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Track, Accessories & Scenery

50 Wholesale Tree War Scene Train Model N Z Scale 1:350

50 Wholesale Tree War Scene Train Model N Z Scale 1:350

 - $0.96 33m
25 PC Model Train RR Trees Railroad Park Street Layout

25 PC Model Train RR Trees Railroad Park Street Layout

 - $0.99 36m
Woodland Scenics 2147 Train Mechanics (6) N Scale

Woodland Scenics 2147 Train Mechanics (6) N Scale

 - $12.49 38m
Woodland Scenics 1462 Track-Bed Strips 2' (36) N Scale

Woodland Scenics 1462 Track-Bed Strips 2' (36) N Scale

 - $17.99 45m
N Scale MILITARY "Beta" Battle Tank

N Scale MILITARY "Beta" Battle Tank

- $5.00 52m
Woodland Scenics 1482 Scenic Ridge Lightweight Layout Kit N Scale

Woodland Scenics 1482 Scenic Ridge Lightweight Layout Kit N Scale

 - $359.99 55m
Woodland Scenics 2149 General Public (6) N scale

Woodland Scenics 2149 General Public (6) N scale

 - $11.74 1h 12m
N Scale Black Operations Commuication Truck

N Scale Black Operations Commuication Truck

 - $8.99 1h 15m
N Scale Bert's Garage

N Scale Bert's Garage

 - $7.99 1h 15m
N Scale AM Coffee Delivery Truck

N Scale AM Coffee Delivery Truck

 - $8.99 1h 15m
N Scale Blue and Gray Ford Tractor

N Scale Blue and Gray Ford Tractor

 - $6.99 1h 15m
Woodland Scenics 2152 Farm People (6) N Scale

Woodland Scenics 2152 Farm People (6) N Scale

 - $12.49 1h 24m
Woodland Scenics 2133 Lovers (6) N Scale

Woodland Scenics 2133 Lovers (6) N Scale

 - $11.74 1h 24m
Woodland Scenics 2138 Hobos around Campfire (5) N Scale

Woodland Scenics 2138 Hobos around Campfire (5) N Scale

 - $12.49 1h 24m
Woodland Scenics 2121 Pedestrians Standing (6) N Scale

Woodland Scenics 2121 Pedestrians Standing (6) N Scale

 - $11.74 1h 26m
Kato 20-450 N Scale Plate Girder Bridge Red

Kato 20-450 N Scale Plate Girder Bridge Red

 - $7.89 1h 26m
Kato 20-430 Red N Scale Single Track Truss Bridge

Kato 20-430 Red N Scale Single Track Truss Bridge

 - $10.89 1h 26m
Kato 20-431 Green N Scale Single Track Truss Bridge New

Kato 20-431 Green N Scale Single Track Truss Bridge New

 - $10.89 1h 26m
MRC TECH II DUAL POWER 2800 TRAIN POWER PACK TRANSFORMER HO-N-Z SCALE

MRC TECH II DUAL POWER 2800 TRAIN POWER PACK TRANSFORMER HO-N-Z SCALE

 6 $36.00 1h 29m
Woodland Scenics 2122 Policemen (5) N Scale

Woodland Scenics 2122 Policemen (5) N Scale

 - $11.74 1h 31m

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.