1.
Scale (ratio)
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The scale ratio of a model represents the proportional ratio of a linear dimension of the model to the same feature of the original. Examples include a 3-dimensional scale model of a building or the drawings of the elevations or plans of a building. In such cases the scale is dimensionless and exact throughout the model or drawing, the scale can be expressed in four ways, in words, as a ratio, as a fraction and as a graphical scale. Thus on an architects drawing one might read one centimetre to one metre or 1,100 or 1/100, in general a representation may involve more than one scale at the same time. For example, a showing a new road in elevation might use different horizontal and vertical scales. An elevation of a bridge might be annotated with arrows with a proportional to a force loading, as in 1 cm to 1000 newtons. A weather map at some scale may be annotated with arrows at a dimensional scale of 1 cm to 20 mph. A town plan may be constructed as a scale drawing. In general the scale of a projection depends on position and direction, the variation of scale may be considerable in small scale maps which may cover the globe. In large scale maps of areas the variation of scale may be insignificant for most purposes. The scale of a map projection must be interpreted as a nominal scale, a scale model is a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object being represented. Very often the model is smaller than the original and used as a guide to making the object in full size. In mathematics, the idea of geometric scaling can be generalized, the scale means for 3 or more numbers to be in Place List of scale model sizes Scale Scale invariance Scale space Spatial scale
2.
Standard gauge
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The standard gauge is a widely used railway track gauge. Approximately 55% of the lines in the world are this gauge, all high-speed rail lines, except those in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Finland, are standard gauge. The distance between the edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States. It is also called the UIC gauge or UIC track gauge, as railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge to be used. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a gauge of 1435 mm. In North East England, some lines in colliery areas were 4 ft 8 in. All these lines had been widened to standard gauge by 1846, parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. However, until well into the half of the 19th century, Britain. The American gauges converged as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent, notably, all the 5 ft broad gauge track in the South was converted to standard gauge over the course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States, snopes categorized this legend as false, but commented that. It is perhaps more fairly labelled as True, but for trivial, the historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately 5 feet apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Others were 4 ft 4 in or 4 ft 7 1⁄2 in, the English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for the coal mines of County Durham. He favoured 4 ft 8 in for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham, the Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephensons Stockton and Darlington railway was primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees. The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge, George Stephenson used the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The success of this led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, authorised 1824 and opened 1825, used 4 ft 6 in, Dundee and Newtyle Railway, authorised 1829 and opened 1831, used 4 ft 6 1⁄2 in
3.
Toy train
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A toy train is a toy that represents a train. It is distinguished from a train by an emphasis on low cost and durability. A toy train can be as simple as a toy that does not even run on track. The first widely adopted standards for toy trains running on track were introduced in Leipzig, Germany in 1891 by Märklin. Z Gauge N Gauge HO Gauge S Gauge O Gauge G Gauge Märklin measured the gauge as the distance between the centers of the two rails, rather than the distance between the outer rails themselves. Lionels standard gauge is allegedly the result of Lionels misreading these standards, most of these standards never really caught on, due to their large size, which made them impractical to use indoors, as well as the high price of manufacturing. Wide gauge trains, which are close in size to 2 gauge, are produced in limited quantities today, as are 1 gauge, of these, O gauge is the most popular. The modern standards for toy trains also include S gauge, HO scale, N scale, HO and N scale are the most popular model railway standards of today, inexpensive sets sold in toy stores and catalogs are less realistic than those sold to hobbyists. O gauge arguably remains the most popular toy train standard, another size that is attracting interest among hobbyists is building and operating trains from Lego, or L gauge, which is roughly 1/38 scale. A de facto standard is used by companies making wooden toy trains that run on wooden tracks. This is usually referred to as Brio or Thomas compatible in reference to two major companies, the term Vario System introduced by the company Eichhorn, refers to a variant of the connecting system used by some modern wooden track producers. The tracks dont use rails as such but rather grooves set apart a certain distance, the same gauge is used by the Lionel Great American Adventure series produced by Learning Curve, the Plarail system from Tomy and Trackmaster. Although the rolling stock of each system may be used to some extant on the tracks of other systems the compatibility beyond simple straight track and large radius curves may be rather limited. Playmobil is an example of a company offers a complete play world system based on its small plastic dolls and has later extended its play world to railways. It has developed two systems to date. One is aimed at larger children using electric trains and remote control and this track system is designed such that it can also be used outside much like a garden train. The other system is designed for children or even toddlers. An example of an aimed at the very young is offered among others by the company Wader Toys
4.
Rail transport modelling
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Railway modelling or model railroading is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The earliest model railways were the railways in the 1840s. Electric trains appeared around the start of the 20th century, Model trains today are more realistic. Today modellers create model railway layouts, often recreating real locations, involvement ranges from possession of a train set to spending hours and large sums of money on a large and exacting model of a railroad and the scenery through which it passes, called a layout. Hobbyists, called railway modellers or model railroaders, may maintain models large enough to ride, modellers may collect model trains, building a landscape for the trains to pass through. They may also operate their own railroad in miniature, for some modellers, the goal of building a layout is to eventually run it as if it were a real railroad or as the real railroad did. If modellers choose to model a prototype, they may reproduce track-by-track reproductions of the railroad in miniature, often using prototype track diagrams. Layouts vary from a circle or oval of track to realistic reproductions of real places modelled to scale. Probably the largest model landscape in the UK is in the Pendon Museum in Oxfordshire, UK, the museum also houses one of the earliest scenic models – the Madder Valley layout built by John Ahern. This was built in the late 1930s to late 1950s and brought in realistic modelling, receiving coverage on both sides of the Atlantic in the magazines Model Railway News and Model Railroader. Bekonscot in Buckinghamshire is the oldest model village and includes a model railway, the worlds largest model railroad in H0 scale is the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany. The largest live steam layout, with 25 miles of track is Train Mountain in Chiloquin, Oregon, clubs often display models for the public. One specialist branch concentrates on larger scales and gauges, commonly using track gauges from 3.5 to 7.5 inches. Models in these scales are usually hand-built and powered by steam, or diesel-hydraulic. The Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT in the 1950s pioneered automatic control of track-switching by using telephone relays, the oldest society is The Model Railway Club, near Kings Cross, London, UK. As well as building model railways, it has 5,000 books, similarly, The Historical Model Railway Society at Butterley, near Ripley, Derbyshire specialises in historical matters and has archives available to members and non-members. The words scale and gauge seem at first interchangeable but their meanings are different, Scale is the models measurement as a proportion to the original, while gauge is the measurement between the rails. The size of engines depends on the scale and can vary from 700 mm tall for the largest ridable live steam scales such as 1,4, down to size for the smallest
5.
Third rail (model railroading)
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The use of a third rail in rail transport modelling is a technique that is sometimes applied in order to facilitate easier wiring. Early toy trains used two metal rail tracks like most real trains, three rail contact also negates the need for insulated wheels, an important consideration before plastics became widely available. Most scales and gauges that predate HO scale used three rails for electric operation, a key advantage for three-rail track is reverse loops, where a train enters a loop through a turnout and then exits through the same turnout in order to change the trains direction. With two-rail track, when the track reverses on itself, this causes a short circuit, with three-rail track, because the center rail remains constant and the outer rails are electrically identical, this causes no problems. The third rail has also used to automate and animate layouts. An accessory, such as a signal, can be wired to a section of track that has had one of its outer rails insulated. A passing train then grounds the insulated rail, completing the circuit, insulated rails can also be used to control turnouts, causing the turnout to switch to the position needed by an oncoming train. Because of this feature, railroad cars intended for operation will not work on two-rail track unless their wheels are first insulated from each other. Cars intended for two-rail track will operate on track. Conversion of three-rail cars for operation, or vice versa, is thus a common practice among hobbyists. It requires either replacing the bogies on the car, or replacing metal axles with axles made of a non-conductive material, the main disadvantage of three-rail track is its lack of realism. While some real-world trains do use a rail, the prototypes for the majority of model railroad operations do not. Lionel tried to improve this situation in the late 1950s with its Super O track, other O scale manufacturers use similar techniques today. This is stud contact electrification for model railways and is used on garden railway systems. Garden railways often have a mixture of electrical and real steam locomotives, while it is possible, insulating model steam locomotives to run on two rail electrification systems is problematic. In practice the stud system outdoors has been found to be resistant to continuity problems caused by the outdoor environment. Although most three-rail systems ties the two rails together electrically, some manufacturers wire all three rails independently. GarGraves is a North American manufacturer of O gauge three-rail track with all of its rails insulated, trix Express is a European manufacturer of three-rail track who insulates all three rails
6.
Alternating current
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Alternating current, is an electric current which periodically reverses direction, whereas direct current flows only in one direction. A common source of DC power is a cell in a flashlight. The abbreviations AC and DC are often used to mean simply alternating and direct, the usual waveform of alternating current in most electric power circuits is a sine wave. In certain applications, different waveforms are used, such as triangular or square waves, audio and radio signals carried on electrical wires are also examples of alternating current. These types of alternating current carry information encoded onto the AC signal and these currents typically alternate at higher frequencies than those used in power transmission. Electrical energy is distributed as alternating current because AC voltage may be increased or decreased with a transformer, use of a higher voltage leads to significantly more efficient transmission of power. The power losses in a conductor are a product of the square of the current and this means that when transmitting a fixed power on a given wire, if the current is halved, the power loss will be four times less. Power is often transmitted at hundreds of kilovolts, and transformed to 100–240 volts for domestic use, high voltages have disadvantages, such as the increased insulation required, and generally increased difficulty in their safe handling. In a power plant, energy is generated at a convenient voltage for the design of a generator, near the loads, the transmission voltage is stepped down to the voltages used by equipment. Consumer voltages vary somewhat depending on the country and size of load, the voltage delivered to equipment such as lighting and motor loads is standardized, with an allowable range of voltage over which equipment is expected to operate. Standard power utilization voltages and percentage tolerance vary in the different mains power systems found in the world, high-voltage direct-current electric power transmission systems have become more viable as technology has provided efficient means of changing the voltage of DC power. HVDC systems, however, tend to be expensive and less efficient over shorter distances than transformers. Three-phase electrical generation is very common, the simplest way is to use three separate coils in the generator stator, physically offset by an angle of 120° to each other. Three current waveforms are produced that are equal in magnitude and 120° out of phase to each other, if coils are added opposite to these, they generate the same phases with reverse polarity and so can be simply wired together. In practice, higher pole orders are commonly used, for example, a 12-pole machine would have 36 coils. The advantage is that lower rotational speeds can be used to generate the same frequency, for example, a 2-pole machine running at 3600 rpm and a 12-pole machine running at 600 rpm produce the same frequency, the lower speed is preferable for larger machines. If the load on a system is balanced equally among the phases. Even in the worst-case unbalanced load, the current will not exceed the highest of the phase currents
7.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
8.
