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Why model a railroad ?
Half O scale layout previously displayed at the museum Shortly after the begining of railroads, came the interest in model railroads. Full sized railroads were too big and expensense for household use, so reduce sized models were made of the real railroad equipment. Many of the initial finely detailed models were manufactured by instrument companies for patent submissions. A few models were made by individuals for their own amusement. Sizes varied subject to the practicalities valued by the builder. It is in this context that declaring scales as inventions with dates becomes folly. Rather the historian is left to find first mention of a scale or ratio in the model magazines or newspaper accounts of the era. What is presented here, is a good faith effort to identify moments of commercial manufacture which increased availablity of a particular size of train to the point that it became noteworthy in quantity and amount of indivduals modeling in that size.
Half O scale layout previously displayed at the museum A Brief History of Model Railroad Sizes
The size of the models varied significantly and were largely dependent on what toy manufacturers thought they could sell. Early toys of the 1800's were manufactured in wood, later overlaid with printed paper, and finally in cast iron. Most of the early toys were push-pull in nature, commonly enhanced with a draw string attached to the front of the locomotive.
As manufacturing technology improved, propulsion became incorporated into the locomotive. The earliest forms were clockwork, e.g. wind-up; then later live steam, as well as, friction momentum. Many of these were sold without track, meant to be played with on the floor. A few manufacturers offered circles of track, but only suited to running their own offering. Surprisingly, just about all these methods survived until the late 1960's.
It is the German firm Marklin who is credited with introducing sectional track systems. Marklin took a simple approach to most everything. It offered sizes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. It's probably too early to call this scale, because adherance to an exact size was marginal. These were toys, very nice toys indeed.
Propulsion was either clockwork or live steam. Size 5 was the biggest and size 1 the smallest. Customers could choose a size and buy items similarly proportioned. Size 1 was smaller and thus more affordable, which translated into greater production quantities of size 1 in comparision to larger sizes. The standardization of train sizes greatly enhanced the hobby. Sets of locomotives, cars, and track could be added to with subsequent purchases. Additionally, accessories of minature buildings, ticket offices, tunnels, signals, signs, and crossing gates could be purchased. Catalogues were created and they make fascinating study of the variety of manufacturing. Many of the minature buildings featured chimneys and the interiors could be illuminated with candles. Even the semaphore signals featured little oil pots, that could be filled and their wicks ignited. The painting and enameling on these trains and accesories was done by hand, and the effects are exquisite. It's one of the many factors that has contributed to their esteemed reputation in toy train collecting.
Of course, playing with fire, matches, denatured alcohol, liquid parafin, and candles produced more than one household tragedy; which resulted in experimentation with electricity as a new means of toy train propulsion. Honestly, it wasn't much safer. Household electricity was uncommon in the 1900's, and electrical house current standards not set. Many of the earliest electric motors ran on 110 volts or higher, which meant derailments resulted in high current direct shorts. If one could image the hazards, the 'safer', 'scientific', methods included mixing quart jars of battery acid and running on low voltage. Railroads were not safe for children, and model railroads were not safe either! If you were a young model railroader, you had to be very courageous in those days; your limited choices of peril were to be maimed by fire, shocked by electricity, or burned by battery acid! Take notice and proceed at your own peril, and thankfully they did...
"O" gauge rails are 1-1/4" apart Whoever heard of 'Zero'?
It wasn't long after that, that Marklin came out with something smaller than one, which it called 'zero'. We know of zero, because it persists today as 'O' (pronounced 'oh'). O as we know it today became a very popular size because of it's modest occupation of real estate, meaning the curves fit reasonably within the the boundaries of a four by eight sheet of plywood. But in the 1900's it convienently trimed the base of a Christmas tree. And within that concept, little Christmas villages started to adourn the surrounding real estate. These little empires lasted only into January, at which point, everything was boxed until next year.
Nuremburg Germany featured several prominent toy maufacturers who specialized in tin manufacturing, particularly, Bing, Carette, Marklin, Plank, Schoenner, and later Fandor. Early pre-war model train manufacturing originating in Germany in the 1900's was dominant in Europe, England, and even the United States with imported trains.
It's difficult in these early years to say that "O" had a particular scale or size other than a dimension of gauge as measured as the distance between rails. Locomotives and cars of one manufacturer weren't necessarily proportioned similarly to another. The couplers which interconnected the cars weren't standardized either. This meant trains ran segrigated by manufacturer, or loosely coupled by improvised methods.
