The poor old Hornby M3 of 1927 has suffered a mechanical breakdown and is being lifted off the tracks by two cranes. It must be during the war as an American crane has come to help. These items are all prewar, note the size difference between the Lionel crane at left and the Hornby crane at right.
Modern toy train in the old style - Ace 4.4.0 loco reminscent of a Hornby of the 1920s, but updated and electric motor powered.
A group of Hornby No.0 locos. 6 volt electric powered at front, clockwork behind. All from the first half of the 1930s.
Brimtoy (UK) held the licence from Disney to make Disney toys in the UK. In prewar times they made a Mickey and Minnie railway handcar, postwar they made a Mickey and Donald Handcar. About 1950 they made a Gus & Jaq handcar. These mice were from the Disney animated movie `Cinderella` and had been designed by the famous Disney designer Ward Kimball (who was also a great railroad fan and had a fabulous toy train collection). These handcar sets I believe are very uncommon.
Billerbahn train. Representing narrow gauge European continental crosscountry trains.
Hornby first type M series locos of the second half of the 1920s. My first loco is included in this picture. A couple have had their original clockwork motors replaced with the late M0 type. (note the finer wheels on the left loco) One shows much loss of tinprinting as it had once been in a fire! If only we could know the stories these little bottom of the range locos could tell. A couple of passenger carriages of correct style are included. .
Cheap toys - Marx on middle track. Loosely based on the Fairbanks-Morse "C- Liner". Kansas City Southern Raillroad colour scheme. On front track is an EMD F type diesel made by Plaything of Japan. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad colour scheme, but lettered for the New York Central!. Both about 50 years old.
Link to old Hornby advertisement dated December 1926.
CLICK HERE
Link to special Bassett-Lowke feature
Link to my other website which is solely (well almost!) on subject of New Zealand-made toy trains. Note - former NZ toy trains site now replaced with these new webpages as from August 2001.
LINKS TO OTHER TOY TRAIN SITES
New Zealand Hornby Railway Collector`s Assn
Lew Schneider`s site primarily of rare Hornby
Hornby Railway Collector`s Assn
Walt Hiteshew`s Marx Trains site
The All-Gauge Model Railroading Page
Train-Jouet Ancien En `0`- Sylvain Verrier`s site from France
Dave`s Trains, Inc. Specialising in Lionel from the 1940s,1950s,1960s.
Train99.Com - The Toy Train Information Source.
The Train Collector`s Society. UK based society - Any make, any gauge.
Binns Road - A great toy train site from Scotland, also includes toys other than trains.
Fritz Rinderknecht`s tinplate trains site, from Switzerland.
Dutch Hornby Railway Collector`s Association.
Ben`s site of 0 gauge & larger toy trains.
Phatcat`s Model Train Website.
Jorg`s Billerbahn site from Germany.
Glenn Ball`s great artistry of toy trains illustrations.
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