1 gauge
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1 gauge, gauge 1 or gauge one is a model railroading and toy train standard that was popular in the early 20th century, particularly with European manufacturers. Its track measures 1.75 in, making it larger than 0 gauge but slightly smaller than wide gauge, Gauge one was standardised, according to Model Railways and Locomotive magazine of August 1909, at 1.75 in. An exact 1,32 scale would yield 1.766 in for standard gauge prototype, the distance between the wheel tyres was set at 1 17⁄32 in and between the centre of the track 48 mm. The wheel width was set at 19⁄64 in, definitions using gauge, rather than scale, were more common in the early days with the four gauges for which standards were adopted being No. After World War I, most surviving U. S. manufacturers switched to wide gauge, in the UK and the rest of the world,1 gauge also declined, although more slowly, and by the 1940s had practically disappeared. In the 1950s and 1960s 1 gauge experienced a renaissance, first in the UK and this was helped by 1 gauge being the same size as the modern G scale, a popular standard for outdoor model railroads. Generally,1 gauge equipment works out to approximately 1,32 scale, G scale at 1,22.5 means the 1 gauge track represents 1,000 mm metre gauge track. Such railways are to be found in, among other places, Switzerland, due to the size of the locomotives it is possible for them to be powered with live steam, which to many is a large advantage as they are cheaper than traditional live steam garden railroads. These are usually fired by gas or methylated spirit, which are very popular. Another form, which is becoming popular, is coal, which gives the user the smell that only steam locomotives carry. Accucraft Trains in California, The Gauge One Model Railway Company in Britain, and Aster Hobbies Ltd in Japan produce gauge 1 items, mostly coal, meths, and butane fired. Wrightway Rolling Stock produce a range of quality coaches for British outline gauge one railways and they can supply from their range or custom build. Some of the range is available in 10mm scale, Märklin, in Germany, has produced several different lines of trains that can be considered 1 gauge. Their first production took place in the late 1800s, with a line of tinplate type trains and this line was discontinued in favor of their more popular 0 gauge trains. In the late 1960s, Märklin reentered the large market with a modest range of 1 gauge trains. Based upon one drive mechanism made of metal, Märklin produced both a German Class 80 0-6-0T steam locomotive in two different liveries and a 0-Co-0 diesel based upon a Henschel design. This early range included two-axle passenger cars, two-axle box cars and tank cars, the tank cars could hold liquids and the box car and passenger car had operating doors. This range continued in production for a number of years, but was replaced with more accurate locomotives
9.
American Flyer
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American Flyer is a brand of toy train and model railroad manufactured in the United States. Chicago, Illinois-based toymaker William Frederick Hafner developed a motor for toy cars in 1901 while working for a company called Toy Auto Company. According to the recollections of William Hafners son, John, he had developed a clockwork train running on O gauge track by 1905, Hafners friend, William Ogden Coleman, gained control of the Edmonds-Metzel Hardware Company, a struggling hardware manufacturer in Chicago, in 1906 or 1907. Hafner and Coleman began producing toy trains using Edmonds-Metzels excess manufacturing capability after Hafner was able to secure $15,000 worth of orders, by 1907, two American retailers, G. Sommers & Co. and Montgomery Ward, were selling Edmonds-Metzel trains. Initially American Flyer—aka Chicago Flyer—was something of a brand, undercutting the prices of Ives. The trains proved popular, and American Flyer was soon expanding its product line, however, the companys rapid growth led to strains in the relationship between Hafner and Coleman. In 1913, Hafner left the company, believing he would be given a significant portion of the company if the trains proved successful, Coleman refused when Hafner asked to exercise this option. Hafner started the Hafner Manufacturing Company, which sold a line of trains called Overland Flyer, Sommers immediately stopped carrying the American Flyer trains in favor of Hafners brand. Initially, the Hafner and American Flyer product lines were very similar and this suggests the possibility of the two companies continuing to collaborate. Hafners business survived as a manufacturer of trains until 1951. American Flyers business grew during World War I, which locked out the German manufacturers that had dominated the U. S. toy train market to that point. In 1918, American Flyer introduced its first electric train, an O gauge model that was simply a model with an electric motor in place of the clockwork motor. This was a practice at the time. The same year, William Coleman died and his son, William Ogden Coleman, at that time the factory and administrative offices of the American Flyer Manufacturing Co. were located at 2219-2239 South Halsted Street in Chicago. The factory had its own railroad sidings and dock so cars could be slid inside the building for unloading/loading, in 1925, American Flyer began offering Wide gauge electric trains at a premium price, attempting to compete with Lionel Corporation at the high end of the market. In 1928, American Flyers competitor Ives went bankrupt, American Flyer and Lionel jointly purchased and operated Ives until 1930, when American Flyer sold its share to Lionel. During this time of joint operation, American Flyer supplied Ives with car bodies, during the early 1930s, American Flyer struggled under increased competition, especially at the low end of the market. In 1931, Flyer announced it would not produce a train set to sell for less than $4 like its competition had
10.
Lionel Corporation
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Lionel Corporation was an American toy manufacturer and retailer that was in business from 1900-1995. Founded as an electrical company, Lionel specialized in various products throughout its existence. Lionel trains, produced from 1900 to 1969, drew admiration from model railroaders around the world for the solidity of their construction, during its peak years in the 1950s, the company sold $25 million worth of trains per year. In 2006, Lionels electric train, along with the Easy-Bake Oven, the original Lionel Corporation was founded in 1900 by Joshua Lionel Cowen and Harry C. Grant in New York City. The companys devotees disagree over the date of incorporation, as the official paperwork gives a date of September 5, initially, the company specialized in electrical novelties, such as fans and lighting devices. Lionels first train, the Electric Express, was not intended for sale to consumers, delivered in December 1900, it operated on a brass track and was powered by a battery and a motor Cowen originally intended to use in an electric fan. Cowen hoped to use the publics fascination with railroads and electricity to capture the publics attention, members of the public started approaching store owners about buying the trains instead, prompting Lionel to begin making toy trains for the general public. Lionel ended up selling 12 examples of the Electric Express, Lionels earliest trains were larger than the sizes commonly available today, running on two-rail tracks with the rails 2 7⁄8 inches apart. In 1906, Lionel began offering a three-rail track that simplified wiring of reverse loops and its outer rails were 2 1⁄8 inches apart, which did not match any of the existing standards that other manufacturers had been using since 1891. When other U. S. companies began using Lionels standard, starting in 1915, Lionel followed most of its U. S. competitors and adopted the smaller O gauge standard for its budget-level trains. By the end of World War I, Lionel was one of three major U. S. toy train manufacturers, and it grew due to shrewd marketing. Cowen began getting department stores to incorporate his toy trains into their Christmas tree displays, linking toy trains to Christmas, Lionel made its trains larger than its competitors, making them appear a better value. Lionel responded by targeting advertising at children, telling them its products were the most realistic toy trains, additionally, Lionel criticized the durability of competitors products in ads targeted at parents. By 1922, Lionel was competing mainly against American Flyer and Ives, apparently, also in 1922, Boucher bought out VoltAmp and started making what was known as the Rolls Royce of Standard Gauge trains. In 1925, American Flyer jumped into the Standard gauge market, william Walthers, a large seller of model railroads, asked Cowen in 1929 why Lionel painted its trains in bright and unrealistic colors. Cowen said that the majority of trains were purchased by mothers for their children, in 1929, Lionel opened a factory in Hillside, New Jersey where it produced trains until 1974. By the 1920s, Lionel had overcome Ives to become the market leader, Lionels fierce ad campaigns took their toll on Ives, which filed bankruptcy in 1928. Lionel and American Flyer bought Ives and operated it jointly until 1930, the Great Depression badly hurt Lionel
11.
Great Depression
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The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930
12.
Louis Marx and Company
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Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer in business from 1919 to 1978. Its products were often imprinted with the slogan, One of the many Marx toys, have you all of them, arguably, Marx was the most well-known toy company through the 1950s. The Marx logo was the letters MAR in a circle with a large X through it, as the X sometimes goes unseen, Marx toys were, and are still today, often misidentified as Mar toys. Reputedly, because of name confusion, the Italian diecast toy company Martoys. In fact, the Big Wheel, which was introduced in 1969, is enshrined in the National Toy Hall of Fame, Marx also made several models of typewriters for children. Marxs less expensive toys were extremely common in stores, and its larger, costlier toys were staples for catalog retailers such as Sears and Montgomery Ward. Initially, after working for Ferdinand Strauss, Marx, born in 1894, was a distributor with no products or manufacturing capacity, Marx raised money as a middle man, studying available products, finding ways to make them cheaper, and then closing sales. Enough funding was raised to purchase tooling from previous employer Strauss for two obsolete tin toys - the Alabama Coon Jigger and Zippo the Climbing Monkey, with subtle changes, Marx was able to turn these toys into hits, selling more than eight million of each within two years. Another success was the Mouse Orchestra with tinplate mice on piano, fiddle, snare, Marx listed six qualities he believed were needed for a successful toy, familiarity, surprise, skill, play value, comprehensibility and sturdiness. By 1922, both Louis and David Marx were millionaires, initially, Marx produced few original toys by predicting the hits and manufacturing them less expensively than the competition. The yo-yo is an example, although Marx is sometimes credited with inventing the toy. During the 1920s, about 100 million Marx yo-yos were sold, by 1937, the company had more than $3.2 million in assets, with debt of just over $500,000. Marx was the largest toy manufacturer in the world by the 1950s, in 1955, a Time Magazine article proclaimed Louis Marx the Toy King, and that year, the company had about $50 million in sales. Marx was the initial inductee in the Toy Industry Hall of Fame, at its peak, Louis Marx and Company operated three manufacturing plants in the United States, Erie, Pennsylvania, Girard, Pennsylvania, and Glen Dale, West Virginia. The Erie plant was the oldest and largest, while the Girard plant, acquired in 1934 with the purchase of Girard Model Works, produced toy trains, and the Glen Dale plant produced toy vehicles. Additionally, Marx operated numerous plants overseas, and in 1955 five percent of the toys Marx sold in the U. S. A. were made in Japan, by 1959, the demand for American toys was a billion dollars a year. Among the most enduring Marx creations were a series of boxed playsets throughout the 1950s and 1960s based on television shows. Playsets included highly detailed figures and accessories, many with some of the toy worlds finest tin lithography
13.
