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Atlas

ATLAS HO Coalveyor Double Rotary End Gondola NPPX1500

ATLAS HO Coalveyor Double Rotary End Gondola NPPX1500

1 $19.99 17m
Atlas HO Scale SD-35 Western Maryland #7433 w  DCC,  NIB

Atlas HO Scale SD-35 Western Maryland #7433 w DCC, NIB

-
$99.99
$104.99
21m
Atlas HO Scale EMD GP-40 Canadian National #9309 NIB

Atlas HO Scale EMD GP-40 Canadian National #9309 NIB

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$104.99
$114.99
21m
Atlas HO Scale,  RS36 N&W Coal Drag,  Train Set Brand New

Atlas HO Scale, RS36 N&W Coal Drag, Train Set Brand New

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$99.99
$154.99
21m
Atlas HO Scale EMD GP-40 Canadian National #9302 NIB

Atlas HO Scale EMD GP-40 Canadian National #9302 NIB

-
$104.99
$114.99
23m
RS11 RSD12       MALE UNIVERSAL   CHINA  ATLAS  HO

RS11 RSD12 MALE UNIVERSAL CHINA ATLAS HO

$0.99 41m
Custom Painted Atlas Master DCC CSX EMD GP38 CSXT #2123

Custom Painted Atlas Master DCC CSX EMD GP38 CSXT #2123

19 $66.00 50m
HO Atlas GE U23B Undecorated

HO Atlas GE U23B Undecorated

1 $45.00 54m
Atlas SCL L&N Family Lines NE-6 Caboose CRR #1076 New

Atlas SCL L&N Family Lines NE-6 Caboose CRR #1076 New

5 $7.71 58m
Lot of 2 Atlas HO Nickel Silver Wye Turnouts

Lot of 2 Atlas HO Nickel Silver Wye Turnouts

7 $18.50 58m
HO Atlas GE U33C U36C  Undecorated

HO Atlas GE U33C U36C Undecorated

2 $36.00 1h 43m
HO Atlas GE U33C Milwaukee Road

HO Atlas GE U33C Milwaukee Road

- $35.00 1h 57m
HO Atlas GE U33C Great Northern

HO Atlas GE U33C Great Northern

- $45.00 2h 10m
Atlas blueprints for 10 tru track layouts book

Atlas blueprints for 10 tru track layouts book

1 $0.99 2h 11m
HO Atlas GE U33C U36C Clinchfield

HO Atlas GE U33C U36C Clinchfield

- $45.00 2h 14m
Atl 833 Code 100 snap track 18" radius curve NIB

Atl 833 Code 100 snap track 18" radius curve NIB

- $0.99 2h 15m
HO Atlas EMD GP40 Conrail

HO Atlas EMD GP40 Conrail

- $59.00 2h 20m
ATLAS 1403-2 NYC 4650 3-Bay Hopper 886801 new

ATLAS 1403-2 NYC 4650 3-Bay Hopper 886801 new

- $19.00 5h 54m
ATLAS 1507-1 STALEY Pressureaide Hopper 51924 new

ATLAS 1507-1 STALEY Pressureaide Hopper 51924 new

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$19.00
$23.95
6h 4m
ATLAS 1506-1 SOO Pressureaide Hopper 101067 new

ATLAS 1506-1 SOO Pressureaide Hopper 101067 new

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$19.00
$23.95
6h 4m
ATLAS 1504-2 CORN PRODUCT Pressureaide Hopper 51124 new

ATLAS 1504-2 CORN PRODUCT Pressureaide Hopper 51124 new

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$19.00
$23.95
6h 4m
ATLAS 1464-1 TENNECO 4650 3-Bay Hopper 28021 new

ATLAS 1464-1 TENNECO 4650 3-Bay Hopper 28021 new

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$19.00
$22.95
6h 4m
ATLAS 1462-2 LINCOLN GRAIN 4650 3-Bay Hopper 1066 new

ATLAS 1462-2 LINCOLN GRAIN 4650 3-Bay Hopper 1066 new

1 $19.00 6h 4m

Train news

  • TRAINS HISTORY

    Prehistory There have been models and toys of trains for as long as there have been real railways. Indeed some early models of locomotives were made first as sales promotional tools for the early railways, even if they later might have become playthings. During the Victorian period toy and model trains and locomotives fell into a number of categories there were the live steam engines, expensive and only for the wealthy, there were pull along trains in all shapes, sizes and materials, penny toys in lead and tin and latterly clockwork engines. The steam and clockwork engines might be intended to run on the floor, or a simple track assembled by the user, but there was no real sense of system about these trains. Most of these toys were made in Germany. Britain and France tended only to make the better class of steam engine. There was an indigenous US industry, with considerable use of cast iron rather than tinplate. The Real Beginning The defining event in toy train history was the launch by Marklin in 1891 of the first complete system of trains. While the first models were derived from earlier products, what Marklin introduced was a series of standard track gauges, ready to use track sections for those gauges, and a range of locomotives, rolling stock and accessories to match. Now you could have an initial train set, but continually add and expand till your miniature railroad empire was complete - which it never was.

     

    This was of course good for the toy manufacturer, indeed this is possibly the first example of the expanding range, with items at various price points Christmas, birthdays, parents and relations and pocket money sized, which is one of the basic features of most successful toys since.

     

    These first Marklin models were made in three gauges called 1, 2 and 3, logically enough. Painted and soldered tinplate was the main material, and clockwork the driving power. And they were crude. But the range was clearly a great success. So Marklin expanded and improved its range, after a few years adding a fourth, small gauge O. The range of accessories was greatly expanded. Other German toy makers introduced competitive products, most importantly Bing then probably Germanys, and hence the worlds, largest toy maker. Despite the odd divergence these makers generally adopted the same standards as to gauge as Marklin, while developing new production techniques, in particular the use of lithographed printed tinplate, allowing much cheaper and more colorful items, at the expense of some robustness.

     

    By the start of the 20th century other methods of propulsion were being applied too, in that live steam and electric powered models had taken to the toy train rails, though clockwork was still the prime mover. More importantly the first ranges of Marklin and Bing and others were growing and improving each year, and as with the rest of the German toy trade, was strongly export oriented, thus spreading toy trains world wide. The main markets were Britain, France and their empires and the US. Britain had no indigenous toy maker to compete with, nor really had France, but there was home based competition in America. Britain however had something else - model railways

     

    Model Railways

    The hobby of model railways can really be said to have been founded in the U.K. at the start of the Edwardian period. There were already active amateur model engineers, building live steam locomotives and with a keen interest in the real railways. One of the embryo suppliers to this group was a young man, W J Bassett Lowke. He saw the potential of using the German toy trains, particularly the track and mechanisms, with bodies rather more accurate as to prototype and selling not as a toy to children but rather to adult enthusiasts. And he used the services of another young man, Henry Greenly, as a designer of these models. Greenly, among other things, established a system of scales using the Marklin  gauges as the starting point. He also founded the first periodical devoted to model railways. And thus from the beginning the hobby of model railways was in part a toy, and in part the effort of amateur and professional model makers coexisting, sometimes comfortably and sometimes not.

    Bassett Lowke tended to use the services of Bing and Carrette for its own models, but of course once the idea of British outline models was established the German makers started to produce models for sale by other importers, for example Marklin for the Gamages store in London.