Trains 

The explosion of rail networks in the mid 19th century saw the beginnings of toy train manufacturing. 

The first toy trains that appeared were push-along toys and were made of wood. From the 1870s wooden trains were replaced with painted tinplate and contained a self-driven steam engine.  Later they used friction driven or a clockwork mechanism.

		The German maker Marklin was an early producer of toy trains. They created three different gauges of trains with matching tracks to run on. These were numbered 1, 2 and 3. This creation saw the standardisation of toy train gauges made by other firms such as Bing and Carette so that they could all produce train sets that could be added to. A fourth gauge was created by Marklin a few years after this. This was a smaller gauge and was numbered 0.
Model train made by Bing, TY000386

In the early 20th century the British manufacturer Bassett-Lowke imported Bing trains and made British modifications. They also produced an even smaller 00 gauge. They also developed the trix twin range, which allowed two trains to be running on the same track at slightly different speeds.

The most famous British manufacturer of toy trains is Hornby. They started producing clockwork trains in the 1920s after having a long period of success with Meccano construction toys. Hornby produced their first electric trains in the mid 1920s. Their popularity continued until 1940 when all train production ceased during World War II. In 1946 production resumed and they began to produce coaches made of plastic. By the 1960s Hornby trains became less popular and the company was taken over by Triang (Lines Brothers).

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