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

PLASTICVILLE PLASTIC TREES

PLASTICVILLE PLASTIC TREES

1 $9.99 1d 47m
OO-Two Bachmann GW Collett 60' Hawksworth Coaches

OO-Two Bachmann GW Collett 60' Hawksworth Coaches

- $20.00 2d 45m
Two Wrenn Railways Super Detail Coaches-Brighton Belle

Two Wrenn Railways Super Detail Coaches-Brighton Belle

3 $36.00 2d 49m
10 White 3mm Leds, Holders, Resistors for 15v Systems

10 White 3mm Leds, Holders, Resistors for 15v Systems

-
$8.99
$9.99
2d 16h 46m
10 White 5mm Leds, Holders, Resistors for 12v Systems

10 White 5mm Leds, Holders, Resistors for 12v Systems

-
$8.99
$9.99
4d 2m
BACHMANN 32-725 CLASS 66 DIESEL EWS "66135"

BACHMANN 32-725 CLASS 66 DIESEL EWS "66135"

- $85.00 4d 23h 23m
3 BACHMANN LMS 1ST 3RD 57FT CORRIDOR COACHES

3 BACHMANN LMS 1ST 3RD 57FT CORRIDOR COACHES

- $40.00 4d 23h 37m
VINTAGE POWER HOUSE MODEL TRAIN TRACK,  SWITCH O GAUGE

VINTAGE POWER HOUSE MODEL TRAIN TRACK, SWITCH O GAUGE

- $6.99 5d 1h 20m
BACHMANN #32-528 CLASS 55 DELTIC "55013 THE BLACK WATCH

BACHMANN #32-528 CLASS 55 DELTIC "55013 THE BLACK WATCH

- $70.00 6d 1h 40m
BACHMANN 30-006 Harry the Hauler Starter Set MIB

BACHMANN 30-006 Harry the Hauler Starter Set MIB

$66.95 6d 22h 40m
BACHMANN 30-050 Digital Passenger Set MIB

BACHMANN 30-050 Digital Passenger Set MIB

$197.95 6d 22h 58m
BACHMANN 30-601 Virgin Voyager Set MIB

BACHMANN 30-601 Virgin Voyager Set MIB

$167.95 6d 23h 7m
BACHMANN 30-625A Virgin Voyager Extra Car MIB

BACHMANN 30-625A Virgin Voyager Extra Car MIB

$38.95 6d 23h 18m
BACHMANN 30-0041 Digital Starter Set MINT IN BOX

BACHMANN 30-0041 Digital Starter Set MINT IN BOX

$155.50 8d 22h 26m
Bachmann OO 33-300 20 Ton Toad Brake Van B.R.W. Gy MIB

Bachmann OO 33-300 20 Ton Toad Brake Van B.R.W. Gy MIB

$14.99 13d 21h 19m
Bachmann 31-201 Rebuilt Patriot Class 4-6-0,  BR green

Bachmann 31-201 Rebuilt Patriot Class 4-6-0, BR green

$79.00 22d 18h 39m
Bachmann 4-6-0 Manor Class 31-300

Bachmann 4-6-0 Manor Class 31-300

$79.00 22d 18h 40m
120 PAINTED FIGURES 1:75 Model Train Building Scale OO

120 PAINTED FIGURES 1:75 Model Train Building Scale OO

$10.00 27d 7h 59m

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.