Lionel trains store model trains sets model railroads and train accessories Auction info
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Vintage Arnold Rapido Pennsylvania RR Sleeper Car Of European Design

Vintage Arnold Rapido Pennsylvania RR Sleeper Car Of European Design

 2 $7.00 7h 19m
Arnold Rapido German Steam Engine

Arnold Rapido German Steam Engine

 13 $86.00 9h 9m
Arnold Rivarossi N Scale Great Northern Empire Builder 3 car passenger coach set

Arnold Rivarossi N Scale Great Northern Empire Builder 3 car passenger coach set

 -
 $39.95
$59.95		 11h 11m
ARNOLD N SCALE 0166 HENSCHEL-WEGMANN-ZUG DRESDEN-BERLIN NIB WESTERN GERMANY

ARNOLD N SCALE 0166 HENSCHEL-WEGMANN-ZUG DRESDEN-BERLIN NIB WESTERN GERMANY

 14 $174.99 11h 21m
N Scale ARNOLD Union Pacific Loco~2 Passenger Cars +Caboose & 2 more Cars

N Scale ARNOLD Union Pacific Loco~2 Passenger Cars +Caboose & 2 more Cars

 2 $21.61 13h 42m
"RARE" ARNOLD-N TURNTABLE CONTROL SWITCH 6382

"RARE" ARNOLD-N TURNTABLE CONTROL SWITCH 6382

 9 $14.00 1d 2h 2m
Arnold N Gauge Turntable 6381

Arnold N Gauge Turntable 6381

 12 $32.00 1d 2h 3m
N SCALE HEAVYWEIGHT LACKAWANNA 9 CAR PASSSENGER #0541 #0567 #0554

N SCALE HEAVYWEIGHT LACKAWANNA 9 CAR PASSSENGER #0541 #0567 #0554

- $199.99 1d 6h 22m
ARNOLD RAPIDO MINI TRIX LOT OF 4 N SCALE TRAINS & COAL TOWER

ARNOLD RAPIDO MINI TRIX LOT OF 4 N SCALE TRAINS & COAL TOWER

 - $13.99 1d 7h 37m
N Scale Roco 20' Beer wagon C-7 No Box Nice!

N Scale Roco 20' Beer wagon C-7 No Box Nice!

 - $5.99 1d 8h 6m
Arnold N Passenger Wagon set of 3 #3396

Arnold N Passenger Wagon set of 3 #3396

 - $60.00 1d 8h 43m
Arnold N Passenger Wagon set of 3 #3393

Arnold N Passenger Wagon set of 3 #3393

 - $60.00 1d 8h 46m
Arnold N #3761 TEE Compartment Coach 1st Class Le Capitole set 3

Arnold N #3761 TEE Compartment Coach 1st Class Le Capitole set 3

 5 $81.00 1d 8h 55m
Revell Rapido Iron Horse N Gauge Parts

Revell Rapido Iron Horse N Gauge Parts

 -
 $17.75
$30.00		 1d 10h 4m
VINTAGE ARNOLD RAPIDO -N - SCALE RR ENGINE & 3 CARS !!!

VINTAGE ARNOLD RAPIDO -N - SCALE RR ENGINE & 3 CARS !!!

 3 $26.11 1d 10h 58m
Arnold N 0485; Special wagon for timber transportation WM RR, boxed

Arnold N 0485; Special wagon for timber transportation WM RR, boxed

 - $20.00 1d 20h 13m
N Scale Arnold Engine New York Central LOOK !

N Scale Arnold Engine New York Central LOOK !

 1 $9.99 1d 23h 13m
N Scale Custom Weathered Frisco CraneTrain Car

N Scale Custom Weathered Frisco CraneTrain Car

 4 $5.83 2d 2h 46m
Arnold N 5073 Alco switcher locomotive, Eris Lackawanna, AS IS

Arnold N 5073 Alco switcher locomotive, Eris Lackawanna, AS IS

 1 $9.99 2d 8h 47m
Vintage ARNOLD RAPIDO N Scale American Style Freight Cars

Vintage ARNOLD RAPIDO N Scale American Style Freight Cars

 1 $3.00 2d 11h 11m

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.