Lionel trains store model trains sets model railroads and train accessories Auction info
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Marx

VTGE JAPAN TIN TRAIN SET BATTERY OPERATED NM BOXED

VTGE JAPAN TIN TRAIN SET BATTERY OPERATED NM BOXED

 $60.00 32m
LOUIS MARX 1930's TOY RIDE ON TRAIN PIONEER EXPRESS

LOUIS MARX 1930's TOY RIDE ON TRAIN PIONEER EXPRESS

 - $65.00 41m
MARX O BLACK NYC COAL TENDER

MARX O BLACK NYC COAL TENDER

 $10.00 50m
MARX 1952 FOR SCALE CAR ASSORTMENT BOX

MARX 1952 FOR SCALE CAR ASSORTMENT BOX

 $10.00 50m
MARX O 2 HEAD FLOOD LIGHT CLEAN IN BOX

MARX O 2 HEAD FLOOD LIGHT CLEAN IN BOX

 $13.00 51m
VINTAGE MARX SANTA FE TRAIN SET ENGINE TUNNEL BRIDGE

VINTAGE MARX SANTA FE TRAIN SET ENGINE TUNNEL BRIDGE

 - $125.00 1h 10m
Marx 072 Street Light Lamp Post *Mint Boxed C9*

Marx 072 Street Light Lamp Post *Mint Boxed C9*

 $12.99 1h 13m
Marx 074 Street Lamp Light Post *Mint Boxed C9

Marx 074 Street Lamp Light Post *Mint Boxed C9

 $9.99 1h 13m
Marx 418 Post War Bell Ringing Crossing Signal *Box C9*

Marx 418 Post War Bell Ringing Crossing Signal *Box C9*

 $29.99 1h 13m
MARX 490 LOCOMOTIVE WITH WORKING HEADLIGHT CUSTOMIZED

MARX 490 LOCOMOTIVE WITH WORKING HEADLIGHT CUSTOMIZED

 - $4.50 1h 32m
MARX #1796 MISSILE LAUNCHER FLATCAR & CARRIER, PARTS

MARX #1796 MISSILE LAUNCHER FLATCAR & CARRIER, PARTS

 - $4.99 1h 42m
MARX DOORS FOR #77003 B&M DELUXE BOXCAR, ORIGINAL PAIR

MARX DOORS FOR #77003 B&M DELUXE BOXCAR, ORIGINAL PAIR

 - $2.99 1h 43m
MARX LAMPOST PAIR, POLICE & US MAIL, LIGHTS WORK, EXC

MARX LAMPOST PAIR, POLICE & US MAIL, LIGHTS WORK, EXC

 - $4.99 1h 44m
MARX STATION PLATFORM FIGURES, 4 ORIGINAL, EXCELLENT

MARX STATION PLATFORM FIGURES, 4 ORIGINAL, EXCELLENT

 3 $6.13 1h 45m
MARX VALLEY NEWS NEWSTAND FROM STATION PLATFORM, ORIG

MARX VALLEY NEWS NEWSTAND FROM STATION PLATFORM, ORIG

 1 $4.99 1h 46m
MARX OPERATING CROSSING SIGNAL & BELL

MARX OPERATING CROSSING SIGNAL & BELL

 - $18.99 1h 46m
MARX TIN WATCHMAN SHED WITH CROSSING

MARX TIN WATCHMAN SHED WITH CROSSING

- $24.99 1h 46m
MARX STATION PLATFORM ROOF ONLY, ORIGINAL

MARX STATION PLATFORM ROOF ONLY, ORIGINAL

 - $4.99 1h 47m
MARX 2990 OAK PARK TRAIN STATION

MARX 2990 OAK PARK TRAIN STATION

 - $49.99 1h 47m
MARX 1600 GLENDALE DEPOT TRAIN STATION

MARX 1600 GLENDALE DEPOT TRAIN STATION

 1 $64.99 1h 47m

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.