Lionel Trains have become a hot collector’s items all over the world. Several websites, shows, and clubs have been dedicated to this particular brand of toy trains, and it all started with an American inventor of sorts, by the name of Joshua Lionel Cowen in the very early 1900s. 

Cowen was an imaginative man who began his education at the College of the City of New York in 1893. Three years later he joined the company of an early dry cell battery manufacturer called Henner & Anderson. Continuing with the trend of batteries, he then took a job at the ACME Lamp Company as a battery lamp assembler. Minor success came in the form of his first patent 1899 for a device that ignited a photographer’s flash. Because of this, he received a defense contract from the U.S. Navy to produce mine fuses. 

Ever the businessman, Cowen went on to found the Lionel Manufacturing Company in New York City with his partner, Harry C. Grant. At first, the pair had no concepts or items to manufacture until Cowen found himself stranded in his office in the hot Manhattan heat. He invented an electric fan for consumers but the fascination and demand soon fizzled due to the cooler weather of the fall. 

Again looking for ideas, Cowen was walking through the streets of New York when he came across a store window with a small push train adorning the display. He envisioned a decorative train that ran on a track in a circular shape, with no need of human interference. His first train, the Electric Express, was introduced in 1901 as a display piece for toy stores. 

With the introduction of the battery powered Electric Express, Joshua Lionel Cowen created a legend. After many new and innovative train models were created, now for residential use, Cowen renamed his company Lionel Corporation. The corporation became the largest manufacturer in the world and Cowen retired from toy making and sold his share in the company to his nephew, Roy Cohn, in 1959.