Toy train

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
Zero references, just one reference - Gary Dee 5:02 p.m., Dec 28, 2014 (CET)
Toy train from Distler with clockwork, track 0, around 1950

In contrast to model trains, the focus of toy trains is more on imitating the prototype, taking into account the greatest possible play value, than on being true to scale and detail. However, the transition from the toy train to the model train is rather fluid and has to be viewed in a historical context.

Toy trains differ from model trains as follows:

  • They are often not true to scale imitations of a model.
  • They are primarily toys for children.
  • Model trains from the early days (sheet metal trains, tinplate) can today and were then counted among the toy trains or technical toys. The early model railroad was used for play or learning purposes. The model was imitated as well as possible under the technical possibilities available at the time. An exact scale was not in the foreground.

Nowadays, model trains could also be referred to as toy trains if they are not strictly to scale or true to detail, the deviations being due to simplifications in favor of child-friendly robustness or inexpensive production. Traditionally, this is shown in shortened and simplified vehicles, as they can be found in the programs of many model railroad manufacturers and, for example, are offered inexpensively under the term Hobby.

Wooden trains

The term wooden train is understood to mean the toy trains in which, in addition to the vehicles, the rails and accessories are made of wood. There are also wooden trains without rails.

The wooden rails (mostly made of beech wood) can be quickly and easily laid to a play area with plug connections. Since the rails usually have tracks on the top and bottom (except straight lines), you can turn a left curve into a right curve by turning around the longitudinal axis. The locomotives and wagons are also mostly made of wood, with the models having abstract, but child-friendly shapes. Originally intended as a pure sliding toy, the models are also available with a battery drive and remote control. Because of its robustness and the ability to assemble and dismantle quickly, the wooden train has been one of the most popular toys for decades.

Wooden train with parts from different manufacturers

The Swedish manufacturer BRIO , for example, offers an extensive range, whose popularity is not least due to the “models” from the television series Bob the Builder . The dominance of the Brio products has meant that the competitors have adopted this quasi-standard, so that rails and vehicles usually match each other. Often, references such as “also fits Brio” are advertised.

With "Models" from the television series Thomas the Little Locomotive from Learning Curve Toys , another manufacturer captured market shares in Germany for a long time, which had been divided between the two large suppliers BRIO and Eichhorn and the smaller HEROS for a long time . Other providers besides Brio, Eichhorn (1998 bankruptcy and taken over by the Simba-Dickie-Group ) and Heros (2010 insolvent and taken over by the Simba-Dickie-Group) are Bino, Spielmaus (house brand of Vedes ), Remus (2002 insolvent), elile or Bob the Bear (house brands from Kaufhof ), Babalu (house brand from Karstadt ), The Toy Company, TopyTop, HSB - Hartung Spiele Berlin (XTOYS), tåg - Lillabo (house brand from IKEA ), Universe of Imagination (house brand from Toys' R'Us ) and Mentari Massen Toys . By 2009 at the latest ( Spiel & Idea ), Beebo and Funtoys increased their range of cheaper products and used the weak phases of Brio and Heros to position themselves. Brio was only able to present its completely new range in Germany in the second half of 2010.

Euro-play toys gmbh supplied for a short time a " Jim Knopf 's wooden train" for the German market, probably made in China and based on the illustrations by Franz Josef Tripp for the children's books by Michael Ende . In 2000, however, BRIO began to bring out "Jim Knopf Modelle", which were based on the new cartoon series.

In the USA there is also TCTimber (bought by Haba in Germany in 1980), which may have been the first to bring today's system onto the market in 1937, Maxim, Whittle Shortline Railroad, Maple Landmark and many more, some very small companies. Bigjigs has a larger range in the UK.

Tinplate Trains (Tinplate Eisenbahnen)

The sheet metal railways were largely made of tinplate . In the early days of the manufacture of toy trains, the individual parts of locomotives and wagons were soldered, later connected only in a simplified manner by means of folded "sheet metal noses".

