A History of MR

The History Of Model Railways

The floor trains.
Archaeological digs in caves in France, Hungary and other European centres have produced many, many carvings of animals. The purpose of these carvings in bone and ivory was possibly to do with animism (the idea that animals have some sort of 'magic' that makes hunting them easier). However, it may also have been connected to the idea of a three dimensional representation of reality done solely for the physical and mental satisfaction of doing it in your spare time and as an aspect of aesthetics. In short, art for art's sake.

Much later, in the Middle Ages (around the 11th to the 15th centuries) some children's' toys took the form of carved animals at work, such as horses with carts and farm animals. These were not mass-produced, but individually carved and in the case of the carts, each piece was made and fitted together, including the wheels. In later centuries, toys continued to reflect social reality, in the form of coaches and horse, lead soldiers, dolls, dolls' houses and so on. In short, childhood playthings helped the child to assimilate the world through miniature versions of it that they could manipulate, both passive and violent - dolls and soldiers.

Toys that model reality need certain things besides reflecting the adult world. For example, to be manipulated they need to be small enough for a child to handle. They also need to fit in a child's space, such as a play room, or in the early days, the nursery.

By the time of the Industrial Revolution in England - from about 1750 onward - because the roads were so bad a new solution had to be found to solve the problem of moving raw materials in bulk. The answer was canals. Large loads were put onto barges and taken between industrial centres initially as raw materials and after processing, as finished goods. The problem with this system was that because of the terrain, locks had to be constructed to go 'uphill' and 'downhill'. Additionally, they were very slow in an age that increasingly needed fast turnover between materials in and goods out.

It was about this time (the early 1750s) that the power of steam was captured. The first steam engines were stationary and were used in coalmines to pump water. It did not take too long to take the idea of compressed steam pressure as a prime mover in a stationary form and adapt it to a moving machine - the locomotive was born.

Before railway development, the features of the line determined the choice of motive power: horses for the level, stationary engines for gradients and gravity alone for the downward gradients. (Wheeled wooden trucks on rails had been around for quite a while before locomotives.)

The world's first locomotive was built in 1804. It was more an experimental engine than one intended for production and was unusual in that a man walking beside it controlled it. In spite of the fact that steam was the wonder of the age, steam was feared. Because of this, the steam locomotive was still an object of suspicion and boiler explosions were especially feared. This deterred their use; however, beggars could not be choosers because industry needed a machine to overcome the undulations in the terrain.

When foundries turning out massive tonnages of metal needed a means of moving such big loads, the 'iron way' seemed a profitable proposition: the missing factor was the motive power. Samuel Homfray, iron master at the great Pen-y-darren foundry in Wales laid a wager with a friend for 500 guineas that Richard Trevithick (1771 - 1833) could build an engine that would haul a 10 ton load over the 9.5 miles (15km) of tramway between Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon.

Trevithick built the first steam locomotive by placing a boiler on a cart and giving it a sort of internal cylinder similar to those used in pumping water out of mines. The piston drove a heavy external flywheel that carried the motion over top and bottom dead centre and which drove the wheels through gearing. On 21 February 1804, the locomotive hauled not only its 10 ton load but some 60 people who jumped on to the wagons to make the first railway journey. The journey took 4 hours and 5 minutes and Samuel Homfray won his bet. By the late 1820s, the railway as we know it was well established.

As early as 1830 the first toy trains were available. Many of the early makers of toy trains began in small workshops in back yards, cutting, curving, folding and painting pieces of tin plate which provided toys for the market. The trains that came into existence under these conditions were seldom accompanied by track. This development had to wait until larger manufacturers moved into the market and started producing boxed sets that would include half a dozen curved rails to form a circle, a locomotive and a carriage or two.
The fact that the very first toy trains had no rails was probably because the manufacturers had still not found a simple and satisfactory way of producing them cheaply. The minds of the manufacturers and the retailers of the time were still concentrating on the simple toy, which was often sold by peddlers at fairs and markets. Currently, these naive toy trains, designed for use simply on the floor or with rails, reach astonishingly high prices in large international sales in Europe and America, reflecting their appreciation as the childhood equivalent of works of art.

There is a notion that if something is a toy, it is simple. So, the application of the term 'toy' to a train which is wooden and pull along is really no different than pulling along a simple wooden truck. However, a train that runs on a track has about it a certain implicit complexity. For instance, the rails meant that certain elementary rules of the real railway had to be followed. The addition or withdrawal of a coach by using a siding and a signal demanded that some thought be given to the way operations are carried out at stations; where accessories should be placed (the danger of locating them too close to the rails, for example), the tractive power of the locomotives, the simultaneous running of two trains on the same track and so on. This put them well on the way toward being more than a toy when adults became interested in the additional complexity and saw the possibility of building model trains as a hobby.

The tinplate years between the wars.
We saw above that model trains are nearly as old as their prototypes and that they were, in the form of floor trains, exclusively for children. By the end of the nineteenth century with the improvement of manufacturing techniques and mass production, model train sets were becoming more sophisticated.

