A Look at Lionel Trains - The World's Best Model Toy Trains

Like many of life's wonderful inventions, the model				off and running. Josh being the astute business
train was discovered in a simple way. The				man that he was, soon realized that if all the
discoverer was a fellow by the name of Josh				manufacturers used the same gauge, it would be
Lionel Cowen. You guessed it, the name of the				to all their advantage. The gauge is referring to
famous Lionel Trains. It was nothing elaborate just				the distance between the rails of the train tracks.
a very simple half train car that he motorized.				To get everyone to comply to his way of
That's all it took to start a passion for the avid				thinking Josh not only used his personal name, but
train lovers by way of becoming collectors.				his business name as well. To do this he simply
The model train business is not a small industry				called the gauge the Lionel Standard.
by any means. It is very popular throughout				If we were to compare this gauge to the models
America, Australia and Europe as well. It cannot				of today, it would be the G scale. This really
be forgotten that at the time of Josh's invention,				wouldn't have a practical use in the home because
not every home even had electricity. The first				they are far to big to set up properly.
"electric" trains as they were promoted, were				By 1915, electricity had become a common
really battery operated. In comparison to what				commodity in most home. This meant that now
we call model trains today, the originals were				the model trains could be powered by this source.
much larger by comparison.				There we have it. The beginning of the personal
At around the same time that Lionel trains were				home use trains. Needless to say, the industry
being manufactured there were others getting				boomed from that time on and for many years
into the industry and making different styles,				to come.
scales and gauges. The model train industry was