Joshua Lionel Cowen was a douche who tried to cut corners because he was too cheap to insulate the wheels on his trains like American Flyer did, so he created an abortion with his three rail Frankenstein and refused to correct it even after cheap durable
plastics became available. So for the last century, hundreds of thousands of people have been stuck trying to decide if they want the smaller more obscure American Flyer trains, which are still very cool, or the larger more attractive sized locomotives
with these ridiculous looking three rails coming out their ass. And no, painting the middle rail black does not "solve" the problem. If Lionel made bicycles, they would all be tricycles. If they made cars, the cars would all have an extra fifth wheel
in front, right in the middle, because Joshua was the king of dorks. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the guy had a third ear somewhere on his head, probably right in the middle of his forehead. Dork. Thanks for a legacy of greed and stupidity. Now
we're stuck with his BS third rail. BTW creating a balloon turn around with three rails still presents a bunch of problems, and Lionel never made a decent switch for that type of layout.

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