HO scale
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HO or H0 is a scale used in model railroading. It is the most popular scale of model railway in the world, the precise definition of HO or H0 scale varies slightly by country. According to the National Model Railroad Association standard S-1.2, predominantly used in North America and this is a ratio of 1,87.0857142, which is usually rounded to 1,87.1. According to the MOROP standard NEM010, which is used in Europe. In HO and H0, rails are spaced 16.5 mm apart, in most English-speaking markets it is pronounced aitch-oh and written with the letters HO today, but in German it is pronounced hah-null, and still written with the letter H and number 0. After the First World War there were attempts to introduce a model railway about half the size of 0 scale that would be more suitable for smaller home layouts. H0 was created to meet these aims, for this new scale, a track width of 16.5 mm was designed to represent prototypical standard gauge track, and a model scale of 1,87 was chosen. By as early as 1922 the firm Bing in Nuremberg, Germany, had been marketing a tabletop railway for several years and this came on a raised, quasi-ballasted track with a gauge of 16.5 mm, which was described at that time either as 00 or H0. The trains initially had a drive, but from 1924 were driven electrically. Accessory manufacturers, such as Kibri, marketed buildings in the corresponding scale, at the 1935 Leipzig Spring Fair, an electric tabletop railway, Trix Express, was displayed to a gauge described as half nought gauge, which was then abbreviated as gauge 00. Märklin, another German firm, followed suit with its 00 gauge railway for the 1935 Leipzig Autumn Fair, the Märklin 00 gauge track that appeared more than ten years after Bings tabletop railway had a very similar appearance to the previous Bing track. HO scale trains elsewhere were developed in response to the pressures of the Great Depression. The trains first appeared in the United Kingdom, originally as an alternative to 00 gauge, while HO scale is by nature more delicate than 0 scale, its smaller size allows modelers to fit more details and more scale miles into a comparable area. Currently, HO is the most popular model railroad scale in both continental Europe and North America, whereas OO scale is still dominant in Britain, there are some modellers in Great Britain who use HO scale. For them, the British 1,87 Scale Society was formed in 1994, it publishes a journal with news, views. A magazine, Continental Modeller, focuses on the railways of other countries, including America and Europe, today, HO locomotives, rolling stock, buildings, and scenery are available from a large number of manufacturers in a variety of price brackets. Most modern HO trains run on two-rail track powered by direct current, some trains, most notably by Märklin of Germany, run on alternating current, supplied by a third rail consisting of small studs on each tie down the centre of the track. With the advent of digital control, block divisions are largely eliminated
14.
Prototype
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A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from. It is a used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics. A prototype is used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one, in some design workflow models, creating a prototype is the step between the formalization and the evaluation of an idea. The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον prototypon, primitive form, neutral of πρωτότυπος prototypos, original, primitive, from πρῶτος protos, first and τύπος typos, a Working Prototype represents all or nearly all of the functionality of the final product. A Visual Prototype represents the size and appearance, but not the functionality, a User Experience Prototype represents enough of the appearance and function of the product that it can be used for user research. A Functional Prototype captures both function and appearance of the design, though it may be created with different techniques. A Paper Prototype is a printed or hand-drawn representation of the interface of a software product. In some cases, the final production materials may still be undergoing development themselves, process - Mass-production processes are often unsuitable for making a small number of parts, so prototypes may be made using different fabrication processes than the final product. Differences in fabrication process may lead to differences in the appearance of the prototype as compared to the final product, verification - The final product may be subject to a number of quality assurance tests to verify conformance with drawings or specifications. These tests may involve custom inspection fixtures, statistical sampling methods, prototypes are generally made with much closer individual inspection and the assumption that some adjustment or rework will be part of the fabrication process. Prototypes may also be exempted from some requirements that apply to the final product. Engineers and prototype specialists will attempt to minimize the impact of these differences on the role for the prototype. Engineers and prototyping specialists seek to understand the limitations of prototypes to exactly simulate the characteristics of their intended design and it is important to realize that by their very definition, prototypes will represent some compromise from the final production design. Due to differences in materials, processes and design fidelity, it is possible that a prototype may fail to perform acceptably whereas the design may have been sound. In general, it can be expected that individual prototype costs will be greater than the final production costs due to inefficiencies in materials. Prototypes are also used to revise the design for the purposes of reducing costs through optimization and it is possible to use prototype testing to reduce the risk that a design may not perform as intended, however prototypes generally cannot eliminate all risk. As an alternative, rapid prototyping or rapid application development techniques are used for the prototypes, which implement part
15.
N scale
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N scale is a popular model railway scale. Depending upon the manufacturer, the ranges from 1,148 to 1,160. In all cases, the gauge is 9 mm or 0.354 in, the term N gauge refers to the track dimensions, but in the UK in particular N gauge refers to a 1,148 scale with 1,160 track gauge modelling. The terms N scale and N gauge are often used interchangeably, as scale is defined as ratio or proportion of the model. The scale 1,148 defines the rail to rail gauge equal to 9 mm or 0.354 in exactly, so calculating the rail and/or track use 1,148 and for engines. All rails are spaced 9 mm apart but the height can differ, Rail height is expressed as a code, thus, Code 55 rails are 0.055 ins high while Code 80 rails have a height of 0.080 ins. Real railroad rails are at least 6 ins tall and can be taller on some roads, so at true scale the rails would be about 0.040 ins high. Many older N scale models may not run well on Code 55 track as their flanges are often unrealistically large, wheelsets with these large flanges are colloquially known as pizza cutters due to a resemblance to the kitchen utensil. While N scale is small, it is not the smallest commercially available scale, as Z scale is smaller yet at 1,220. N scale is considered compatible with 1,144 scale for miniature wargaming. Although trains and accessories of similar gauge and/or scale existed as early as 1927, unlike other scales and gauges, which were de facto standards at best, within two years N scale manufacturers defined the gauge and voltage, as well as the height and type of couplers. For example, Arnold developed the now ubiquitous Rapido coupler to provide a simple, N scale has a large worldwide following. Models are made of many standard gauge prototypes from every continent. N scales popularity is only to that of HO. In Japan, where space in homes is limited, N scale is the most popular scale. Not all modellers select N because they have small spaces, some use N scale to more complex or more visually expansive models. N scale in Australia has become popular over the years. Modellers use mainly US, British, and European prototypes because for a long time, the creation of local prototypes is now a flourishing cottage industry, making Australia N scale modelling more popular each year
16.
Lionel, LLC
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Lionel, LLC is an American designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads that is based in Concord, North Carolina. The Martin Davis Investment Group bought Lionel Trains, Inc. in 1995, according to its reorganization papers filed as part of its bankruptcy plan on May 21,2007, about 95% of the companys sales come from O gauge trains. The plan estimated that about US$70 million worth of O gauge trains are each year. General Mills did not buy the company, however, the Lionel Corporation became a holding company and invested in a number of ventures, including what would eventually become an East Coast chain of toy stores known as Lionel Leisure World. According to Lionel, A Collectors Guide and History, volume IV, 1970-1980 and this deal included the purchase of a portion of the Lionel tooling and as part of the agreement, production & sale of the 1969 train product line would be handled by the Lionel Corporation. The balance of the tooling was purchased on December 31,1969, the lease was renegotiated in 1974. Due to General Mills cost-cutting measures, production of Lionel-branded toy and model trains returned to profitability, detail was often sacrificed, and most of the remaining metal parts were replaced with molded plastic. Also starting in 1973, MPC experimented with a line of cars it called Standard O, an internal reorganization after 1973 caused Lionel to become part of General Mills Fundimensions group. Although Lionels tenure with MPC was relatively short, MPC is the most commonly used term for the 1970–1985 era, in 1979, General Mills resurrected the American Flyer brand and product line, which Lionel Corporation had originally purchased in 1967 from its bankrupt competitor. After a period of time of absence in the market, Gilbert American Flyer S gauge trains were no longer considered a competitor to Lionels 1,48 proportion O gauge trains. To this day, Lionel markets American Flyer S gauge in limited quantities for the operator & collector markets, the year 1982 brought General Mills ill-fated move of train production from the United States to Mexico. Some Lionel fans were angry simply because the trains had been made in the United States for more than 80 years, Lionel production returned to the United States by 1984. During this time, corporate offices were retained at the companys Mount Clemens, Michigan, when General Mills spun off its Kenner-Parker division in 1985, Lionel became part of Kenner-Parker. The Lionel product line was again in 1986, this time to toy-train collector / real estate developer Richard P. Kughn of Detroit, Michigan who formed Lionel Trains. In 1974, the LCCA was created in Des Moines, Iowa and 83 other charter members, the club mainly focuses on having members show an interest of Lionel trains with train meets, swap meets, and also annual conventions. In 2012, the LCCA and also the Lionel Railroaders Club merged, before the merger, it used to be one membership for publications by LCCA and another separate membership for the annual conventions in the summer. In early 2002, Lionel decided to put out fantastic models in boxes that read Joshua Lionel Cowen Series. The JLC Series ran from 2002 -2012 as a 10-year anniversary for Lionels first CEO and President, Joshua Lionel Cowen
17.
