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ORIGINAL LIONEL 6560 BUCYRUS ERIE CRANE ***CAB***

ORIGINAL LIONEL 6560 BUCYRUS ERIE CRANE ***CAB***

 1 $7.50 15m
813 TYPE I STOCKCAR

813 TYPE I STOCKCAR

 - $54.95 17m
Lionel 2305 Getty Operating Oil Derrick

Lionel 2305 Getty Operating Oil Derrick

 8 $40.77 17m
LIONEL2046W50 PENNSY.TENDER, VERY GOOD COND.NR

LIONEL2046W50 PENNSY.TENDER, VERY GOOD COND.NR

 1 $35.00 17m
Scarce Lionel 250 Electric Loco~Dark Green~Nice Orig!

Scarce Lionel 250 Electric Loco~Dark Green~Nice Orig!

 24 $213.50 17m
Lionel Fastrack 8 curved sections O36 O27 - NEW

Lionel Fastrack 8 curved sections O36 O27 - NEW

 3 $17.72 18m
LIONEL 675 SET GOOD CONDITION, 2046W, 6560 RED CRANE, NR

LIONEL 675 SET GOOD CONDITION, 2046W, 6560 RED CRANE, NR

 10 $77.95 18m
LIONEL 2026 SET GOOD CONDITION, 6466W TENDER, NICE, NR

LIONEL 2026 SET GOOD CONDITION, 6466W TENDER, NICE, NR

 8 $48.95 18m
LIONEL BURLINGTON SD28 ENGINE PULLMOR MOTOR

LIONEL BURLINGTON SD28 ENGINE PULLMOR MOTOR

 1 $109.95 18m
Lionel 36125 Area 51 Groom Lake Mining Co Boxcar

Lionel 36125 Area 51 Groom Lake Mining Co Boxcar

 3 $10.49 18m
LIONEL 3464 SANTA FE BOX CAR CLEAN

LIONEL 3464 SANTA FE BOX CAR CLEAN

$45.00 18m
Lionel 5145 Groom Lake Mining Co Flat Car w Spaceships

Lionel 5145 Groom Lake Mining Co Flat Car w Spaceships

 1 $9.99 18m
Lionel 2133 Illuminated Passenger Station

Lionel 2133 Illuminated Passenger Station

 5 $10.49 18m
LIONEL 6462 BLACK GONDOLA IN BOX

LIONEL 6462 BLACK GONDOLA IN BOX

$15.00 18m
LIONEL 6456 LEHIGH VALLEY HOPPER CLEAN

LIONEL 6456 LEHIGH VALLEY HOPPER CLEAN

$22.00 19m
Lionel Trestle Bridge #332 O B

Lionel Trestle Bridge #332 O B

 3 $26.50 19m
Lionel 12882 Lighted Billboard

Lionel 12882 Lighted Billboard

 1 $4.99 19m
LIONEL 275 WATT ZW 4 TRAIN TRANSFORMER MODEL R ** EXC *

LIONEL 275 WATT ZW 4 TRAIN TRANSFORMER MODEL R ** EXC *

 20 $280.00 19m
Lionel 36631 Groom Lake Mining Co Maintenance Caboose

Lionel 36631 Groom Lake Mining Co Maintenance Caboose

 5 $15.51 20m
Lionel 36124 Groom Lake Mining Co Tank Car w Fluid

Lionel 36124 Groom Lake Mining Co Tank Car w Fluid

 2 $12.50 20m

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.