Best Toys
From the 1930s to the 1950s, the best toys that was at the top of every schoolboy's - and his dad's - Christmas list was a Hornby Train Set.
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The first Hornbys had a small 4-wheeled clockwork driven engine, tender and one wagon, made up out of specially produced Meccano parts.
The purchase price of these sets was an expensive - at the time - one pound seven shillings and sixpence.The first three sets were issued in the colours of the major railway companies of the period, 'Great Northern', Midland Railway' and 'London North Western Railway' with the initials of the companies being placed on the wagon in the set, not the engine.
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In 1923, in an effort to boost sales of the toy trains, the Meccano Company launched another train set named 'Zulu Clockwork Trains' -the name taken from a well-known passenger train that ran from Paddington to Birkenhead by the Great Western Railway.
These sets, produced for a limited time during 1923/24, were the first to be made from non-construction set materials and the forerunners of the vast range of models and accessories that followed.
The 'Zulu' tank engine was renamed the Hornby No. I Tank engine. It continued to be produced until 1941, appearing in many railway companies liveries and powered either by clockwork, or electric 20volt and 6volt motors.
These small engines sold for twelve shillings and sixpence (65p in today's money) in the late 1920s, and now change hands at anything between £120 and £500 each. To reach these prices though, the trains need to be in very good condition.
They need to be as pristine as possible, boxed is best. An important landmark was in 1924, when the 'Hornby Series' became the official trademark of these train sets. Until then they had been sold under the famous Meccano name.
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TRAIN SHOCK!
The next couple of years saw the introduction of many of the now sought-after items in the Hornby range. These included the first electric powered engine, and a model of the full-sized electric locomotive that ran on parts of the London Underground rail system, '
The Metropolitan'.The first version of this model was powered with a I20volt motor that was very dangerous if not handled correctly.The instructions in the catalogue told customers "The motor in the engine is designed to run from the main supply either alternating or direct of 100-125 volts, connection being made by an adapter that could be a lamp socket of the house supply." The instructions were later changed to either 6 volt or 20 volt, and this became the standard for many of the electric powered engines that followed.
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GOING LOCO
Many of the engines that were produced were powered either by clockwork or electric, with the electric versions being priced at more than a third above the clockwork model.This ratio is still apparent today with electric models commanding a much higher price.
At the end of the 1920's the most popular trains*were first introduced.These were listed as No. 3 locomotives, and based on the two famous trains of the period, the 'Flying Scotsman', and the 'Royal Scot'.
The early engines produced before 1930 were not intended to be prototype copies of the real thing, but merely toys, but now Hornby began to issue a series of more true-to-life models, known as No. 2 Special Loco's - in the liveries of the four major railways.
These engines were the LMS compound, (Unnamed), the Southern railway engine 'Eton', the Great Western engine 'County of Bedford' and the LNER engine 'Bramham Moor'. Many of these models are now commanding four- figure price tags.
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ROYAL MASTERPIECE
The Hornby Train set that arrived at Christmas was just a basic set which enabled a child to start building a complete model railway. The essential guide to this was the Hornby toy catalogue known as 'The Hornby Book of Trains' and containing details of the vast array of coaches, wagons, signals, stations, track work and other accessories including Dinky Toys, needed to construct a realistic layout.
What is considered as a masterpiece for best toys collector from the Hornby range of engines was introduced in 1937. A more realistic and more true-to-scale engines,
This model was based on the most powerful class of locomotives - the Princess Royals of the London Midland and Scottish Railway.
The 'Princess Elizabeth' was powered by a new and more powerful 20-volt motor and sold complete with a wooden lined presentation case.
However; it was not cheap, priced at five pounds five shillings - more than the average weekly wage! Due to its size, Hornby manufactured special steel track to enable it to perform at its maximum speeds and haul a realistic number of coaches
Today the Princess Elizabeth is the prized item in any best toys collection of Hornby trains .
Collectibles Coach
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