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Archive for the ‘Toytrains’ Category

Collecting antique toy trains is a hobby and interest pursued by many. Perhaps the interest began as a small child, when they were given their first toy train set. In a world with much stress and pressure, toy train collectors use their hobby as an escape from the “real world”. It gives them an opportunity to go back to their childhood and simply imagine a world full of these tiny replicas. But along with toy train collecting comes photographs of antique toy trains. Some people collect the photographs to add to their walls of the rooms where the toy trains are on display. Others use the photographs as a way of scouting out their next toy train to add to the collection. There are several resources available to find great photographs of antique toy trains.

One place to find these pictures is the internet. If you already have an idea of what you are looking for, this is a great method to locate that perfect photograph. (Not to mention it’s free of charge!) Start by looking in Google for your photograph. Type in the name, model, or company that makes the toy train you’re looking for a picture of. You will be provided with a list of articles, documents, and photographs on the internet of antique toy trains that match your search criteria. Search through the pictures and if you have a printer, simply add photo paper and print the picture. There you have it – an easy and free way of getting a great picture of your antique toy train.

Once you begin to move beyond basic background information, you begin to realize that there’s more to Toytrains than you may have first thought.

Sometimes things aren’t always that simple, especially when trying to locate a photograph of a genuine antique toy train. If you didn’t have any luck with the internet, your next step is to locate books with pictures of antique toy trains. An excellent example of a book containing lots of photographs and useful information about antique toy trains is “The American Toy Train” by Gerry Souter. This book contains everything any collector would want to know about antique toy trains, including information on American Flyer, Lionel, and Marx brand toy trains. You’ll find incredible photographs of toy trains made by these manufacturers that can easily be made into framed pictures suitable for display.

Another great resource for finding photographs if antique toy trains is O’Brien’s Collecting Toy Trains: Identification and Value Guide. This book was developed by Richard O’Brien, an expert in antique toy collecting. This book contains the history of antique toy trains, and covers popular manufactures such as those mentioned above along with several others. The book is full of beautiful photographs of numerous antique toy trains along with helpful captions underneath each picture.

Finally, you can find photographs of antique toy trains in several magazines that focus on toy train collecting. Classic Toy Trains magazine is a monthly publication that contains the latest news in this old-fashion hobby. You’ll find useful information regarding history as well as current auctions, conventions, and shows, as well as an amazing array of bright colored photographs of antique toy trains.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit my latest venture: GVO to claim your $1 trial membership!

When you hear the phrase, “I love toy trains,” most of the time you wouldn’t think of a store dedicated solely to toy trains. But that’s exactly what that phrase means in New Buffalo, Michigan. New Buffalo serves as home to the infamous I Love Toy Trains, a toy train wonderland that is every child and toy train collector’s dream. The store carries Thomas and Friends wooden toy trains and accessories and several unique items from Lionel Corporation.

If the name of the store sounds familiar to you, it’s because it was derived from the popular children’s video series. The series, “I Love Toy Trains” is an animated show that allows children to use their imagination in the world of toy trains. And that’s exactly the concept the store used in finding a name for their establishment – a place where children and adults can go and just let their imagination run free among the hundreds of toy trains and items for sale.

I Love Toy Trains is settled in a 1930′s style home on the bottom floor. You’ll find an assortment of classic, antique, and new toy trains all together under one roof. Several models of common names in the toy train industry are available at the store. For example, you’ll see some beautiful Standard gauge models from the twenties on display, and several manufactures featured include Lionel, Marx, and Williams. You can find classic and simple wooden toy trains ideal for toddlers and small children, and you’ll also find toy trains complete with operating engines and hand-painted detail for those looking to “kick it up a notch.”

Those of you not familiar with the latest on Toytrains now have at least a basic understanding. But there’s more to come.

Not only will you find everything you need to create a toy train wonderland, but you’ll also find rare and unique toys imported from Germany and Czechoslovakia. Where else can you find a duck on a bike, tumbling bunnies, or singing cowboys? I Love Toy Trains also carries several styles of railroad tracks along with accessories to make your toy train system as realistic as possible. The store carries a wide variety of trinkets ranging in price, so even if you are on a budget you are very likely to find a keepsake at a reasonable price.

I Love Toy Trains is only open three days a week, Friday through Sunday, from 11:00am to 5:00pm EST. If you’re ever visiting this area in Michigan, make it part of your trip to visit I Love Toy Trains.

In addition to the trains, there is a delightful selection of clockwork, tin-litho toys imported from Czechoslovakia and Germany – Duck on a Bike, Space Man Robot, Elephant Balancing Ball, Panda Drummer, Rocking Cowboy, Basketball Girl, and Tumbling Bunnies.

In addition to the trains, there is a delightful selection of clockwork, tin-litho toys imported from Czechoslovakia and Germany – Duck on a Bike, Space Man Robot, Elephant Balancing Ball, Panda Drummer, Rocking Cowboy, Basketball Girl, and Tumbling Bunnies.

Hopefully the sections above have contributed to your understanding of Toytrains. Share your new understanding about Toytrains with others. They’ll thank you for it.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit my latest venture: GVO to claim your $1 trial membership!

In 1936,When he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis, the doctors instructed Marshall H. Larrabee to start taking things easy. Marshall Larrabee’s response was to create Skaneateles Handicrafters. Skaneateles Handicrafters was a company that later became famous for creating wooden toy trains. Skaneateles Handicrafters was based out of Skaneateles New York.

A system of small trains that run on a wooden track are called wooden toy trains. Toy trains and their wooden tracks are over seventy years old. Collectors of old wooden trains know that the trains, cars use to hook together with the aid of small metal hooks, that has since changed. Now manufactures prefer to link the toy trains, cars with magnets, the magnets make them safer for young children who have a tendency to pop the wooden cars into their mouths. Another change toy train manufacturers have made to their wooden train sets is to make some of the parts, like wheels, out of plastic. The large non-mobile pieces, including the layout scenery, are generally crafted from wood.

The design of toy trains made from wood is very simple. Once you are past the basic structure the design can be simple or complex. The locomotive and toy trains, wooden cars are made out of carved pieces of wood. The wheels are attached. A few extra pieces of wood are attached to the carving of the locomotive in order to distinguish it from the other cars.

Most of this information comes straight from the Toytrains pros. Careful reading to the end virtually guarantees that you’ll know what they know.

The ends of each piece of the track look like the edges of jigsaw puzzle pieces. Most toy train companies who make wooden train tracks conform to the Vario-System. By sticking to this system wooden train tracks made by one company will easily connect to a piece of track made by another company. Most people refer to the Vario-system as the Brio-compatible, after the Biro company who was the most famous wooden train manufacture in the world. Interestingly enough, T.C. Timber, a company that use to be called Skaneateles Handicrafters is one of the few companies who didn’t conform to the Vario-system,

A rolling stock track is a toy train track that has wooden grooves that guide the trains wheels. Most companies make the their train tracks so each individual piece is reversible, this allows the toy train’s owner to reverse the tracks curves.

The landscaping that compliments the toy train wooden sets are typically made out plaster, plastic, and plastic resin. Landscapes featuring, deserts, the Pacific Coast, mountain ranges, and many more are available.

The worlds most famous wooden train is Thomas. Thomas the Tank Engine was a character in a series of children’s books called The Railway Series that first appeared in the United Kingdom in 1945. In 1984 Thomas made his acting debut on a TV program called Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. The show first aired in the United States in 1989. The popularity of Thomas the Tank was large enough that manufactures started selling patterned sets, for toy train’s wooden layouts.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit my latest venture: GVO to claim your $1 trial membership!

When you’re learning about something new, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of relevant information available. This informative article should help you focus on the central points.

It has been said that collecting classic toy trains in the world’s greatest hobby. Many of today’s collectors received their first toy train set when they were young, often as a Christmas or birthday present. Collectors claim that the toy train set gave them an opportunity to imagine a whole new world, one that revolved around a steaming locomotive. When they become adults, the collectors of classic toy trains claim that working on their model’s layout is a way to relive stress and escape from the pressures of day to day life.

Toy train collectors are an interesting a varied group of individuals. Some of them spend the better part of life, looking for the perfect train set creating model after model, thrilling in seeing the miniature world take shape. This type of collector pours over catalogs, agonizes at toy train auctions, and continually shops at EBay stores that sell toy trains. Others never touch a model train set, they prefer to read books on the construction and collecting of toy trains, they might even attend the toy train shows and auctions This type of collector is happy to sit back and dream about someday building a toy train model. Some collectors spend hours fiddling with the scenery, touching up the paint and designing structures, this collector thinks of their classic toy train model as an art form. Another type of classic toy train collector is fascinated by the mechanical aspect of the toy train, they spend all their time working on the mechanics of their model that they never even bother to add scenery. The thing all these collectors shares is a genuine love of classic toy trains.