Another distinction of this period was the electric motors which featured field windings on the horseshoe shaped magnets surrounding the armature of the motor. Initially locomotives only ran forward and that sufficed the simplist sets. Later trip latches were added to reverse the flow of electrons within the motor armatures, and locomotives could now reverse direction. How train motors responded to electrical current would now become a critical aspect in running toy trains. Compatablity of trains would no longer be resolved by track gauge, it also included whether the locomotives were powered by Alternating Current (AC) or Direct Current (DC); and whether the track had two rails or three rails.
It is particularly important to note that not everyone in the early 1900's understood the mysteries of electricity. In fact, most households lacked electric services. If service was installed, it often was a single line circuit of metal conduit mounted near the door with a switch on the batten and plaster wall, then upward inside the conduit to the ceiling and then center to a light socket. There were no outlets as we think of them today. So to plug in the transformer, one took out the bulb and screwed in the train transformer receptacle, and this was how the early train transformers were powered.
Equally primitive was the track system. Three rail track, consisting of two metal rails connect by a metal track tie and an insulated third rail offered the advantage that the tracks could be configured to form a loop and not result in an electrical short. Additionally, railroad cars, their wheels, and axles could all be manufactured of metal, without concern that the left wheel needed to be insulated electrically from the right wheel. Again let's remind ourselves that our modern fondness for plastics was reserved to the minimal use of Bakelite. So it made sense, not to complicate matters with insulating materials except for flat pieces of fiber board which served to hold motor brushes and electrical pickups.
"STD" gauge rails are 2-1/8" apart What we need are 'Standards'
If toy train sizes weren't already confusing, (listed as 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0...) it would be up to a newcomer to re-define American toy trains. Joshua Lionel Cowen was a young man who patented a little electric fan motor. Sales in the early 1900's for electrical items in pre-electrified America were slow, so he reconfigured the motor to power a motorized window sales display. What appeared to be a rolling cigar box, ran on two rails on an oval of track with rails spaced 2-7/8" apart. unknowingly, this modest display evolved into his big success. The display was sold, and shortly thereafter, its appeal as a motorized train set took off.
Not long afterwards, Joshua Cowen introduced 'Standard gauge'™ trains. 'Standard' rails were spaced 2-1/8" apart and were anything but standard. One theory about how this came about is that European manufacturers often expressed their gauge by measurements of rail centers rather than the inner surfaces of rail edges, thus 'Standard' gauge was a measurement error. Another theory is that it was pure American marketing genius. By declaring an arbitrary gauge as standard, and trademarking Lionel™ trains as 'Standard', it set the precedent to argue that all other trains were inferior because they were not 'Standard'.
'Standard' gauge trains, and 'Wide' gauge trains which became the non-trademarked way to refer to them, enjoyed great populartity from 1905-1939. Manufacturer's included The Lionel Corporation™, Ives Toy Trains™, American Flyer Mfg. Co.™, Dorfan™, Boucher™, and General Manufacturing™. Early toy trains were adorned in polished brass, bright nickel metalic finishes, and colored enamels.
In 1925, Wide gauge saw a new entrant, American Flyer Mfg. Co. of Chicago Ill. American Flyer offered a green No. 4000 0-4-0 Boxcab electric locomotive with 4039 Baggage car, 4040 Pullman, and 4041 Observation car. In 1925 it followed up with a red No. 4019 0-4-0 Boxcab electric locomotive with 4039 Baggage car, 4040 Pullman, and 4041 Observation car. Full page color ads in the Saturday Evening Post December 5, 1925 proclaimed "All American - The Boys of America Designed This Train". Unlike the enamel painted Lionel trains, the cars by American Flyer were painted by printing on sheet metal using a technique called lithography. This allowed American Flyer to produce printed effects such as window frames, metal seams, rivets, and shadow details, as well as numbering and lettering. This manufacturing technique led to the use of the term 'tinplate', synonymous with sheet metal formed toy trains.
Slowly the pre-1926 palette of Lionel colors brightened and the subdued black, deep green, and mauve (desert tan) were replaced with bright red, apple green, and orange. The large gear which was positioned behind the flange of the locomotve wheel was reduced in size and the oversized flangeway of track switches modified to conform to railroad practice.The period of 1927-1939 are considered the golden years of pre-war Lionel train manufacture. A large variety of locomotives, rolling stock, and accesories were offered in a wide assortment of enamel colors. Prestigous sets sought by collectors today include the legendary Blue Comet set, the Green or Brown State set, and the green Stephen Girard set. Of course those were the top of line sets that children dreamed of. On the more affordable level, the No.8 or No.10 electric locomotive pulled two or three 300 series passenger cars.
Ives competed aggressively with offerings of it's Black Diamond, and Prosperty Special. Ironcically the effects of the 1929 stock market crash would have a lasting impact on Ives, and the once prominent toy manufacturer would see it's toy train manufacturing business divided as spoils between Lionel and American Flyer. Standard gauge trains would soon fade from their prominence as smaller gauges and scaled trains became more popular. Standard gauge would remain dormant until the resurgence of big trains was rekindled by LGB and modern reproductions introduce by Williams, McCoy, Mikes Train House, and Lionel.
