Lionel trains store model trains sets model railroads and train accessories Auction info
Lionel trains store Athearn For Sale Used Athearn Cheap Athearn

Athearn

Althearn N Scale,  Burlington Northern,  Pullman Standard 2600 Covered Hopper

Althearn N Scale, Burlington Northern, Pullman Standard 2600 Covered Hopper

2 $12.00 44m
Athearn N Scale CSX (Ex B&O) #225836 PS 2600 2-Bay Cove

Athearn N Scale CSX (Ex B&O) #225836 PS 2600 2-Bay Cove

1 $18.81 2h 20m
ATHEARN 10020 F59PHI DALLAS

ATHEARN 10020 F59PHI DALLAS

- $49.95 4h 50m
ATHEARN 10021 F59PHI DALLAS

ATHEARN 10021 F59PHI DALLAS

- $49.95 4h 52m
Athearn N 1 160 Ford C New York Central Tractor Truck

Athearn N 1 160 Ford C New York Central Tractor Truck

- $11.00 5h 39m
LOT OF 5 ATHEARN 50FT OVERLAND SOUTHERN PACIFIC DAYLIGHT PASSENGER CARS

LOT OF 5 ATHEARN 50FT OVERLAND SOUTHERN PACIFIC DAYLIGHT PASSENGER CARS

5 $71.99 6h 25m
N Athearn Roadway Semi Truck Tractor Ford C

N Athearn Roadway Semi Truck Tractor Ford C

-
$9.99
$15.00
9h 47m
Athearn N Cotton Belt #79511 40' 2600 CF Airslide Hoppe

Athearn N Cotton Belt #79511 40' 2600 CF Airslide Hoppe

- $15.81 10h 4m
N scale Athearn Bowman Dairy #138 40' Pfaudler Milk Car: Version Two 11642

N scale Athearn Bowman Dairy #138 40' Pfaudler Milk Car: Version Two 11642

-
$6.99
$10.99
10h 33m
Athearn N ESLJ #2 Weathered 50' FMC Offset Double Door

Athearn N ESLJ #2 Weathered 50' FMC Offset Double Door

- $14.81 11h 16m
Athearn N Scale EL #21354 ACF 2970 2-Bay Centerflow Cov

Athearn N Scale EL #21354 ACF 2970 2-Bay Centerflow Cov

- $15.81 11h 33m
N Athearn 12191 Canadian Pacific Tractor & Trailer

N Athearn 12191 Canadian Pacific Tractor & Trailer

- $20.00 13h 19m
Athearn N Chessie WM #604952 ACF 2970 2-Bay Centerflow

Athearn N Chessie WM #604952 ACF 2970 2-Bay Centerflow

- $17.81 13h 53m
Athearn N Bombardier Coaster Coach(x3) & Locomotive #3001

Athearn N Bombardier Coaster Coach(x3) & Locomotive #3001

1 $75.00 14h 49m
Athearn N Scale BNSF #406269 ACF 2970 2-Bay Centerflow

Athearn N Scale BNSF #406269 ACF 2970 2-Bay Centerflow

- $17.81 15h 43m
Athearn N RTR Bay Window C-50-9 Caboose,  SP #4764 ATH23265

Athearn N RTR Bay Window C-50-9 Caboose, SP #4764 ATH23265

- $24.89 1d 1h 10m
Athearn N RTR Bay Window Caboose,  Chessie B&O #904065 ATH23257

Athearn N RTR Bay Window Caboose, Chessie B&O #904065 ATH23257

- $24.89 1d 1h 10m
Athearn N RTR Bay Window Caboose,  Chessie C&O #904098 ATH23258

Athearn N RTR Bay Window Caboose, Chessie C&O #904098 ATH23258

- $24.89 1d 1h 10m
Athearn N RTR Bay Window Caboose,  WP Bicentennial #474 ATH23256

Athearn N RTR Bay Window Caboose, WP Bicentennial #474 ATH23256

- $24.89 1d 1h 11m
Athearn N RTR Bay Window C-50-9 Caboose,  SP #4728 ATH23263

Athearn N RTR Bay Window C-50-9 Caboose, SP #4728 ATH23263

- $24.89 1d 1h 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.