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Marx

Marx 3994 Boxed Steam Locomotive Metal Freight Set~1938

Marx 3994 Boxed Steam Locomotive Metal Freight Set~1938

 4 $31.00 38m
VINTAGE 2 PC MARX FLOOR TRAIN -- LUMAR LINES

VINTAGE 2 PC MARX FLOOR TRAIN -- LUMAR LINES

 1 $29.95 1h 51m
MARX MARKER LIGHTS FOR CP ENGINE (LOT OF 4)

MARX MARKER LIGHTS FOR CP ENGINE (LOT OF 4)

 $9.99 11h 10m
MARX SMOKE STACKS FOR 898 ENGINE (LOT OF 5)

MARX SMOKE STACKS FOR 898 ENGINE (LOT OF 5)

 $9.99 11h 13m
MARX 898 BOILER FRONT

MARX 898 BOILER FRONT

 $5.00 11h 14m
MARX 898 BOILER FRONTS (LOT OF 3)

MARX 898 BOILER FRONTS (LOT OF 3)

 $9.99 11h 16m
MARX 898 BOILER FRONTS (LOT OF 4)

MARX 898 BOILER FRONTS (LOT OF 4)

 $9.99 11h 17m
MARX LOT OF 898 HAND RAIL SETS

MARX LOT OF 898 HAND RAIL SETS

 $9.99 11h 19m
MARX 898 ENGINE LOT

MARX 898 ENGINE LOT

 $6.00 11h 30m
MARX 898 PARTS LOT

MARX 898 PARTS LOT

 $6.00 11h 35m
Marx Trains O Erie RR #51170 Blue Gondola 8 Wheels Box

Marx Trains O Erie RR #51170 Blue Gondola 8 Wheels Box

 $7.99 11h 53m
MARX LOT ORIGINAL O27 LOCKONS & TRACK UNCOUPLER UNIT

MARX LOT ORIGINAL O27 LOCKONS & TRACK UNCOUPLER UNIT

 2 $9.99 12h 5m
MARX NP TENDER X 1 PC TENDER X 1 PC CABOOSE X 1

MARX NP TENDER X 1 PC TENDER X 1 PC CABOOSE X 1

$4.00 12h 56m
Vintage Marx Metal Mechanical Wind Up Train Set #2005

Vintage Marx Metal Mechanical Wind Up Train Set #2005

- $19.99 13h 14m
MARX TRAIN CAR JUNK LOT some w G TRUCKS

MARX TRAIN CAR JUNK LOT some w G TRUCKS

 4 $5.59 13h 26m
Marx O Scale Auto Transport Car Hauler Sou. 5110 w cars

Marx O Scale Auto Transport Car Hauler Sou. 5110 w cars

 3 $15.50 13h 29m
Marx Double Tank Car Rare

Marx Double Tank Car Rare

 4 $16.49 13h 37m
Marx O scale Seaboard 91257 Gondola tin toy train

Marx O scale Seaboard 91257 Gondola tin toy train

- $4.99 13h 44m
Marx O scale Union Pacific 59 Cattle Car Tin Toy Train

Marx O scale Union Pacific 59 Cattle Car Tin Toy Train

 - $4.99 13h 49m
MARX ALLSTATE TRAIN SET 027 1666 LOCO, TRACK, ETC

MARX ALLSTATE TRAIN SET 027 1666 LOCO, TRACK, ETC

 - $9.95 13h 51m

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.