"American OO" has rails 19mm apart What could be smaller than zero?
By 1935 playing with toy train was evolving into larger collections and a growing sophistication amongst hobbists. Model Railroader began publishing a monthly magazine devoted to the new hobby of model trains. New terms were being tossed about, including a special term, 'scale'. Scale was the concept that real objects are proportionally replicated in minature according to a precise ratio. Up to 1935, references in toy trains commonly identified trains by gauge, this new method would refine train sizes by proportion.
Lionel's Scale Hudsons of 1938 in O scale, & OO Scale. By 1938, nearly all the toy train manufacturers were offering something smaller than 'zero'. The size was called "OO" which patterned after British practice of duplicating letters to indicate sizing.
Lionel seized the 1938 scale momentum annoucing it would offer a scale Hudson and rail car line in 'O' and minatured in 'OO'. The 700E and 700T Scale Hudson was probably the most highly detailed offering of the era. An equally scaled and detailed box car, hopper, tank car and caboose rounded out the offering.
Lionel's OO offering was an identical beautifully minaturized version of it's O scale product, minaturized to the scale of 1:76.2 running on 19mm gauge track. The locomotive and cars intially were offered in a scale and semi-detailed version for three rail track, They also were offered in scale and semi-detailed versions for two rail track. All versions used alternating current and reversing switch triggered by an abrupt pulse of half wave rectification.
"European OO" has rails 16.5mm apart Marklin also jumped into the OO game, but unlike Lionel, it's concept was to offer 1:76.2 trains running on 16.5 gauge track. It was interesting in a sense because 16.5mm gauge is what is used today for half zero.
Half-O "HO" has rails 16.5mm apart" apart The emergence of Half-O
HO or Half-O emerged just before the begining of World War 2 as the model train industry began making scaled model trains rather than toy minatures. At the time, Alfred Carlton Gilbert had purchased the American Flyer Company of Chicago from William Ogden Coleman and moved the machinery to Connecticut. The intent was to make a smaller sized train, more affordable, more practical, and more to scale than previous toy train products using metal diecast methods. The O gauge and wide gauge offerings would slowly be displaced by HO scale and later S scale model trains.
Interestingly for 1938, A.C. Gilbert company choose the New York Central Hudson as the flagship locomotive, along with a boxcar, reefer, gondola, and caboose. The HO scale at 1:87.1 was smaller than Lionel's OO 76.2 and it ran on 16.5 mm spaced rails which were narrower than the 19 mm spaced rails used by Lionel OO. The locomotive also ran on direct-current rather than alternating current. This allowed the locomotive to be reversed in direction by reversing the polarity of the direct current in the rails. The track was manufactured out of sheet metal and closely resembled Marklin's OO track, altered by removing the center rail and isolating each rail from the track bed. Gilbert's HO product line would evolve by increasing the variety of locomotives, cars, track, accessories, and standardized HO couplers.
Other manufacturers and importers quickly joined the ranks of those offering Half-O products. Notable among domestic manufacturers would be Gordon Varney (Varney), Bill Athearn (Athearn), and John Tyler (Mantua/Tyco) who were producing a sizable variety of HO scale trains.
Likewise, overseas firms like Fleischmann (Germany), Rivarossi (Italy), Revell (Germany), Roco (Austria), and Cassida (Italy) would offer modified european trains or newly engineered American rolling stock for sale as imports into the American market. A significant number of these products were imported and rebranded under names like Associated Hobby Manufacturers (AHM), General Hobby Corporation (GHC), and Polk's Hobbys.
By 1958 HO scale was quickly displacing O scale from it's predominance in scale model railroading. Hobby magazines, department store catalogs, and the most favorite of all, Christmas "Wish Books" featured three rail LIONEL / Marx trains along with a page or two of HO scale offerings. The smaller size, greater detail, increased realism, operating reliability, reduced cost, and variety of product was quickly contributing to the scale's populartity and sales.
"OOO" gauge rails are 9mm apart Can motors be made smaller than HO?
It wasn't long after that, that Marklin came out with something smaller than one, which it called 'zero'. We know of zero, because it persists today as 'O' (pronounced 'oh'). O as we know it today became a very popular size because of it's modest occupation of real estate, meaning the curves fit reasonably within the the boundaries of a four by eight sheet of plywood. But in the 1900's it convienently trimed the base of a Christmas tree. And within that concept, little Christmas villages started to adourn the surrounding real estate. These little empires lasted only into January, at which point, everything was boxed until next year.
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