Toy Model Trains and Collecting
While toy model trains may seem, at first blush, to be purely kid’s stuff, those who are familiar with this hobby will immediately understand that it is nothing of the sort. Train sets, in fact, come in scales which are wholly unsuitable for children and which take a level of manual dexterity and patience to assemble which is only present in adults.
Some of these sets are very expensive and, when the hobbyists who put them together finish the job, the detail is remarkable, approaching museum-quality reproductions of the trains that once criss-crossed the nation.
Toy model trains come in various scales. The most common scale is HO, which corresponds to about .14 inches equaling 1 foot on a real train. This size is popular for several reasons. It is a happy medium between the “O” size trains more suitable for young people and the N, Z and T scale trains which are among the smallest on the market.
This allows a hobbyist to lay an impressive amount of track in a small area and to enjoy assembling an intricate and accurate landscape through which the train can travel. These trains, of course, do travel!
Toy model trains are powered by electric current. In most American models, this is a DC—direct current—flow which is much safer than the alternating current that emanates from wall sockets. The mechanisms which power these trains are incredibly simple.
To go faster, one simply increases the amount of power being delivered to the train. To reverse direction, one reverses the polarity. Of course, in keeping with the spirit of being a train engineer and not an electrical engineer, the controls are not marked in terms of the changes they make to the electric flow but, rather, according to the changes they make to the direction and speed of the train.
Toy model trains come in various levels of complexity. Ready-to-Run trains are the simplest and the best ways to get young people involved in the hobby. These trains are put together in the box and one simply assembles the track and gets them on their way.
Shake-the-Box train kits are a bit more complex but just enough so that most individuals will get some satisfaction out of assembling the various components. Craftsman kits are the most complex. These are only appropriate for the most knowledgeable, and patient, model railroaders.
Toy model trains tend to be a hobby that’s picked up in childhood and carried on into adulthood. While children may just appreciate the “cool” factor of the devices, adults oftentimes become more concerned with recreating history through their models and with making very accurate and detailed trains.
These trains can be worth a good deal of money to collectors, especially for particularly rare types in proper working order. Some of the sets that model railroaders create correspond to scale miles of track with depots, towns, switching yards and other facilities that work to create a very realistic environment.
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