Does anyone know if Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman, or any other magazine or book has ever covered the history of model railroading in an article or book?
I’m looking for something that would discuss the origins of scale model trains. I’ve found a couple of interesting links on the internet, but I need to include the information in a report and I’d rather cite a book, magazine, or other print publication if at all possible (and finding an article on the subject might just prove interesting in itself since I’ve always enjoyed history of any sort). So far google hasn’t turned up any help, though maybe I’m not searching with the right terms.
Sorry I can’t reference a book or magazine, but History Channel frequently runs a history of the Lionel company which discusses not only that company’s history, but that of its early competitors such as Courier and Ives going back to the 19th century. The program has run on THC and History International. I’m not sure it would suffice as a single source for what you want, but certainly would be a valuable research tool.
you might try the Complete Book of Model Railroading. model railroading starts with toylike trains pulled on the floor, but also recall some locomakers would build scale models of their engines to show off to their prospective railroad clients
Somewhere along the way technology and toys meet up and operating trains on track happen, like the old Ives.
I don’t recall if it was MR or RMC, or even traction and models but an article on some old photos of a Ives setup in a home with the Children showing off the layout, this was probably early 20’s. Guessing on date.
I have a book called The World of Model Trains by Guy R. Williams. It has a 5 page chapter called “The Origins of Railway Modelling”, and a 24 page chapter called “The Commercial World”. This chapter talks a little about the toy train manufacturers and attributes the honor of the “man who first thought of producing model trains for sale in large quantities…” to Theodor Marklin.
You might find this book in your local library. The Library of Congress catalog card number is 79-114165. I don’t know exactly what information you are looking for, but this book might give you a start.
An article in January 1984 Model Railroader had a short summary of the early history of the magazine. The 2007 Walthers catalog had a good history of that firm which in some ways is also a history of the model railroad hobby. And something of a rarity: the February 1937 issue of MR has A History of Model Railroading that is very interesting. Linn Westcott had an editorial in the August 1975 MR “The Seven Ages of Railroad Modeling”
See if your local libraries have anything by Louis Hertz. He was the foremost scholar of the history of toy trains and tinplate.
I do not have Hal Carsten’s book 150 years of Train Models.
Feel fee to contact me offline. We’ll see you at Trainfest I hope!
There have been a number of articles in MR (some already cited) down through the years either providing an overview of some particular era in the hobby, or alternately more detailed presentations addressing the history of specific manufacturers. I am not aware of any truly all encompassing history of the hobby having been published in the past couple of decades and I honestly doubt any such volume actually exists today.
Hal Carten’s 150 Years of Model Trains, previously cited, does offer a rather disjointed account and the hobby manuals that were published by Mantua in the 40’s did a fair job of covering some of the hobby’s early history up through WWII. Probably the greatest treasure trove of information today is the NMRA history and collecting SIG’s newsletter The Reporting Mark, which has provided minutely detailed accounts of the evolution of a huge number of HO manufacturers and their products from the early 1930’s forward.