After the 'floor trains' and the 'pulling trains' came the enduring 'ring of rails' which, even today, can still be found in boxed train sets. Although an obvious starting point for a child's layout, the circular configuration too often remained nothing more than that. It is possible that because of the tedium of watching uneventful negotiations of such a circuit, many children never felt any desire to make the layout more interesting by the addition of points, sidings and loops. This basic layout was perpetuated for more than a century all over the world, its simple design repeated again and again by many manufacturers.

After a 'primitive' stage, the track, following the example of the real railway, adopted the formula of rails and sleepers. The rails were made of bent tin-plate and were equipped with a pin which went into the hole in the next rail to form, by piecing together and wedging, a continuous line of rails. The first rails with pins had two pins placed at the very end of the piece of track. Later they moved on to a new arrangement which consisted of placing only one pin at one end and one on another, which allowed each curved part to be placed in either direction. This was called 'convertible track'. Convertible track opened new possibilities in circuit configurations. However, it was only with a good supply of straight rails (added to the two or four straight rails in the top of the range boxed sets) that one could begin to think seriously of making an elongated oval, or a figure of eight, in spite of the fact that neither of these remotely resembled anything to be found on the prototype! So by around 1890-1900 more adventurous layouts of this kind became possible, and even common, in toy trains. All the brands on the market at that time offered a choice of curved and straight rails, junctions (for the figure-of-eight-shaped route) and signals.

In Germany from about 1879 onward toy trains reached a fairly high level of sophistication, especially those made by the Bing brothers - Ignace and Stefan and Marklin. The oldest known catalogues of the Bing brothers date from the end of the 1890s. The production of trains on rails to form a complete system began only between 1895 and 1898. The gauges used by Bing were 35 mm, 48 mm, 54 mm, 67 mm and 75 mm, making respectively what collectors call '0', '1 " '2', '3' and '4'.

These trains were in a very Germanic style and were reminiscent of the Bavarian or Prussian railways. The brothers Bing very quickly took advantage of the fact that Germany was very advanced technically as far as toys were concerned and that they could export all over the world. They made numerous models, primarily for the British market, but also for France and America. They also made station buildings.

Bing stations are among the finest in the world. Carefully thought out and complex in their architecture, they have the 'monumental' style of German stations of the 19th century, a style showing the extent of the Bing brother talent for making colourful, attractive toys. The company also offered an endless number of accessories for the stations: cranes, signal- boxes, viaducts, depots, turntables, signals, and so on. An endless number of working goods wagons also enhanced the appeal of the sets. However, it has to be said that Marklin stations were pretty good too.

Theodore Friedrich Marklin founded the brand name in 1859 in Goppingen in Wirttemberg. Assisted by his wife Caroline, he produced toys for girls. Widowed in 1866, Caroline continued the work single-handed, but died shortly afterwards leaving the running of the firm to her sons Karl Eugen and Wilhelm. It was the manufacture of toys for boys, particularly cars and then trains, that brought them success and fame. The firm dominated the market from the beginning of the 20th. century and set world standards which were to become the 'III' 'II' 'I' and '0' gauges - this was thought by some to be Marklin's golden age.

Many brands of toy trains made do with rather straightforward stations, often a simple frontage of printed metal, sometimes a fold-up printed metal structure with four walls and a roof. Conversely, the Marklin 'Bahnhof' (station) was given a monumental grandeur that required at least the name 'Hauptbahnhof' (grand station) to prepare the purchaser for its elaborate design. Such stations are much sought after even today and are extraordinarily beautiful: they were hand-painted, with painstaking detail and include doors which open and interior lighting (some- times with a candle!), platform shelters, ticket offices and direction indicators. These stations were not small either. One of these models had a base that measured 87 by 84 mm. and it stood 500 mm high.

In Britain, Frank Hornby launched his brand of toy trains in 1920. Windsor station was the first station made for his company's '0' gauge trains in 1923. The tinprinted station was mounted on a large platform, enamelled in pale blue-grey (cream after 1929), with the platform edge being lined in white. In 1924, real hinged doors were fitted (before this time, they were only printed. Conversely, in 1926, the windows ceased to be cut out of the tin, but instead were delicately tinprinted. The passengers and some of the motor cars were tinprinted, too, after they came back in to fashion in the early 1930s.

By 1936, a choice of names was offered for the Hornby station:Wembley, Ripon, Bristol and Margate were available, instead of just the original Windsor. After the Second World War, simpler versions were made, and the station disappeared altogether from the catalogue in 1957.

Other railway buildings were also manufactured. The engine sheds Engine sheds Number 1 (smaller model) and Number 2 (a huge piece, said to be the largest tinprinted toy ever made) were introduced in 1928. Except for the base, all the parts were tinprinted: sides, ends, doors, rooves, chimneys and so on. The Number 2 engine shed was the length of two straight rails (about 20 inches or 500mm) which was long enough for any Hornby locomotive of the time. Number 1 was a shorter version for 0-4-0 engines only. There were double-hinged doors at each end and pieces of track could be fitted to the base. Some versions even had electric lights. These sheds were complicated to manufacture and were assembled on wooden bases. They were not made again after the Second World War.

