September 8: Lionel Trains

Joshua Lionel Cowen (Cohen), who invented and marketed the most successful model electric trains in the world, died on this date in 1965. He built his first toy train at age 7, with a small steam engine that exploded in his parents’ kitchen. He sold his first electric train at age 24 in 1901, as a store window display; it proved so popular that by the following year, the Lionel Corporation was in business as a toy manufacturer. By the early 1950s, Lionel was the largest toy company in the world. Soon after, Cowen sold it to his great-nephew, Roy Cohn, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s right-hand man. (In 1995, rock musician Neil Young was part of an investment group that took over Lionel; Young has designed innovative soundscapes, landscapes and a wireless control system for electric trains, motivated in part by his desire to share the hobby with kids who are developmentally disabled. Young has two sons with cerebral palsy.) In 2006, the Lionel electric train was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, and in 2007, Cowen was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

“America’s railroads were at the zenith of their importance in the early years of the twentieth century, and Cowen’s miniature locomotives and cars showed a fascination with the machinery that made America work.” —National Inventors Hall of Fame

Watch a video about Neil Young, “train nerd,” and how a project he built for son led to his involvement with Lionel Trains: