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Craftsman Building Kits

HO FSM Yehudah's Heating Co. Jewel Series # 14

HO FSM Yehudah's Heating Co. Jewel Series # 14

6 $243.00 32m
HARDWOOD MAPLE WEATHERING STAIN-4oz READY-TO-USE FLOQUIL REPLACEMENT WOOD RESIN

HARDWOOD MAPLE WEATHERING STAIN-4oz READY-TO-USE FLOQUIL REPLACEMENT WOOD RESIN

- $6.99 54m
RIO GRANDE SOUTHERN RAILROAD SAND HOUSE HO Wood Laser Kit BM110-HO

RIO GRANDE SOUTHERN RAILROAD SAND HOUSE HO Wood Laser Kit BM110-HO

- $54.95 57m
SUYDAM # 15 BARTON FLATS LUMBER CO.PARTIALLY BUILT CORRUGATED KIT

SUYDAM # 15 BARTON FLATS LUMBER CO.PARTIALLY BUILT CORRUGATED KIT

- $25.00 1h 21m
Forest Clutter & Field Trash-NATURAL READY-TO-USE CONTEST PROVEN! DOCTOR BEN'S

Forest Clutter & Field Trash-NATURAL READY-TO-USE CONTEST PROVEN! DOCTOR BEN'S

- $6.49 1h 37m
Campbells Carstens Flophouse #413

Campbells Carstens Flophouse #413

- $85.00 1h 39m
Jack Work How to Build Coalmine from MR mag

Jack Work How to Build Coalmine from MR mag

- $30.00 1h 40m
WEATHERING STAIN SET #2 & HOW-TO BOOKLET-- READY-TO-USE WOOD.PLASTIC.METAL

WEATHERING STAIN SET #2 & HOW-TO BOOKLET-- READY-TO-USE WOOD.PLASTIC.METAL

- $48.99 2h 3m
TRUE COPPER SHEETING MATERIAL--Doctor Ben's--FSM *NEW!*

TRUE COPPER SHEETING MATERIAL--Doctor Ben's--FSM *NEW!*

- $13.95 2h 23m
HO Tug Boat Firefighter by Revell,  fsm quality

HO Tug Boat Firefighter by Revell, fsm quality

1 $25.00 3h 10m
Used SS LTD HO Scale Toadsuck Canning Company #1157

Used SS LTD HO Scale Toadsuck Canning Company #1157

12 $142.00 3h 18m
HO Lindberg Diesel Tug

HO Lindberg Diesel Tug

1 $25.00 3h 27m
HO Lindberg Fishing Trawler

HO Lindberg Fishing Trawler

1 $25.00 3h 34m
HO Lindberg Tuna Clipper

HO Lindberg Tuna Clipper

- $25.00 3h 42m
NEW! Branchline Laser Art Roof Shingles HO Mosaic Nice

NEW! Branchline Laser Art Roof Shingles HO Mosaic Nice

- $15.99 3h 43m
NEW! Branchline Laser Art Roof Shingles HO Fish Scale

NEW! Branchline Laser Art Roof Shingles HO Fish Scale

- $15.99 3h 46m
THE SERVICE STATION CHOOCH KIT FSM MIB HO HON3 HON30

THE SERVICE STATION CHOOCH KIT FSM MIB HO HON3 HON30

- $88.95 4h 13m
HO GC Laser cut POLITICALLY CORRECT OUTHOUSE Wood Kit

HO GC Laser cut POLITICALLY CORRECT OUTHOUSE Wood Kit

- $17.95 4h 21m
HOLLOW TOWER SECTIONS-YORKE RUBBLES DEPOT Kit fsm *NEW*

HOLLOW TOWER SECTIONS-YORKE RUBBLES DEPOT Kit fsm *NEW*

- $18.95 4h 37m
JL Innovative HO 331 McSorley's Old Ale House Kit

JL Innovative HO 331 McSorley's Old Ale House Kit

- $43.96 4h 42m

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.