Signal boxes Signal boxes are the most original (i.e. true to prototype) railway buildings and were an essential addition to any model railway. Hornby had two tin printed models: Number 1 had a printed-on staircase; Number 2 had an outside staircase and an opening roof. Number 2 appeared first, in 1924 and is designed for use with the 'Horn by Control System' for working points and signals from a distance (this latter system appeared in 1926). The building is very realistic: the proportions are right and it appears very realistic. Unti11928, the signal cabin was also named Windsor.

When Frank Hornby launched his brand of toy trains in 1920, he chose to model the tank engine. There were two reasons for this: one was the fact that the railways of Britain at this time were increasingly using tanks, so potential buyers recognised the prototype. The other was that he did not need to produce a separate tender, which cut his costs considerably.

The first Hornby tank engine was called Zulu in the catalogue. This name owed much to the absence of 'political correctness' of those days. The loco was given the name simply because the locomotive was black like a Zulu, with no stripes or markings. It was a small locomotive with only four wheels. This little tank engine proved hugely attractive and Hornby went on to make it in a considerable variety of liveries and with the markings of British railway companies: red or black for the London Midland & Scottish Railway; and different greens for the Great Western Railway, the London & North Eastern Railway or the Southern. Later it was marketed in the colour schemes of the French railways for the French subsidiary of the brand. However, the models of the French companies had colours that were sometimes inaccurate: green for the Nord, red for the Paris, Lyons & Mediterranean, black for the Etat (State) and brown for the Est (East). It didn't much matter however, because the locomotive was totally inaccurate anyway since it was based on clean English outlines devoid of extraneous pipe-work or accessories.

At Christmas 1929, the range of large tank engines was reworked and took the name No.2 Special Tank Locomotive. It stemmed from the 4-4-2 locomotives with a separate tender, from which it took the axle arrangement, losing the rear bogie in favour of a single trailing axle. The last 4-4-2 tanks were produced in 1949, and the only tank engines remaining in the catalogue were the small 0-4-0 locomotives which lasted up to the end of production in gauge '0' in 1968.

The last 50 years
There are three main customers for model railways: children, modellers and serious modellers. Obviously the 'toy' train market has always been with us, indeed that is where the hobby had its beginnings in the nineteenth century. Once adults entered the market, there was a need for more realism in the models and less of the look and feel of toys about them. Many manufacturers realised that there was an untapped market and profits to be made by catering to the needs of adult modellers. However, it is all very well for the railway hobbyist to have his wish list based upon his favourite prototype, but for the manufacturer, there are geographically a host of prototypes to chose from, which is a problem. For example in Europe there is British, French and German, as well as Swiss, Italian and so on. In America, there is the large number of private railway companies, as there used to be in Britain before 1923.

The next question that had to be faced was what scale should mass-produced railways for adult modellers be? In all of this it has to be remembered that manufacturers are out to make a profit in a commercial environment, not cater to the tastes and whims of dilettantes who love railways. To some extent, for those 'serious' modellers who strive for total accuracy (is there really any such thing?) there will always be plenty of scope for kit firms to produce models of the more unusual items that would prove uneconomic for the major manufacturers to produce. Additionally, for scratchbuilders there are many that prefer models that they have built themselves, regardless of what may be available commercially. However, because they cannot take advantage of the economies of scale, (look for instance at the cost of Victorian locos) the prices of such kits tend to favour the wealthy.

For the adult before the war, scratch building was all that was available. They chose their prototypes, got the drawings and hit the workshop. The only limit on what they finally produced after many hours of work them was a product of cost of materials and their skill range. Many became purists, (rivet counters) however when it came to commercially available ready to run stock accuracy and detail, their desire for super detail flowed onto manufacturers who, to some extent in the early years, compromised between the super detail required by the purists and the basic needs of the toy market. Today, of course, super detailing is back with a vengeance.

Such is the nature of the adult market in general and the railway enthusiast in particular when it comes to modelling, that their interests tend to be very narrow. They will only buy models that fit their needs, usually determined by the geographical prototype that interests them, such as British, American and so on. This also extends to prototype traction such as steam, diesel or modern electric.

Until the early 1970s the range of 'off the shelf' models were, with certain exceptions, so small that it was impossible for the 'average' modeller to specialise in the same way that the scale modeller could. Increasingly over the last three decades, sufficient models have become available to enable such modellers to build a realistic model railway using off the shelf locos and other rolling stock, buildings, human figures, structures like bridges and so on in the prototype of their choice and the scale of their choice within certain limits with regard to scale.

The locomotives that are currently available are able to have DCC chips inserted and indeed the most recent have the chips put in at the time of manufacture. A survey of letters from modellers to British modelling magazines shows that to some extent manufacturers are listening to those who have been asking for many years for British pre-amalgamation (i.e. prior to 1923) prototypes in their very individualistic liveries. Modern prototypes in Britain, such as Virgin, EWS and so on are also catered for, not just locomotives, but also coaches and specialised wagons. Here in Australia, where the line from Adelaide to Darwin has recently been completed and The Ghan in its ran its maiden trip only a couple of months ago, diesel locomotives are appearing at exhibitions (AMRA Box Hill March 2004) in the Ghan livery, complete with coaches.