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Track, Accessories & Scenery

BACHMANN PLASTICVILLE APARTMENT BUILDING O SCALE KIT

BACHMANN PLASTICVILLE APARTMENT BUILDING O SCALE KIT

 $19.95 19m
PLASTICVILLE AIRPORT TERMINAL by Bachmann

PLASTICVILLE AIRPORT TERMINAL by Bachmann

 $17.95 25m
50x Building Model Trains 1:50 Scale Painted Figures O

50x Building Model Trains 1:50 Scale Painted Figures O

 - $0.99 34m
1 43 O Scale Peterbilt 387 Tanker Truck

1 43 O Scale Peterbilt 387 Tanker Truck

 $14.95 54m
1 43 Scale Peterbilt 387 Truck & Livestock Trailer

1 43 Scale Peterbilt 387 Truck & Livestock Trailer

 $14.95 56m
LIONEL 2010 POCKET PRICE GUIDE by GREENBERG

LIONEL 2010 POCKET PRICE GUIDE by GREENBERG

 $18.75 1h 27m
50x Building Model Trains 1:50 Scale Painted Figures O

50x Building Model Trains 1:50 Scale Painted Figures O

 - $0.99 3h 34m
CIRCUS CRAFT CUSTOM PAINTED WOMEN (QTY 14) # 2 +

CIRCUS CRAFT CUSTOM PAINTED WOMEN (QTY 14) # 2 +

 $29.95 4h 52m
1950's STYLE RELIEF by DSL SHOPS **FREE SHIPPING** +

1950's STYLE RELIEF by DSL SHOPS **FREE SHIPPING** +

 $89.95 4h 54m
CIRCUS CRAFT CUSTOM PAINTED WOMEN (QTY 14) # 1 +

CIRCUS CRAFT CUSTOM PAINTED WOMEN (QTY 14) # 1 +

 $29.95 4h 57m
SIGNAL DEPARTMENT by BERKSHIRE VALLEY 824 +

SIGNAL DEPARTMENT by BERKSHIRE VALLEY 824 +

 $39.95 4h 59m
CARGO-COILED "STEEL" SPOOL-7 8" DIA., 1-1 8" L-S O SCALE

CARGO-COILED "STEEL" SPOOL-7 8" DIA., 1-1 8" L-S O SCALE

 $4.99 5h 17m
CARGO-COILED "STEEL" SPOOL-7 8" DIA., 1-1 8" L-S O-SCL-g

CARGO-COILED "STEEL" SPOOL-7 8" DIA., 1-1 8" L-S O-SCL-g

 $3.99 5h 39m
50x Building Model Trains 1:50 Scale Painted Figures O

50x Building Model Trains 1:50 Scale Painted Figures O

 - $0.99 5h 49m
FIRE HYDRANT by SCHOMBERG # 135 use with LIONEL +

FIRE HYDRANT by SCHOMBERG # 135 use with LIONEL +

 $2.00 6h 53m
No Frills CD Picture Guide to Sawmills Volume 1

No Frills CD Picture Guide to Sawmills Volume 1

 $5.99 7h 9m
Vintage Plasticville Switch Tower #1402 w box Bachmann

Vintage Plasticville Switch Tower #1402 w box Bachmann

 1 $5.95 7h 12m
1934 Ford Tow Truck - Yellow - 1 43 Scale

1934 Ford Tow Truck - Yellow - 1 43 Scale

 -
 $7.99
$8.80		 7h 49m
School Bus - O Scale - 1 45

School Bus - O Scale - 1 45

 -
 $5.49
$6.05		 7h 51m
19 feet of 3 rail O-Scale track some Lionel

19 feet of 3 rail O-Scale track some Lionel

 5 $10.00 7h 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.