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Walthers

Walthers-N #55030 Streamlined 10-6 Sleeper  Undecorated

Walthers-N #55030 Streamlined 10-6 Sleeper Undecorated

$24.95 2h 57m
Walthers N Scale C&O 10-6 Sleeper (#2)

Walthers N Scale C&O 10-6 Sleeper (#2)

$21.95 3h 32m
Walthers N Scale C&O 10-6 Sleeper

Walthers N Scale C&O 10-6 Sleeper

$21.95 3h 34m
Walthers # 3808 State Line Farm Supply N Scale MIB

Walthers # 3808 State Line Farm Supply N Scale MIB

$34.98 4h 35m
Walthers # 3249 Blast Furnace,  N Scale,  MIB

Walthers # 3249 Blast Furnace, N Scale, MIB

$140.00 4h 50m
N CHURCH & DWIGHT 3-PAK 2 BAY COV AIRLIDE HOPPERS  DV N

N CHURCH & DWIGHT 3-PAK 2 BAY COV AIRLIDE HOPPERS DV N

$23.96 7h 13m
Walthers N-Scale 70' GATX Arcticar Cryogebnic Refer

Walthers N-Scale 70' GATX Arcticar Cryogebnic Refer

- $5.99 7h 17m
Walthers N-Scale 70' GATX Arcticar Cryogebnic Refer

Walthers N-Scale 70' GATX Arcticar Cryogebnic Refer

- $5.99 7h 20m
Walthers N-Scale BU Operating Oil Pump # 933-2614

Walthers N-Scale BU Operating Oil Pump # 933-2614

$79.95 8h 24m
N Scale 40' Hi-Cube Container - Mitsui OSK - Walthers

N Scale 40' Hi-Cube Container - Mitsui OSK - Walthers

$4.98 9h 35m
N SCALE 1 160 R190 U.S. MAIL VAN 2 PACK

N SCALE 1 160 R190 U.S. MAIL VAN 2 PACK

1 $8.00 10h 23m
Assembled Walthers N-Scale Union City Roundhouse

Assembled Walthers N-Scale Union City Roundhouse

14 $15.50 10h 43m
N Scale -COAL MINE PROCESSING & LOAD OUT FACILITY- KIT

N Scale -COAL MINE PROCESSING & LOAD OUT FACILITY- KIT

$59.95 12h 11m
N  Northern Pacific  w Bulkheads 54' Flat Car  2-Pack

N Northern Pacific w Bulkheads 54' Flat Car 2-Pack

$21.99 12h 47m
N scale Pennsylvania  54' Flat Car  2-Pack

N scale Pennsylvania 54' Flat Car 2-Pack

$21.99 12h 58m
N scale Conrail 54' Flat Car  2-Pack

N scale Conrail 54' Flat Car 2-Pack

$21.99 13h 6m
N SCALE Proto EMD GP38-2 Norfolk Southern #5385

N SCALE Proto EMD GP38-2 Norfolk Southern #5385

- $65.00 13h 41m
N SCALE Proto EMD GP38-2 Louisville & Nashville #6022

N SCALE Proto EMD GP38-2 Louisville & Nashville #6022

- $44.00 13h 56m
N -ARCHED STEEL RAILROAD BRIDGE - HUGE 24 in SPAN - KIT

N -ARCHED STEEL RAILROAD BRIDGE - HUGE 24 in SPAN - KIT

$99.95 14h 1m
N - DOUBLE TRACK CUT STONE TRUSS BRIDGE  ABUTMENT-RESIN

N - DOUBLE TRACK CUT STONE TRUSS BRIDGE ABUTMENT-RESIN

$9.95 14h 1m
N SCALE- FOAM SAFETY CRADLE -- DAMAGE FREE WORK SPACE

N SCALE- FOAM SAFETY CRADLE -- DAMAGE FREE WORK SPACE

$16.95 14h 6m
N SCALE Proto EMD GP38-2 CSX Transportation #2771

N SCALE Proto EMD GP38-2 CSX Transportation #2771

- $65.00 16h 2m
ABSOLUTE BEST synthetic train oil for Walthers,  LQQK!!!

ABSOLUTE BEST synthetic train oil for Walthers, LQQK!!!

$5.99 19h 6m

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.