Atlas Model Railroad
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Atlas Model Railroad Company, Inc. makes scale models in N scale, HO scale, and O scale. The company is based in Hillside, New Jersey, United States and they produce a wide variety of locomotives, rolling stock, and vehicles. Atlas is well known for their track and codes 55,80,83 and 100 track. Atlas also produces a line of structures and bridges. Stephan Schaffan, Sr. an immigrant of Czechoslovakia founded the Atlas Tool Company in the garage of his home in Newark, New Jersey, in 1933 his son, Stephan Schaffan, Jr. came to work for his father at the age of sixteen. Steve Jr. built model airplanes and frequented a local hobby shop and he would often ask the owner if there was anything he could do to earn some extra spending money. Not taking his inquiries seriously, the store owner challenged Schaffan to come up with better track components using the materials available in the shop, in those days, railroad modelers had to assemble and build everything from scratch. Steve Jr. created a kit which sold so well. Subsequently, Steve Jr. engineered the stapling of rail to fiber track, along with inventing the first practical rail joiner and pre-assembled turnouts, all of these products, and more, helped to popularize model railroading and assisted in the creation of a mass-market hobby. The growing company quickly outgrew the garage and basement of the family home, realizing they could actually make a living selling track and related products, the first factory was built in nearby Hillside, New Jersey, at 413 Florence Avenue in 1947. On September 30,1949, the Atlas Tool Company was incorporated, beginning in 1971, Atlas began importing a line of O scale locomotives and rolling stock produced by Roco in Austria. New items were not advertised after 1973, though some pieces remained catalogued through the 1980s, Atlas entered the market for ready-to-run HO scale diesel locomotives in 1975, importing models produced in Austria by Roco. Six models of various EMD diesels made up the base of this initial offering through the 1980s, complete train sets were first offered by Atlas in the 1970s, using the Roco-produced diesels and freight cars supplied by Athearn. Atlas later forged a partnership with Japanese manufacturer Kato Precision Railroad Models to release an Alco RS-3 in 1984 that raised standards in the hobby for fine scale fidelity, Stephan Schaffan, Jr. died in 1983. In 1985, he was honored posthumously for his inventions by the Model Railroad Industry Association and was inducted into the Industry Hall of Fame in Baltimore and he was also nominated and entered into the National Model Railroad Association Pioneers of Model Railroading in 1995. In the early 1990s, the Atlas Tool Co. changed its name to Atlas Model Railroad Company, after spending many years developing a number of products across many price points, including a successful line of O scale sectional track, Weaver died in 2011. Atlas O, LLC became a wholly owned subsidiary and was merged into Atlas Model Railroad Co. Inc. effective January 1,2012, expanding their O scale product line, Atlas purchased certain assets of Industrial Rail from Hobbico in 2006. In 2011, Atlas purchased the tooling and inventory of Branchline Trains, including their line of HO scale Blueprint Series and Yardmaster freight cars, Stephan Schaffans daughter Diane and her husband Tom Haedrich continued to lead Atlas until 2013
18.
Meccano Ltd
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Meccano Ltd was a British toy company established in 1908 by Frank Hornby in England to manufacture and distribute Meccano and other model toys and kits created by the company. Financial problems beset the company in the early 1960s and Meccano Ltd was taken over by Lines Bros Ltd in 1964, see Frank Hornby for the events leading up to the formation of Meccano Ltd. In 1901 Frank Hornby, a clerk from Liverpool, England, invented a new toy called Mechanics Made Easy. A factory was acquired in West Derby Road in Liverpool and the company began producing Meccano sets for sale across the UK, in 1909 Meccano Ltd added to its range by launching the Hornby System of Mechanical Demonstration. This was an educational set Hornby had created for use in schools which included a 44-page manual, however, it was not a commercial success and it was discontinued after five years. This was the first use of the Hornby name, which later was to become synonymous with the companys Hornby Dublo 00 gauge model railway system, by 1910 Meccano was exported worldwide, and its success prompted Meccano Ltd to expand its operations. In 1912, Hornby and his son, Roland, formed Meccano Ltd in Paris to manufacture Meccano, Meccano factories were also established in Spain and Argentina. The Binns Road factory became the headquarters for over 60 years. In 1920 the company started to produce 0 gauge model railways, in 1922, Meccano Ltd opened a factory in Elizabeth, New Jersey where it produced its building sets for the North American market. In 1927 it started producing clockwork lithographed tinplate 0 gauge trains there as well, in early 1934 Meccano Ltd introduced Dinky Toys, a new line of die-cast miniature model cars and trucks under the trade mark Meccano Dinky Toys. In the same year, they introduced a construction toy for younger children called Dinky Builder. It comprised rectangular and triangular hinged metal plates that could be quickly and easily assembled, the parts were painted jade green and salmon pink in an attempt to draw girls into the otherwise boys-only toy market. In 1938 Meccano Ltd launched the 00 gauge Hornby Dublo model railway system, in 1942 the production of all toys ceased due to wartime legislation and the company switched to manufacturing for the war effort. Despite the heavy bombing of Liverpool during the war, the Binns Road factory was not damaged. The production of Meccano, Dinky Toys and Hornby Dublo slowly resumed after the war in 1945, in 1960 Meccano Ltd purchased Bayko, a Bakelite building model construction toy, from Plimpton Engineering in Liverpool, and moved all its production to Meccanos factory in Speke, Liverpool. The construction sets were updated and polystyrene was used for all the plastic parts instead of Bakelite, manufacture of Bayko continued until 1967. Meccano Ltd also manufactured Kemex and Elektron, by the early 1960s Meccano Ltd began experiencing financial problems, in spite of exports worth over £1m, and was bought out by Lines Bros Ltd, Meccanos biggest competitor, in February 1964. This purchase included both the British and French Meccano factories, sweeping changes were implemented, including the removal from office of the last members of the Hornby family and applying the Hornby name to the Tri-ang plastic trains
19.
National Model Railroad Association
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The National Model Railroad Association is a non-profit organization for those involved in the hobby or business of model railroading. It was founded in the United States in 1935, and is active in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom. The classifications listed below are from the A. A. R, individual roads may use other designations. Illustrations show a typical member of the class detailed underneath the following a class description indicates a rare or obsolete type, the best-known activity of the NMRA is the defining of standards, and advisory documents known as Recommended Practices, for model railroad equipment. This is in marked contrast to the British market, in there is no accepted standard among manufacturers. This results in interoperability restrictions between European and American wheels and trackwork, the NMRA also considers the education of model railroaders and encouraging learning and improving modelers skills to be part of its mission. The NMRA runs an achievement program to encourage these skills, most notably these include the Master Model Railroader certification program and the Golden Spike award. Both programs involve the demonstration and/or judging of proficiency in one or more model railroading skill areas and these areas include Railroad Equipment, Railroad Setting, Railroad Construction & Operation, Service to the Hobby & NMRA Member. A full explanation of each program along with applications can be found on the NMRA website, promotion of the model railroading hobby is also part of the NMRAs purpose. Of note, the organization provides indirect assistance to the Boy Scouts of Americas Railroading Merit badge program by encouraging members to become Railroading Merit Badge Counselors, the NMRA is home of the A. C. In 2013 the NMRA started the process of moving the library to California, the current library was adjacent to the Norfolk Southern Railway Georgia Division and the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. Kalmbach, founder of Kalmbach Publishing, whose original magazines are Model Railroader, rail transport modelling scales List of rail transport modelling scale standards Official website Gateway NMRA website
20.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
21.
MOROP
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MOROP is a European association that federates national associations of railroad and model railroad enthusiasts. MOROP was founded in Genoa, Italy by Italo Briano in 1954, in 2006, MOROP federated 22 national associations from 17 European countries, with a total of more than 30,000 members. The term MOROP is a derived from MOdellbahn and EuROPe. The most important activity of MOROP is to define and maintain the Normen Europäischer Modellbahnen standards for model railroads, since 1994, close ties have been established with the National Model Railroad Association which defines model railroad standards for the United States. For example, the NEM standards for Digital Command Control have been defined by working with the NMRA, the NEM standards and other official documents of MOROP are published in French and German. Some NEM standards have been translated into English, but these translations are not currently normative, MOROP holds annual public conventions usually held in September, in changing European locations. MOROP website MOROP article in DCC Wiki NMRA website
22.
Narrow-gauge railway
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A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than the 1,435 mm of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm and 1,067 mm, narrow-gauge railways also have specialized use in mines and other environments where a very small structure gauge makes a very small loading gauge necessary. Narrow-gauge railways also have general applications. Many narrow-gauge street tramways are used, particularly in Europe, where 1,000 mm metre gauge tramways are common, the earliest recorded railway is shown in the De re metallica of 1556, which shows a mine in Bohemia with a railway of about 2 ft gauge. During the 16th century, railways were mainly restricted to hand-pushed narrow-gauge lines in mines throughout Europe, during the 17th century, mine railways were extended to provide transportation above ground. These lines were industrial, connecting mines with nearby transportation points and these railways were usually built to the same narrow gauge as the mine railways from which they developed. The worlds first steam locomotive on rails, built in 1802 by Richard Trevithick for the Coalbrookdale Company, during the 1820s and 1830s, a number of industrial narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom used steam locomotives. In 1842, the first narrow-gauge steam locomotive outside the UK was built for the 1,100 mm gauge Antwerp-Ghent Railway in Belgium, historically, many narrow-gauge railways were built as part of specific industrial enterprises and were primarily industrial railways rather than general carriers. Some common uses for these industrial narrow-gauge railways were mining, logging, construction, tunnelling, quarrying, extensive narrow-gauge networks were constructed in many parts of the world for these purposes. For example, mountain logging operations in the 19th century often used narrow-gauge railways to transport logs from mill sites to market, significant sugarcane railways still operate in Cuba, Fiji, Java, the Philippines, and Queensland. Narrow-gauge railway equipment remains in use for the construction of tunnels. Extensive narrow-gauge railway systems served the front-line trenches of both sides in World War I and they were a short-lived military application, and after the end of the war, the surplus equipment from these created a small boom in narrow gauge railway building in Europe. Narrow-gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. It is also used in populated areas where the potential demand is too low for broader gauge railways to be economically viable. This is the case in some of Australia and most of Southern Africa, the use of such railways has almost vanished due to the capabilities of modern trucks. In many countries, narrow gauge railways were built as feeder or branch lines to feed traffic to more important standard gauge lines, the choice was often not between a narrow-gauge railway and a standard gauge one, but between a narrow-gauge railway and none at all. Some bulk commodities, such as coal, ore, and gravel, can be transshipped, but this still incurs time penalties
23.
