk and Western Class A TMCC

- $599.95 59m
LIONEL TRAIN LOCOMOTIVE STEAM ENGINE #1684 BLACK SHELL

LIONEL TRAIN LOCOMOTIVE STEAM ENGINE #1684 BLACK SHELL

$13.95 1h 22m
LIONEL 2010 POCKET PRICE GUIDE by GREENBERG

LIONEL 2010 POCKET PRICE GUIDE by GREENBERG

$18.75 1h 27m
POCKET SIZE 0-4" FULL STAINLESS STEEL DIGITAL CALIPER

POCKET SIZE 0-4" FULL STAINLESS STEEL DIGITAL CALIPER

1 $9.99 2h 9m
1, Flexible Strip Green 72cm Waterproof Neon Light LED

1, Flexible Strip Green 72cm Waterproof Neon Light LED

-
$19.00
$20.90
2h 25m
1, Flexible Strip Yellow 72cm Waterproof Neon Light LED

1, Flexible Strip Yellow 72cm Waterproof Neon Light LED

-
$17.00
$18.70
2h 25m

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.