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Rapido

Rapido CN TurboTrain Coach #260 NEW

Rapido CN TurboTrain Coach #260 NEW

5 $37.00 20h 25m
Rapido CN TurboTrain Club Car #225 & Cafe Car #200  NEW

Rapido CN TurboTrain Club Car #225 & Cafe Car #200 NEW

1 $41.95 20h 25m
Rapido CN TurboTrain Club Car #227 & Cafe Car #202  NEW

Rapido CN TurboTrain Club Car #227 & Cafe Car #202 NEW

1 $41.95 20h 25m
Rapido HO Scale,  TurboTrain,  New Haven,  Brand New

Rapido HO Scale, TurboTrain, New Haven, Brand New

-
$329.99
$338.99
20h 47m
Rapido SP Sunset Ltd LW 10-5 Sleeper # 9210 NIB

Rapido SP Sunset Ltd LW 10-5 Sleeper # 9210 NIB

$49.97 1d 19h 6m
HO RAPIDO GREAT NORTHERN Light Coach #1115

HO RAPIDO GREAT NORTHERN Light Coach #1115

$36.00 1d 23h 14m
HO RAPIDO GREAT NORTHERN Cafe Bar Lounge #1146

HO RAPIDO GREAT NORTHERN Cafe Bar Lounge #1146

$36.00 1d 23h 15m
HO RAPIDO GREAT NORTHERN Cafe Bar Lounge #1145

HO RAPIDO GREAT NORTHERN Cafe Bar Lounge #1145

$30.00 1d 23h 17m
Rapido NEW HAVEN TurboTrain SET w DCC+Sound FREE SHIP

Rapido NEW HAVEN TurboTrain SET w DCC+Sound FREE SHIP

$374.97 3d 11h 18m
Rapido Trains UP Duplex Sleeper Western Plains HO

Rapido Trains UP Duplex Sleeper Western Plains HO

$46.95 3d 22h 12m
Rapido Misprint CENTRAL ILLINOIS Express Baggage # 1831

Rapido Misprint CENTRAL ILLINOIS Express Baggage # 1831

- $24.99 4d 15h 15m
Rapido MP B&O The EAGLE 10-5 Sleeper "Cascade Sound NIB

Rapido MP B&O The EAGLE 10-5 Sleeper "Cascade Sound NIB

$47.97 4d 19h 9m
Rapido HO Scale,  TurboTrain,  New Haven,  Brand New

Rapido HO Scale, TurboTrain, New Haven, Brand New

-
$299.99
$319.99
5d 9h 51m
HO Rapido Baggage Express NORTHERN PACIFIC NP #225

HO Rapido Baggage Express NORTHERN PACIFIC NP #225

-
$24.99
$39.99
5d 13h 52m
Rapido NP Loewy Green 73' SS BAGGAGE-EXPRESS Car #213

Rapido NP Loewy Green 73' SS BAGGAGE-EXPRESS Car #213

$49.96 5d 18h 10m
(T5) Rapido HO #103027 GN Café Bar Lounge NIB NR

(T5) Rapido HO #103027 GN Café Bar Lounge NIB NR

- $29.95 5d 18h 32m
Rapido HO Scale,  TurboTrain Canadian National,  NIB

Rapido HO Scale, TurboTrain Canadian National, NIB

-
$329.99
$339.99
5d 19h 7m
Rapido VIA RAIL TurboTrain Intermediate Car #256 NIB NR

Rapido VIA RAIL TurboTrain Intermediate Car #256 NIB NR

- $29.98 5d 19h 14m
Rapido VIA RAIL TurboTrain Intermediate Car #261 NIB NR

Rapido VIA RAIL TurboTrain Intermediate Car #261 NIB NR

- $29.98 5d 19h 17m
Rapido VIA RAIL TurboTrain Club + Cafe Cars 226 201 NIB

Rapido VIA RAIL TurboTrain Club + Cafe Cars 226 201 NIB

- $58.98 5d 19h 29m
HO Rapido LW Milwaukee Road MILW #543

HO Rapido LW Milwaukee Road MILW #543

- $24.99 5d 23h 56m
HO Rapido LW Milwaukee Road MILW #546

HO Rapido LW Milwaukee Road MILW #546

- $24.99 5d 23h 56m
HO Rapido LW Milwaukee Road MILW #544

HO Rapido LW Milwaukee Road MILW #544

- $24.99 5d 23h 56m

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.