Broad-gauge railway
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Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the 1,435 mm standard gauge. In Britain the Great Western Railway, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, pioneered broad gauge in 1838 with a gauge of 7 ft 1⁄4 in, some harbours also used railways of this gauge for construction and maintenance. These included Portland Harbour and Holyhead Breakwater, which used a locomotive for working sidings, as it was not connected to the national network, this broad-gauge operation continued until the locomotive wore out in 1913. The gauge initially proposed by Brunel was 7 ft exactly but this was increased by 1⁄4 in to accommodate clearance problems identified during early testing. It became apparent that standardization on a gauge throughout a rail transport system was advantageous. Rolling stock did not need to match the gauge exactly, a difference of a few millimetres could be coped with, the value of interoperability was initially not obvious to the industry. The standardization movement was gradual, over time the value of a proprietary gauge diminished, being replaced by the idea of charging money for equipment used on other railway lines. Ireland, using the criteria, was allocated a different standard gauge. Broad-gauge lines in Britain were gradually converted to dual gauge or standard gauge from 1864, Ireland and some states in Australia and Brazil have a gauge of 5 ft 3 in, but Luas, the Dublin light rail system, is built to standard gauge. Russia and the other former Soviet Republics use a 1,520 mm gauge while Finland continues to use the 5 ft gauge inherited from Imperial Russia, in 1839 the Netherlands started its railway system with two broad-gauge railways. But the neighbouring countries Prussia and Belgium already used standard gauge, in 1855, NRS regauged its line and shortly afterwards connected to the Prussian railways. There are replicas of one broad-gauge 2-2-2 locomotive and three carriages in the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht and these replicas were built for the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Railways in 1938–39. Portugal and the Spanish Renfe system use a gauge of 1,668 mm called Ancho Ibérico in Spanish or Bitola Ibérica in Portuguese, in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, a gauge of 5 ft 6 in is widespread. This is also used by the Bay Area Rapid Transit system of the San Francisco Bay Area. In Toronto, Canada the gauge for TTC subways and streetcars was chosen in 1861, years after the establishment of gauge in Britain. In 1861, the province was supplying subsidies only to broad gauge railways. The use of a non-standard gauge precludes interoperability of rolling stock on railway networks. On the 5 ft 3 in and 5 ft 6 in gauges, the extra width allowed bigger inside cylinders and greater power, in the event, the most powerful engines on standard gauge in North America and Scandinavia far exceeded the power of any broad-gauge locomotive
24.
Railroad tie
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A railroad tie/railway tie/crosstie or railway sleeper is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer loads to the track ballast and subgrade, hold the rails upright, railroad ties are traditionally made of wood, but pre-stressed concrete is now also widely used, especially in Europe and Asia. Steel ties are common on secondary lines in the UK, plastic composite ties are also employed, as of January 2008, the approximate market share in North America for traditional and wood ties was 91. 5%, the remainder being concrete, steel, azobé and plastic composite. Approximately 3,520 wooden crossties are used per mile of railroad track in the US,2,640 per mile on main lines in the UK. The type of railroad tie used on the predecessors of the first true railway consisted of a pair of stone blocks laid into the ground, one advantage of this method of construction was that it allowed horses to tread the middle path without the risk of tripping. In railway use with heavier locomotives, it was found that it was hard to maintain the correct gauge. The stone blocks were in any case unsuitable on soft ground, such as at Chat Moss, bi-block ties with a tie rod are somewhat similar. Historically wooden rail ties were made by hewing with an axe, a variety of softwood and hardwoods timbers are used as ties, oak, jarrah and karri being popular hardwoods, although increasingly difficult to obtain, especially from sustainable sources. Sometimes non-toxic preservatives are used, such as copper azole or micronized copper, New boron-based wood preserving technology is being employed by major US railroads in a dual treatment process in order to extend the life of wood ties in wet areas. Some timbers are durable enough that they can be used untreated, problems with wooden ties include rot, splitting, insect infestation, plate-cutting, also known as chair shuffle in the UK and spike-pull. For more information on wooden ties the Railway Tie Association maintains a website devoted to wood tie research. Wooden ties can, of course, catch fire, as they age they develop cracks that allow sparks to lodge so that they catch fire more easily, concrete ties are cheaper and easier to obtain than timber and better able to carry higher axle-weights and sustain higher speeds. Their greater weight ensures improved retention of track geometry, especially when installed with continuous-welded rail, concrete ties have a longer service life and require less maintenance than timber due to their greater weight, which helps them remain in the correct position longer. Concrete ties need to be installed on a well-prepared subgrade with a depth on free-draining ballast to perform well. Concrete ties amplify wheel noise, so wooden ties are used in densely populated areas. On the highest categories of line in the UK, pre-stressed concrete ties are the only permitted by Network Rail standards. Steel ties are formed from pressed steel and are trough-shaped in section, the ends of the tie are shaped to form a spade which increases the lateral resistance of the tie. Housings to accommodate the system are welded to the upper surface of the tie
25.
A. C. Gilbert Company
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The A. C. Gilbert Company was an American toy company, once one of the largest toy companies in the world. It is best known for introducing the Erector Set to the marketplace, first known as the Mysto Manufacturing Company, the company was founded in 1909 in Westville, Connecticut, by Alfred Carlton Gilbert, a magician, and his friend John Petrie. The company was established to provide supplies for magic shows. Their magicians sets, known as Mysto Magic, were marketed from the teens until the fifties and they contained a variety of objects including interlocking rings, playing cards, and a magic wand. In 1911, Gilbert invented the Erector concept, inspired by railroad girders used by the New York, New Haven, Gilbert and his wife Mary developed cardboard prototypes to get the right sizes, openings, and angles to create a robust buildable girder pattern. The construction toy was introduced in 1911, as the Mysto Erector Structural Steel Builder, in 1916, the name of the company was changed from the Mysto Manufacturing Company to the A. C. Gilbert Company. In 1929, Gilbert bought the US company producing Meccano, which had set up in 1913 by the British parent. A. C. Gilbert began making microscope kits in 1934, in 1938, Gilbert purchased American Flyer, a struggling manufacturer of toy trains. Gilbert re-designed the entire line, producing 1,64 scale trains running on S gauge track. At the same time, Gilbert introduced a line of HO scale trains, during the World War II period, virtually all American companies, no matter what they originally produced, converted to making some form or another of war material. A. C. Gilbert was no different, and by 1942 was producing equipment for military aircraft and these newer American Flyer trains were smaller and proportioned more realistically than either the pre-war American Flyer trains or its post-war competition. Although these new trains were popular, Lionel outsold American Flyer nearly 2 to 1, a line of inexpensive reflector telescopes followed the Sputnik-inspired science craze in the late 1950s. In 1958, the company promoted its science toys by commissioning a book, Adventures in Science. In the comic, a mysterious Mr. Science leaps through time, in 1965, A. C. Gilbert produced James Bond movie tie-in figures and a slot car road race set featuring Bonds Aston Martin DB5. Gilbert was the largest employer in New Haven from the early 1930s to the late 1950s, in the late 1930s, the company expanded to produce home house products and small appliances including mixers, milk shake machines, toasters, stoves and ovens, and washers. The Gilbert company struggled after the death of its founder in 1961, gilberts family sold its shares, and the company was never profitable under its new ownership. By 1967, Gilbert was out of business, Erector was sold to Gabriel Industries and moved production from Erector Square in New Haven, Connecticut, to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. American Flyer was sold to Lionel, current Erector toys have the words The construction toy from A. C. Gilbert on their packaging
26.
Association of American Railroads
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The Association of American Railroads is an industry trade group representing primarily the major freight railroads of North America. Amtrak and some regional commuter railroads are also members, the AAR also has two associate member programs, and most associate members are suppliers to the railroad industry. The AAR is headquartered in Washington, D. C. not far from the Capitol and its information technology subsidiary, Railinc, is based in Cary, North Carolina. Railinc IT systems and information services, including the Umler system, Railinc delivers approximately nine million messages each day over its EDI network, including transportation waybills, advance train consists, blocking requests and responses and trip plans. Its applications support railroads, equipment owners and rail industry suppliers along every link of the supply chain, the company maintains the only industry-accepted version of the North American railroad industrys official code tables. Beginning as a technology department within the Association of American Railroads. The facility is under a care, custody and control contract with the Federal Railroad Administration, TTCI has an array of specialized testing facilities and tracks. The site enables testing of freight and passenger rolling stock, vehicle and track components, where appropriate, the AAR represents its members interests to the public at large and to Congress and government regulators in particular. As of 2013 the president of AAR is Edward R. Hamberger, in November 2013 the AAR urged the U. S. Canadian Pacific Railway, Canadian operations Ferrocarril del Istmo S. A. de C. V, Ferrocarril del Sureste Ferrocarril Mexicano Ferrocarril Y Terminal del Valle de Mexico, S. A. de C. V. Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S. A. de C. V, American Railway Association International Union of Railways Middleton, William D. George M. Smerk, and Roberta L. Diehl, eds. Pp 149-50 Association of American Railroads website Railinc Transportation Technology Center Association of American Railroads Reporting Marks
27.