So far, we’ve uncovered some interesting facts about Toytrains. You may decide that the following information is even more interesting.

Very few collectors start out designing a large layout. The average size of the collectors classic toy train layout is 4X8 feet. This starter layout is typically an HO gauge. They add some scenery and a few buildings as they go, gradually expanding on the layout. Most classic toy train collectors will say that no layout, large or small, is ever complete.

The layout of toy trains and their railroad tracks consists of scenery and landscaping. The structures are commonly made out of plastic or bits of wood. The mountains are made out of painted pieces of plaster or foam, while the rivers are created by plastic resin.

Classic toy rain collectors who are also fans of gardening can combine their hobbies with a garden railroad. A garden railroad is a toy train that runs on a rail road that is routed through your garden. A railway garden is a garden that is planted with miniature plants and landscaped to accommodate a garden railroad. People who design a garden railroad enjoy facing the same types of challenges in landscape and topography that the railroad companies face when they build new rail lines. Most railway gardens are designed with roadbed. A roadbed is a material, most often a ballast created out of rock dust and crushed rocks, that supports the track and allows for drainage. Some people who lack the time, patience, or ability to garden have been able to enjoy a garden railroad by incorporating it directly into their landscaping. Fans of garden railroads say it is a great way for the entire family to bond. Some ambitious railway garden designers have created water features in their gardens that include ornamental fish and live plants.

Of course, it’s impossible to put everything about Toytrains into just one article. But you can’t deny that you’ve just added to your understanding about Toytrains, and that’s time well spent.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit my latest site: Power Copy Club to claim your FREE membership!

The following paragraphs summarize the work of Toytrains experts who are completely familiar with all the aspects of Toytrains. Heed their advice to avoid any Toytrains surprises.

In the real world a railway that has a narrower then 1,435 mm is called a narrow gauge railway. Narrow gauge railways accommodate smaller radius curves, and are cheaper to build. They are often found in mountainous communities and in communities that don’t have enough traffic to justify the expense of building a standard gauge railway. Narrow gauge railway’s are often duplicated by toy trains.

The smallest gauge toy train available to toy train collectors is the Z gauge. The Z gauge operates on a track that is only 6.5 mm. The Z gauge was introduced by the Marklin Company in 1972, at the Nuremberg’s Toy Fair. The z gauge is so small that a layout can fit inside a standard briefcase. Some Z gauge engines weigh a little as 20 grams. It is very important that a Z gauge track be kept extremely clean, a little spot of dirt can stop the tiny locomotive in its tracks and gum up all the miniature working parts.

The most popular size toy train among toy train collectors is the HO scale trains. The train was first introduced to the market in the middle of the 1930′s but it did not enjoy immediate popularity. It wasn’t until the 1950′s that it started to attract the attention of toy train aficionados. Fans of toy trains started to realize that the the HO’s small size allowed them to add even more detail to their layouts.

Most of this information comes straight from the Toytrains pros. Careful reading to the end virtually guarantees that you’ll know what they know.

HO gauge trains are typically less expensive then some of the other size train sets. It is a large enough scale that parents with small children don’t have to worry about the pieces getting swallowed.

The typical HO toy train runs on a two rail track that is powered by a direct current. Some collectors have designed HO layouts that have a radius of approximately eighteen inches. The eighteen inch radius models a full scale radius of one hundred and thirty feet. The small radius is so tight that in real life it is only duplicated by streetcars and light rail systems. The casual toy train collector generally uses a track that is made out of prefabricated snap together tracks, the same type of track is often used by exhibitors who move their layout from one show to another. Collectors who have permanent layouts generally prefer to use a track that is constructed of hand laid sections. Some little train enthusiast prefer a flex track that is compatible with a snap together track.

The popularity of the HO gauge toy train makes it easy for collectors to locate models and parts for their little train set. The HO gauge is approximately half the size of the O gauge.

In the United Kingdom the most popular gauge toy train is the OO gauge. The OO gauge was first introduced in 192 by the Bing company. It was called the Table Runway. A 16.5 mm gauge is used for the OO toy train.