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Ho Trains Store Hornby For Sale Used Hornby New Hornby

Hornby

Hornby - Vintage Shell Lubricating Oil Tank Car - Ex!

Hornby - Vintage Shell Lubricating Oil Tank Car - Ex!

- $8.00 10h 30m
Hornby HO Lighted Pullman 1st Class Parlour Car NIB

Hornby HO Lighted Pullman 1st Class Parlour Car NIB

- $20.00 1d 3h 45m
Hornby HO Set of 4 British Southern Railway Coaches NIB

Hornby HO Set of 4 British Southern Railway Coaches NIB

2 $37.00 1d 3h 56m
Hornby HO 2 BR Inter-City Mk.III Railway Coaches MIB

Hornby HO 2 BR Inter-City Mk.III Railway Coaches MIB

2 $15.50 1d 4h 32m
Hornby HO Set of 3 British Royal Train Coaches MIB

Hornby HO Set of 3 British Royal Train Coaches MIB

4 $35.00 1d 4h 41m
Triang 3576 Green Short Gondola Thin Lettering

Triang 3576 Green Short Gondola Thin Lettering

- $2.93 1d 9h 19m
Two British open wagons from Wrenn (like Hornby)

Two British open wagons from Wrenn (like Hornby)

1 $11.00 2d 31m
   Three British open wagons from Wrenn,  like Hornby

Three British open wagons from Wrenn, like Hornby

1 $24.00 2d 36m
Wrenn Passengr Fruit Van in Red,  Box,  Excellent

Wrenn Passengr Fruit Van in Red, Box, Excellent

1 $9.00 2d 43m
Wrenn British Rail Paracels Van in Blue,  W5012,  box

Wrenn British Rail Paracels Van in Blue, W5012, box

1 $9.00 2d 51m
Wrenn Watneys Beer Van,  Red,  W5011

Wrenn Watneys Beer Van, Red, W5011

- $9.00 2d 56m
Hornby HO Set of 4 British Railway Coaches NIB

Hornby HO Set of 4 British Railway Coaches NIB

- $35.00 2d 4h 20m
Hornby HO 2 BR Coronation Scot  Coaches MIB

Hornby HO 2 BR Coronation Scot Coaches MIB

- $15.00 2d 4h 55m
Hornby HO 3 British Virgin Railways  Coaches NIB

Hornby HO 3 British Virgin Railways Coaches NIB

1 $25.00 2d 4h 59m
Vintage Triang Hornby Passenger Car #R444  w Box

Vintage Triang Hornby Passenger Car #R444 w Box

1 $9.99 2d 5h 57m
Vintage Triang Hornby Diesel Locamotive #R55 CN  w Box

Vintage Triang Hornby Diesel Locamotive #R55 CN w Box

1 $9.99 2d 5h 57m
Vintage Triang Hornby Observatory Car #R445  w Box

Vintage Triang Hornby Observatory Car #R445 w Box

1 $9.99 2d 5h 57m
Minix No. 9 Simca 1900

Minix No. 9 Simca 1900

- $4.50 2d 10h 27m
HORNBY 69567 BR RAILWAYS TANK LOCOMOTIVE 0-6-2

HORNBY 69567 BR RAILWAYS TANK LOCOMOTIVE 0-6-2

- $19.99 3d 6h 47m
WRENN RAILWAYS METAL 2-6-4 GWR GREEN TANK LOCO- BOXED!

WRENN RAILWAYS METAL 2-6-4 GWR GREEN TANK LOCO- BOXED!

4 $76.00 3d 7h 4m
Triang Blue Transcontinental Baggage Car Gray Roof

Triang Blue Transcontinental Baggage Car Gray Roof

- $4.89 3d 9h 10m
Triang R137 Cement Car

Triang R137 Cement Car

- $3.91 3d 9h 13m
Triang Orange Operating Hopper

Triang Orange Operating Hopper

- $2.93 3d 9h 16m

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.