Wheel
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A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the components of the wheel. Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be moved easily facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, wheels are also used for other purposes, such as a ships wheel, steering wheel, potters wheel and flywheel. Common examples are found in transport applications, a wheel greatly reduces friction by facilitating motion by rolling together with the use of axles. In order for wheels to rotate, a moment needs to be applied to the wheel about its axis, cognates within Indo-European include Icelandic hjól wheel, tyre, Greek κύκλος kúklos, and Sanskrit chakra, the latter both meaning circle or wheel. The invention of the falls into the late Neolithic. Note that this implies the passage of several wheel-less millennia even after the invention of agriculture and of pottery, precursors of wheels, known as tournettes or slow wheels, were known in the Middle East by the 5th millennium BCE. These were made of stone or clay and secured to the ground with a peg in the center, but required effort to turn. True potters wheels were apparently in use in Mesopotamia by 3500 BCE and possibly as early as 4000 BCE, and the oldest surviving example, which was found in Ur, dates to approximately 3100 BCE. The earliest well-dated depiction of a vehicle is on the Bronocice pot. The oldest securely dated real wheel-axle combination, that from Stare Gmajne near Ljubljana in Slovenia is now dated in 2σ-limits to 3340–3030 BCE, the axle to 3360–3045 BCE. Two types of early Neolithic European wheel and axle are known, a type of wagon construction. They both are dated to c, in China, the wheel was certainly present with the adoption of the chariot in c.1200 BCE, although Barbieri-Low argues for earlier Chinese wheeled vehicles, c.2000 BC. In Britain, a wooden wheel, measuring about 1 m in diameter, was uncovered at the Must Farm site in East Anglia in 2016. The specimen, dating from 1, 100–800 years BCE, represents the most complete, the wheels hub is also present. A horses spine found nearby suggests the wheel may have part of a horse-drawn cart. The wheel was found in a settlement built on stilts over wetland and it is thought that the primary obstacle to large-scale development of the wheel in the Americas was the absence of domesticated large animals which could be used to pull wheeled carriages. The only large animal that was domesticated in the Western hemisphere, Nubians from after about 400 BCE used wheels for spinning pottery and as water wheels
28.
On30 gauge
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On30 uses the American O scale of 1/4 to the foot, to operate trains on HO gauge track. The 30 indicates the combination is used to model 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge prototypes. This scale/gauge combination is referred to as On2 1⁄2. O16.5 in the United Kingdom is a model railway scale/gauge combination of 7 mm to the foot and this is the same scale as British O scale running on 16.5 mm gauge track, which is used by HO/OO gauge model railways. It thus represents the gauge of just over 2 ft 6 in. 0e is the Continental European notation for 0 scale using 16.5 mm track, in France and a few other countries 0 scale uses a ratio of 1,43.5. In Germany and many other European countries 0 scale uses a ratio of 1,45, the prototypes represented are the European 750 mm,760 mm and 800 mm. In the United States modelling in On30 dates back to the 1950s, using HO gauge wheels, the scale was popularised to some extent in the 1960s and 1970s by the writings of modellers such as Gordon North. An On30 layout, the Venago Valley was featured in the June 1971 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman magazine. However, as there are very few prototype 2 ft 6 in gauge railways in the United States, it remained very much a minority modelling area, especially compared with modelling in On2. In 1998 Bachmann Industries introduced a model of a 2-6-0 steam locomotive in this scale for the Christmas village market and this model, being very inexpensive, was quickly adopted by modellers. Other manufacturers followed Bachmann into this market, and Bachmann also introduced a number of other models, On30 is now regarded as the fastest growing segment of the model railroading market in the United States. Many US modellers can be broadly cast into one of two groups, the first are freelance modelers, not modelling any specific prototype. These modelers are adept at taking HO scale models and modifying them with new cabs, a common saying in this group of modelers is that they model with no standards, a reaction to the highly accurate modelling known as rivet counting found in some other sections of the hobby. Detail parts and kits for specific models can be adapted easily from models manufactured for On3 modellers and others, in Britain O16.5 modelling also began in the 1950s, using modified proprietary OO scale models. A number of companies now supply kits for locomotives made of materials such as brass and white metal. British modellers have also had the advantage of Peco flexible track and turnouts, the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association supports the hobby, and publishes a magazine, Narrow Lines. A similar pattern of small manufacturers producing kits is followed in Continental Europe, however the German firm Fleischmann produced ready-to-run models until a few years ago of small German and Austrian locomotives and associated rolling stock in Oe scale
29.
Scratch building
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Scratch building is the process of building a scale model from scratch, i. e. from raw materials, rather than building it from a commercial kit, kitbashing or buying it pre-assembled. The necessary parts are then fashioned out of a material, such as wood, plastic, plaster, clay, metal, polymer clay, or even paper. Some purists consider a model not to be truly scratchbuilt unless all of the parts were made from raw materials, however most modellers would consider a model including commercial detail parts as scratchbuilt. Scratchbuilding a new body onto an altered ready-to-run chassis is also acceptable, the reasons hobbyists scratchbuild may vary. Often a desired model is unavailable in kit form in the desired scale, sometimes the hobbyist may be dissatisfied with the accuracy or detail of kits that are available. Other times a hobbyist will opt to scratchbuild simply for the challenge, less frequently a hobbyist will scratchbuild out of economy, as often the raw materials cost less than a packaged commercial kit. Most hobbyists develop their skills by building kits, then progress to kitbashing, some companies sell parts that are of little use to anyone but scratchbuilders. Building stock, in material, can be plain sheets, strips, bars, tubes, rods. Stock can also be embossed or textured to replicate a certain prototype material, finishing work is done to complete the model and bring it to a lifelike state
30.
Bachmann Industries
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Bachmann Industries is a Bermuda registered Chinese owned company, globally headquartered in Hong Kong, specialising in model railroading. Bachmanns brand is the largest seller, in terms of volume, Bachmann primarily specializes in entry level train sets, and premium offerings in many scales. The Spectrum line is the quality, model railroad product line, offered in N, HO, Large Scale, On30. Bachmann is the producer of the railroad village product line known as Plasticville. The turnover for Bachmann model trains for the year ended 31 December 2006 was approximately $46.87 million, founded in 1833 by Henry Carlisle, the company originally specialised in vanity products such as parasol handles and Spanish combs made of ivory horns. Its target market was aristocracy in the American South and Louisiana, after the Civil War it continued to make other types of hair ornaments and handles for walking canes now out of Tortoise shell and ivory. In 1899 Carlisles firm merged with a firm run by Henry G. Bachmann. By 1902 Bachmann Bros. started to use celluloid for its products and it was around this time that Bachmann Bros. began experimenting in plastic. In 1927, shortly before they moved to their final Philadelphia address, the line, Solarex would become very popular worldwide and would later be purchased by the US Army and United States Army Air Forces for their personnel during WWII. During WWII Bachmann Bros. was awarded the coveted Army-Navy E Award for outstanding contribution to the war effort by an American company, other notable products include Birds of the World Model kits, Plasticville USA, shooting glasses for Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and Stein Eriksen ski goggles. However, problems of initial run led to a retooling the following year, in 1970 Bachmann entered the HO trains market. A second retooling occurred around 1973, when trains started to be packaged in jewel cases. In 1978 Bachmann changed its logo to the present one, Trains began to be packaged in blue jewel cases. Bachmann Bros. held exclusive licenses to produce models of trains manufactured by Budd Company Passenger trains, Spectrum was considered a totally different company from the regular Bachmann company. The initial offering was a GE44 Ton Diesel, later on, the Spectrum line expanded to include a Pennsylvania Railroad K-4 Pacific, an EMD GP30, and a General Electric Dash 8-40C. In 1998, Bachmann introduced their Spectrum H0 scale 2-8-0 Consolidation, by 2000 Spectrum was no longer considered a separate product and became one of the Bachmann product lines, as Spectrum was finally included in Bachmanns regular catalogues. In 1988 Bachmann started to produce large scale train sets called the Big Haulers and they were first introduced in sets consisting of a locomotive, one or two freight cars and a caboose, Set 90100 was the first set. The locomotives were powered and were radio controlled
31.
Direct current
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Direct current is a flow of electrical charge carriers that always takes place in the same direction. The current need not always have the magnitude, but if it is to be defined as dc. This contrasts with alternating current which varies the direction of flow, sources of direct current include power supplies, electrochemical cells and batteries, and photovoltaic cells and panels. The intensity, or amplitude, of a direct current might fluctuate with time, in some such cases the dc has an ac component superimposed on it. An example of this is the output of a cell that receives a modulated light communications signal. A source of dc is sometimes called a dc generator, batteries and various other sources of dc produce a constant voltage. This is called pure dc and can be represented by a straight, the peak and effective values are the same. The peak to peak value is zero because the instantaneous amplitude never changes, in some instances the value of a dc voltage pulsates or oscillates rapidly with time, in a manner similar to the changes in an ac wave. The unfiltered output of a wave or a full wave rectifier. In 1820, Hans Christian Orsted discovered that electrical current creates a magnetic field and this discovery made scientists relate magnetism to the electric phenomena. In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. He improved a 50-year-old idea using lower current electricity, a vacuum inside the globe and a small carbonized filament. At that time, the idea of lightning was not new. Edison not only invented an incandescent electric light, but an electric lighting system contained all the necessary elements to make the incandescent light safe, economical. Prior to 1879, direct current electricity had been used in lighting for the outdoors and it was in the 1880s when the modern electric utility industry began. It was an evolution from street lighting systems and from gas and it was located in Lower Manhattan, on Pearl Street. This station provided light and electricity to customers in a one square mile range, the station was called Thomas Edisons Pearl Street Electricity Generating Station. This station introduced four elements of an electric utility system, Efficient distribution, competitive price, reliable central generation
32.