Bing brothers, clockwork locomotive gauge 0, George the Fifth , ca.1922

Bing

→ Main article: Bing

The Bing brothers in Nuremberg produced tin toys and trains from 1879 to 1932. At their peak they had 5,000 employees, making them the largest company of its kind in Europe. In 1866 Ignatz and Adolf Bing founded a retail business. Little by little, they began to manufacture the goods they sold themselves.

Bing was the market leader in sheet metal railways in the 1920s. The locomotives were designed better and more realistic and developed in the direction of model railways. In addition to the vehicles and rail elements, there was an extensive range of accessories and buildings.

At least two other former Bing employees successfully started their own business:

  • In 1912 the pattern maker Heinrich Müller founded the company Schreyer & Co. together with Heinrich Schreyer. The name Schuco was registered in 1924; the company existed until 1976. Today Schuco replicas are manufactured and sold.
  • On June 11, 1935, Johann "Hans" Biller (1898–1980) and his wife registered their own company in Nuremberg, retroactively to May 2, 1935. Their best-known post-war product was the “Biller-Bahn”, a robust, high-quality wagon train. Hans Biller was the first to manufacture his patented toy in size 0e from 1935 to 1978. His trains were very successful because of the variety of options and ease of play. This was due, among other things, to the clockwork installed to drive the locomotives. The company went bankrupt in 1977.

Other German manufacturers of this era

Rail zeppelin SZ 12970 from Märklin

Other toy trains

LEGO railroad

→ Main article: Lego

LEGO Exhibition Railroad System in Cincinnati, Ohio (USA) 2005

The Lego railroad is part of the Lego building block system. Since the trains are put together with Lego bricks, the child can change the models and incorporate their own ideas. Compared to the wooden train, the models offer additional game options, e.g. B. Open various doors and hatches.

The Lego train was designed as an electric train from the start. The blue plastic rails of the first model series only allowed operation with battery-powered locomotives. Later a possibility was offered to retrofit two-pole busbars and the locomotives with sliding contacts for power consumption in order to enable battery-free operation with a transformer. Conductive rails were sold for a while. They could be used with a transformer without separate bus bars. Currently, only non-conductive plastic rails for battery operation and remote control are offered again. The Bluetooth standard has been used for radio transmission since 2018 , so that a dedicated remote control is no longer necessary for remote control.

For Lego duplo there is also a battery-operated electric train that fits the corresponding Duplo building blocks. The rails and vehicles of the Lego and Duplo trains are not compatible, although they come from the same manufacturer.

So-called department store railways (range railways)

Tin locomotive to wind up

In the 1930s to 1960s, but still today, there were and still are a large number of manufacturers who produced simplified toy trains in sheet metal and later also in plastic. These toy trains were supposed to set themselves apart from the model trains that were already very popular at the time by offering very low prices and, above all, to make them accessible to a broader segment of the population. One example of this is Konrad Dressler .

Most of the time, complete train sets (1 locomotive, possibly with a tender, 2 or 3 wagons, 1 track circle, 1 transformer) were sold. Accessories had to be bought separately.

Others

The Playmobil system offers similar possibilities .

For small children there are trains made of wood and plastic as push or pull toys that do not have rails. A well-known example is the LEGO Explore train.

Further examples of plastic systems with extended ranges are z. B. the track from Wader or Plarail (Tomica World) from Tomy .

Museums

Numerous German museums show a large pool of mainly historical toys. These include the Nuremberg Toy Museum and the German Toy Museum in Sonneberg.

See also

literature

  • Volker Kutschera: Small train on a long journey: 0-gauge toy trains . Edition Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-89234-684-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duden, German Universal Dictionary . 7th edition, Bibliografisches Institut, Mannheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-411-05507-4 , p. 1644.
  2. ↑ “Wikia” on Learning Curve . Retrieved March 4, 2017.
  3. ↑ History of the Simba acquisitions. Celebrate success together. Simba-Dickie-Group, accessed January 22, 2015 .
  4. ↑ site biller ground . Retrieved March 4, 2017.
  5. ↑ Information on LEGO trains . Retrieved March 4, 2017.