Joshua Lionel Cowen’s little factory

e*Train Issue: May 2004 | Posted in: Collecting, Combined Eras

By Mike Stella GHS;AA;BSEE;MSLT;Esq.

It seems it is not enough that Lionel has seen fit to copy, reintroduce, reproduce, and reissue just about everything ever made by Joshua Cowen. The latest trend now is to offer models of buildings that were or are located on famous toy train railroads. I cannot wait for the Frank Ellison series as I have always been his biggest fan.

*This picture of the Lionel Showroom Layout shows where the J.L.C. Manufacturing Co. was located.*

One building that I have always liked is the J.L.C. MANUFACTURING CO. that appeared on the famous 1949 Lionel showroom layout. The exact location of this factory can be seen just behind the main station. The “Bantam” book on model railroading utilized much ‘help’ from Lionel and might have even been written by Lionel editors.

Included in the pages were plans on how to construct a factory based on the showroom model. I cheated a bit and bought a kit that was first produced by Kober. When I finally got around to constructing it, I decided to put in a wooden floor made from individual popsicle sticks and also make the roof removable to look inside and see what those Lionel boys are doing.

I made a 1/4″ scale mockup of “Lionel Lines” (the Largest Lionel Railroad on my Block) and mounted it inside the 1/4″ scale J.L.C. factory. You can see that either my Lionel Railroad is either pretty large or the Lionel Factory is actually quite small.

*The folks at Lionel gave instructions on how to build your own factory.*

Maybe a combination of both? Anyway, in a short while I will be rebuilding a part of my railroad to incorporate this factory as well as about a dozen detailed buildings while replacing a town of Plasticville. It may then come to pass that the Largest Lionel Railroad on my Block has the Largest 1/4″ model of a Lionel Railroad! Sometimes I just confuse myself?

Shop Amazon and Help TCA

TCA members who shop at Amazon.com can have each of their normal purchases generate a modest payment to TCA! And it won’t cost you anything!

The Train Collectors Association is now a participant with AmazonSmile, which is a special website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com.

The difference is that when customers shop at AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com), the AmazonSmile Foundation donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by customers.

The process is simple. Just search for and select Train Collectors Association when you sign up and shop at smile.amazon.com.

You use your regular Amazon.com username and password, but when you log in to smile.amazon.com, you’ll see that you are supporting TCA with your purchases:

Note that if you just log in to the regular amazon.com, this benefit does not operate.

There are no costs to either you or TCA, but TCA benefits!

This is a great way for TCA to earn extra cash to offset costs, so sign up today to help support TCA.

* Note: TCA is not a party to any of your Amazon transactions, and does not endorse any products or vendors.

Helping TCA with your ebay purchases when you use PayPal

If you’re an ebay user and have a PayPal account you use to make payments, you can designate a donation for TCA when you’re checking out — any amount, small or large.
If you’re a regular seller on ebay, you can pre-designate a percentage of your sales to be donated automatically in your name to TCA as long as the purchaser pays with their PayPal account.

In both cases, you will receive a donation receipt from the PayPal Giving Fund, and enjoy applicable tax advantages.

How to do it:

Click on the image above, or use this link. This will take you to ebay, where you will see the following page (log in to ebay if you are not already):

This offers TCA as an option. Click on the “Add to My Charities” button where indicated with the red arrow. Thereafter, when you make a purchase, at checkout you will be offered the option to make a donation to TCA in any amount of your choosing. Small amounts add up, larger ones are great! It’s always up to you!

The option will appear at the lower part of your checkout page, something like this:

If you’re a regular seller on ebay, you can allocate a portion of your sales proceeds to be donated to TCA. Look at the green arrow marked “Optional” above to see how to do it. Details on how ebay calculates the donation may be read here. This is a wonderful way to share the financial benefits of your hobby with the organization that promotes it!

An added benefit to TCA is that these donations are not subject to normal processing fees, so that makes your donation work harder!

* Note. TCA is not a party to any of your eBay transactions, and does not endorse any products or vendors. PayPal issues the receipts to you for your donation, not TCA.

Joshua Lionel Cowen’s little factory

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