Die-cast models
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The term die-cast toy here refers to any toy or collectible model produced by using the die casting method of putting molten lead or zinc alloy in a mold to produce a particular shape. Such toys are made of metal, with plastic, rubber, glass, wholly plastic toys are made by a similar process of injection moulding, but the two methods are distinct because of the properties of the materials. The metal used in die-casting is either a lead alloy, or more commonly, Zamak, lead or iron are impurities that must be carefully avoided in Zamac, as they give rise to a deterioration of the metal most commonly called zinc pest. The terms white metal or pot metal are used when applied to alloys based more on lead or iron. Diecast toys were first produced early in the 20th century by such as Meccano in the United Kingdom, Dowst Brothers in the United States. The first models on the market were basic, consisting of a vehicle body with no interior. In the early days, as mentioned, it was common for impurities in the alloy to result in zinc pest, as a result, diecast toys made before World War II are difficult to find in good condition. The later high-purity Zamak alloy avoided this problem, lesney began making diecast toys in 1947. Their popular Matchbox 1-75 series was so named because there were always 75 different vehicles in the line and these toys became so popular that the Matchbox became widely used as a generic term for any diecast toy car, regardless of manufacturer. The popularity of diecast toys developed through the 1950s as their detail, more companies entered the field, including successful brands like Corgi brand, produced by Mettoy, Italian Mercury, Danish Tekno, or German Schuco and Gama Toys. Corgi Toys appeared in 1956 and pioneered the use of interiors, in 1968, Hot Wheels were introduced in the United States by Mattel to address the complaint that they had no line of toys for boys to balance their line of Barbie dolls for girls. Because they looked fast and were fast, Hot Wheels quickly became the most popular diecast cars in the toy market, becoming one of the top sellers. Although advertising had been used by Meccano since 1934, during the 1960s new companies began to use diecast vehicles exclusively as promotional items, the idea that children play a large role in a familys purchasing decisions was key. There is also the fact that children grown up to buy products that they were exposed to when young, Matchbox vehicles mildly advertised a variety of mainly British products like Singer sewing machines, Tetley tea, Pickfords movers, or Coca-Cola. As time passed, companies such as McDonalds, Sears Roebuck, Kodak and Texaco commissioned toymakers to produce promotional models featuring their names, one early example was an American Airlines London bus produced by Matchbox, an idea some other airlines quickly copied. Beginning in the mid 1970s, trucks and other commercial vehicles grew greatly in popularity, Matchbox started the trend when they re-launched their Models of Yesteryear range. They made a score of different versions of their Y-12 Ford Model T van, along with other trucks in colorful liveries such as Coca-Cola, Colmans Mustard and they also made promotional versions for Smiths Crisps and Harrods department store. Some models were made exclusively for certain markets and immediately became quite expensive elsewhere, Arnotts Biscuits, Corgi copied this idea when they expanded the Corgi Classics line in the mid-1980s, producing more than 50 versions of a 1920s era Thornycroft van
33.
Conrad Models
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Conrad GmbH is a German manufacturer of diecast scale models primarily in 1,50 scale for use both as toys and promotional models by heavy equipment manufacturers. Conrad is one of the few European diecast companies which have not outsourced production to China or elsewhere in Asia On early German toys the abbreviation Ges, gesch. was short for the German for trademark registered. This may have led to the name of the predecessor toy firm of Gescha which was established in 1923. Gescha had previously specialized in wind-up tin toys similar to Schuco Modell or Gama Toys, the Conrad website says that Conrad - a family name - started making diecast models in 1956, however Gescha used the Conrad name as a sub-brand first. Most diecast truck and heavy equipment models, for which Conrad became most well-known, were marketed as Gescha in the 1960s and 1970s, the name Conrad was increasingly used through the 1970s and by about 1980, the Gescha name was discontinued. The official website says that since 1987 the company has been run by Gunther Conrad assisted by his wife Gerde and their son, Michael. Thus the company has remained a family owned business, probably since about 1956 when the Conrad name was introduced when the Conrad family took control of Gescha, Conrad today has a line of over 90 separate models, mostly trucks and cranes. While NZG Modelle focuses more on construction and earth moving equipment, several models, however, are quite distinct, like stationary construction cranes, tunnel borers, and jack hammer trucks. Lately, some NZG Models have been marketed under the Conrad name, for example, Conrad had the Caterpillar line of construction vehicles through about 1990, but the licenses changed over to NZG sometime after. Model details were generally finely crafted, intricately detailed cooling fins under the rear of the tanker were surprising considering one couldnt even see them unless the model was turned over. During the 1980s in particular, and similar to NZG, Conrad introduced automobile promotionals mainly in 1,43 scale, fit and finish of the auto models was very good and comparable to other German manufacturers, Schuco Modell, Schabak, Gama Toys, or NZG. Conrad focused on Volkswagen and Audi, by contrast, NZG did more Mercedes-Benz and Porsche models while Cursor focused on Mercedes and BMW. Conrad did, however, do some Mercedes-Benz replicas like the 280TE wagon, also similar to NZG, Mercedes-Benzes were cast in a larger 1,35 scale, indicating the marketing preferences of the client. Also NZG made Porsche promotionals, while Conrad did not, but, like NZG Conrad has not produced automobile models since the 1980s so as to more on models of trucks. This kind of relationship, however, was more common in France where even Citroen made its own promotional models. This marketing relationship also emphasizes the probability that, to avoid confusion, Conrad model cars were packaged in boxes virtually identical to those of other German manufacturers like NZG and Cursor. Boxes were normally silver and standardized and this is another indication demonstrating that, here, the requirements of the client drove the appearance and marketing of the promotional product. The model companies are closely knit to the real companies requirements - something not quite as common with American promotional makers, the uniform packaging situation among different model manufacturers, then, causes brand confusion
34.
Corgi Toys
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Corgi Toys is the name of a range of die-cast toy vehicles produced by Mettoy Playcraft Ltd. in the United Kingdom. They decided to market a range of toy vehicles as competition to Meccanos Dinky Toys model vehicles, Corgi Toys were introduced in the UK in July 1956 and were manufactured in Swansea, Wales, for twenty seven years before the company went into liquidation. A management buy-out re-formed the company as Corgi Toys Limited in March 1984, in 1989, the management sold the Corgi brand to Mattel and the factory was retained under the name of Microlink Industries Ltd. In 1995, Corgi regained its independence as a new company, Corgi Classics Limited, the range was exported worldwide and sold in large numbers. Mettoy became established in Northampton and within six years of the companys founding, a production plant was built at Fforestfach in Swansea, South Wales, to manufacture the new range of Corgi Toys. This provided many new jobs in an area of high unemployment following the scaling down of coal mining operations. Prior to the introduction of Corgi Toys, Mettoy mainly produced tin plate toys, however, in the early 1950s, they began producing a few products in cast metal. The first was a large scale wind-up racer made with a cast aluminum body, the body material was soon changed to die cast zinc and it was refitted with cast wheels and molded rubber tires. Other models followed and the line was given the name Castoys. These were the ancestors of Corgi Toys. Two models from this range are notable to Corgi Toys collectors, the first was a promotional Karrier Bantam bottle truck produced for CWS Soft Drinks, but not otherwise released. The second was a die cast service ramp used in a tin plate service station set, both of these models would later reappear in slightly revised forms as Corgi Toys 455 and 1401. The name Corgi Toys was chosen by Philip Ullmann in honour of the new home, taken from the Welsh breed of dog, the Corgi. The name was short and easy to remember, further aligning the range with their rival Dinky Toys, Corgi Toys also included plastic glazing, which lent the models a greater authenticity, and they carried the advertising slogan the ones with windows. The 1956 releases were all familiar British vehicles, six family saloon cars, Ford Consul, Austin A50 Cambridge, Morris Cowley, Vauxhall Velox, Rover 90, Riley Pathfinder and Hillman Husky, and two sports cars, Austin-Healey 100 and Triumph TR2. The Mechanical versions, as they were known, were indicated by an M suffix to the number and were available in different colour schemes. They were issued with tougher die-cast bases to support the weight of the motor. Mechanical versions did not sell well, partly due to a significantly higher purchase price
35.
Fleischmann (model railroads)
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Fleischmann is a German manufacturer of model railway products. Fleischmann was founded in Nuremberg in 1887 by Jean Fleischmann, as a toy company and their first model train, in O scale, was produced in 1938. Their first H0 scale products were introduced in 1952 and their N scale Piccolo product line in 1969, nowadays, Fleischmann is a well-established brand name in the German model railway industry, rivalling Märklin in market share. Since they focus almost exclusively on central European prototypes, Fleischmann is relatively unknown outside that area, at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1952, Fleischmann first began presenting its very own lineup of H0 scale models. Building off their prior preference to use 2 rail DC, the technology was implemented into the H0 scale, since its early introduction, it was the companys intention to completely exploit this technology, and give its fans the opportunity to determine the direction of the trains in advance. The tough metal tracks with discreet cardboard sleepers was indication of Fleischmanns objective, Fleischmann offers a model track with full profile rails, Thinking turnouts, a turntable, and even a Rack & Pinion railway. In February 2008 Fleischmann was taken over by Modelleisenbahn GmbH, which also owns Roco, the two companies continue as separate brands under Modelleisenbahn GmbH, while benefiting from economies of scale through joined development projects, marketing and procurement. Fleischmann official homepage Fleischmann US distributor News item on Roco takeover
36.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
37.
Voltage
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Voltage, electric potential difference, electric pressure or electric tension is the difference in electric potential energy between two points per unit electric charge. The voltage between two points is equal to the work done per unit of charge against an electric field to move the test charge between two points. This is measured in units of volts, voltage can be caused by static electric fields, by electric current through a magnetic field, by time-varying magnetic fields, or some combination of these three. A voltmeter can be used to measure the voltage between two points in a system, often a reference potential such as the ground of the system is used as one of the points. A voltage may represent either a source of energy or lost, used, given two points in space, x A and x B, voltage is the difference in electric potential between those two points. Electric potential must be distinguished from electric energy by noting that the potential is a per-unit-charge quantity. Like mechanical potential energy, the zero of electric potential can be chosen at any point, so the difference in potential, i. e. the voltage, is the quantity which is physically meaningful. The voltage between point A to point B is equal to the work which would have to be done, per unit charge, against or by the electric field to move the charge from A to B. The voltage between the two ends of a path is the energy required to move a small electric charge along that path. Mathematically this is expressed as the integral of the electric field. In the general case, both an electric field and a dynamic electromagnetic field must be included in determining the voltage between two points. Historically this quantity has also called tension and pressure. Pressure is now obsolete but tension is used, for example within the phrase high tension which is commonly used in thermionic valve based electronics. Voltage is defined so that negatively charged objects are pulled towards higher voltages, therefore, the conventional current in a wire or resistor always flows from higher voltage to lower voltage. Current can flow from lower voltage to higher voltage, but only when a source of energy is present to push it against the electric field. This is the case within any electric power source, for example, inside a battery, chemical reactions provide the energy needed for ion current to flow from the negative to the positive terminal. The electric field is not the only factor determining charge flow in a material, the electric potential of a material is not even a well defined quantity, since it varies on the subatomic scale. A more convenient definition of voltage can be found instead in the concept of Fermi level, in this case the voltage between two bodies is the thermodynamic work required to move a unit of charge between them
38.
