Toy Electric Train Set ( 1901 ) | Cowen invents a timeless toy for young and old

 As long as railways have existed, there have been model versions. Initially, the trains were just pull-along, but they gradually developed to use miniature steam or clockwork engines. By 1891, the German Company Marklin was selling a wind-up locomotive together with an expandable track system. Then, in 1896, Carlisle and Finch produced the first electric toy train powered by batteries.

Scale model of a railway station at the Model Railways Exhibition in London in 1948

American entrepreneur Joshua Lionel Cowen ( 1877-1965 ) had a long-term interest in trains. At the age seven he had whittled a locomotive out of wood, which exploded when he tried to fit it with a steam engine. Years later when he was researching products for his manufacturing company in New York to sell, he spotted a push train in a shop window and had the idea for a toy train that could run without supervision on a track. He initially envisaged it is an eye-catching window display for a toy shop. In 1901 he fitted a small motor under a model of a train and the Lionel "Electric Express" was born. The first versions had a battery like the Carlisle and Finch engines, but they were soon replaced by trains that ran on electricity. Over the next decade, Lionel made more extravagant train sets incorporating different engines, passenger cars, stations, bridges, and tunnels.

By 1909, many different sizes of toy electric train existed. In a smart marketing move, Cowen's company began to shell their trains as standard gauge, forcing the other American companies to adopt their scales. In England, although Frank Hornby's Meccano set came out the same year as the Lionel train, Hornby did not produce his electric train set until 1925.