Kew
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Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens, now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is also the home of important historical documents such as Domesday Book, successive Tudor, Stuart and Georgian monarchs maintained links with Kew. During the French Revolution, many established themselves there and it was the home of several artists in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since 1965 Kew has incorporated the area of North Sheen which includes St Philip and All Saints. It is now in a combined Church of England ecclesiastical parish with St Lukes Church, today, Kew is an expensive residential area because of its suburban hallmarks. Among these are open spaces, schools, transport links, architecture, restaurants, no high rise buildings, modest road sizes, trees. Most of Kew developed in the late 19th century, following the arrival of the District line of the Underground. The earliest written reference to Kew is thought to be contained in Julius Caesars Gallic Wars, the name Kew is a combination of two words, the Old French kai and Old English hoh. The land spur is formed by the bend in the Thames, the name was recorded in 1327 as Cayho. Kew forms part of the Richmond Park UK Parliament constituency, the current Member of Parliament is Sarah Olney. For elections to the European Parliament it is part of the London constituency, for elections to the London Assembly it is part of the South West London Assembly constituency. Kew was added in 1892 to the Municipal Borough of Richmond which had formed two years earlier, and which was in the county of Surrey. In 1965, under the London Government Act 1963, the boundaries of Greater London were expanded to include Kew which, with Richmond, the fashion clothing retailer Jigsaws headquarters are in Mortlake Road, Kew. A former industry in Kew was that of manufacturing, by the Caxton Name Plate Manufacturing Company. The company was founded in 1964 and folded in 1997, another former industry in Kew was car and lorry manufacturing. From the 1920s until 1967 Dodge and later Chrysler both made cars and lorries here, and one of Chryslers vehicles was called the Kew, Kew Retail Park stands on the site of the former factory. Henry V developed a Carthusian monastery to the south west of where Kew Observatory now stands, Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester was granted lands at Kew in 1517. When he died in 1526 he left his Kew estates to his wife, Eleanor
39.
Pumping station
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Pumping stations are facilities including pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of systems, such as the supply of water to canals, the drainage of low-lying land. A pumping station is, by definition, a part of a pumped-storage hydroelectricity installation. In countries with canal systems, pumping stations are also frequent, because of the way the system of canal locks work, water is lost from the upper part of a canal each time a vessel passes through. Also, most lock gates are not watertight, so some water leaks from the levels of the canal to those lower down. Obviously, the water has to be replaced or eventually the upper levels of the canal would not hold water to be navigable. Canals are usually fed by diverting water from streams and rivers into the parts of the canal, but if no suitable source is available. An excellent example of a pumping station is the Claverton Pumping Station on the Kennet and Avon Canal in southern England. This pumps water from the nearby River Avon to the canal using pumps driven by a waterwheel which is powered by the river, where no external water supply is available, back pumping systems may be employed. Water is extracted from the canal below the lowest lock of a flight and is pumped back to the top of the flight, when low-lying areas of land are drained, the general method is to dig drainage ditches. However, if the area is sea level then it is necessary to pump the water upwards into water channels that finally drain into the sea. The Victorians understood this concept, and in the United Kingdom they built pumping stations with water pumps, in Lincolnshire, large areas of wetland at sea level, called The Fens, were turned into rich arable farmland by this method. The land is full of nutrients because of the accumulation of mud that created the land initially. Elsewhere, pumping stations are used to water that has found its way into low-lying areas as a result of leakage or flooding. In more recent times, a pumping station provides an efficient. They are suitable for building services collection and pumping of liquids like surface water, wastewater or sewage from areas where drainage by gravity is not possible. A package pumping station is a system, built in a housing manufactured from strong, impact-resistant materials such as precast concrete, polyethylene. The unit is supplied with internal pipework fitted, pre-assembled ready for installation into the ground, after which the submersible pumps, traditional site constructed systems have the valve vault components installed in a separate structure
40.
Bassett-Lowke
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Bassett-Lowke was a toy company in Northampton, England, founded by Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke in 1898 or 1899, that specialized in model railways, boats and ships, and construction sets. Bassett-Lowke started as a business, although it designed and manufactured some items. Bassett-Lowke was an organization, contracting manufacturers such as Twining Models and Winteringham Ltd. Until World War One, the company also carried models made by Bing, the name of the metal casting company referred to in Mr. Heads book was Brighten Manufacturing Company, LTD32, Great St. Helens, London, England. This metal casting company was within walking distance from the prominent glass display windows of the Bassett-Lowke shop located on High Holborn St. in London, the metal ship models supplied by this small company were referred to in the Bassett-Lowke sales literature simply as B. M. C. The collaboration between Bassett-Lowke and B. M. C. produced the first metal ship models in a scale to each other ever made. These B. M. C. models were the forerunners of all the scale metal recognition models made by companies in later years such as Tremo, Viking and Authenticast. The resulting model fleet in metal carried in the Bassett-Lowke catalog was of class of ship in the British navy then in commission as of 1914. The models were formed in lead with the wire masts cast into the hulls in a scale of one inch equals 150 feet or 1/1800. They were painted and issued in numbered boxed sets, paper flags supplied with each set to be cut out, every class of vessel was easily recognizable by the funnels, guns and masts. In addition to the models, B. M. C. produced a fort with movable guns, four lighthouses. The game was supplied with fifteen metal ship models including two mine sweepers and two submarines, ship models often appear for sale on internet auctions and at toy shows. Many times at these sales the B. M. C. models are found mixed with copies made by two later companies. The B. M. C. models can be distinguished from the copies since only the B. M. C. models have full-length wire masts cast into the hulls. The first type of copies are 26 models made by Minifigs These are cast in lead, have no wire masts and have large numbers inscribed on the bottom. The second type of copies comprise a group of four models made by Crescent which are cast in pot metal and they have numbers near the starboard stern numbering B.1, B.2, B.3, or B.4. Curiously, these pot-metal models retain the numbering system that is cast into the hulls of the four B. M. C models from which they were derived. These Crescent copies mimic the B. M. C, castings of the B. I Duncan, B. II Swiftsure, B. III King Edward VII, and the B. IV Lord Nelson
41.
Hornby Railways
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Hornby Railways is a British model railway brand. Its roots date back to 1901, when founder Frank Hornby received a patent for his Meccano construction toy, the first clockwork train was produced in 1920. In 1938, Hornby launched its first 00 gauge train, in 1964, Hornby and Meccano were bought by their competitor, Tri-Ang, and sold on when Tri-ang went into receivership. Hornby Railways became independent in the 1980s, Hornby was at first a tradename for the railway productions of Meccano Ltd and based in Liverpool, which released its first train, a clockwork 0 gauge model, in 1920. An electric train soon followed but was under-designed and the few that were made were sold out in France, in 1925, a much more successful electric model was introduced, operating on the high voltage of 110 volts AC power. Safety concerns saw low voltage 4V and then 6V motors introduced, followed by a reliable 20V AC system, however, clockwork remained the mainstay of the Hornby 0 gauge trains until 1937 and became the only power available in Liverpool-made 0 gauge trains from 1949. Competitors in the UK were Leeds Model Company and Bassett-Lowke, even though the export models were often painted in foreign liveries, Hornby trains looked very British. Hornby attempted to break into the American market by setting up a factory in 1927 in Elizabeth, New Jersey and these were colourful and attractive, but low-market and only clockwork. In late 1929, Meccano Ltd. sold its New Jersey factory to the A. C. Gilbert Company, the leftover inventory was sold in Canada and in the UK and some of the tooling was reused for products in other markets. Meccano introduced its OO scale trains in 1938 under the name Hornby Dublo, the locomotives were diecast metal, and the carriages and wagons were generally made of tinplate. This was a well planned range of electric and clockwork models. This led to the adoption of OO as a broadly accepted modelling standard in the UK, as for their O gauge locomotives, electric Hornby Dublo locomotives ran on a third rail electric system with the track built on a pressed tinplate base. Both OO and HO use the track gauge, but their scales are different. This has had the effect, remaining to this day, of making their gauge an apparent 4 ft 1 ½ in rather than the standard gauge of 4 ft 8 ½ in. The range expanded quickly, but was curtailed from 1940 due to World War II, production resumed after the war but did not reach full capacity until 1948. Clockwork models were not produced in 00 scale after the war, in 2008, a special commemorative model of LNER Class A44498 Sir Nigel Gresley was produced, in period packaging, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of this introduction. Like its counterparts Bassett-Lowke and Exley in the UK and Lionel and American Flyer in the US, Hornby thrived in the first half of the 1950s, the company was slow to recognise the threat posed by rival manufacturers and to realise the potential of plastic. In 1959, far too late, Hornby introduced two-rail track and moulded plastic rolling stock, in 1964, Lines Bros Ltd. the parent company of rival Tri-ang Railways, purchased Meccano Ltd. and merged Hornby and Tri-ang into Tri-ang Hornby
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Heljan
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Heljan A/S is a Danish model railway company based in Søndersø. Originally specialising in decorations and accessories for model railways, it has now developed a substantial range of rolling stock. It has diversified into modelling the British scene, and since 2002 have released several OO gauge diesel locomotives, British Outline now forms the biggest part of the Heljan business and UK operations are run from Denmark through an agent. In line with other train companies and to keep costs to a minimum models are manufactured in China. Heljans current UK OO gauge diesel loco range consists of British Rail Class 14s, 15s, 16s, 17s, 26s, 27s, 28s, 33s, 35s, 47s, 52s,53 Falcon, 57s, 58s, D0260 Lion and HS4000 Kestrel. The British Rail Class 86s are currently the only AC Electric outline models in the range and they have won praise for locomotive models in a wide variety of liveries. Several different models of the British Railways Waggon und Maschinenbau built Railbuses were released in February 2012 and they also produce OO gauge British Rail Dogfish ballast wagons and Cargowaggon bogie freight vehicles. Their UK O gauge range currently consists of British Rail Class 20s, 26s, 33s, 35s, 37s, 47s, the O gauge range also includes British Railways Mark 1 carriages in a number of liveries. O gauge models are typically supplied un-numbered and with separate detailing parts, in the UK, a number of limited edition locomotives have been commissioned by model retailers. Several different models of the iconic LNER EM1 and EM2 DC Electric locomotives constructed for use on the Woodhead Route are currently being produced for Olivias Trains of Sheffield, a Midland Pullman is also planned. Several standard Heljan models have been produced in special, limited edition, the standard Falcon, Kestrel and Lion models are all high volume limited editions. Traditionally, Heljan has produced many Continental prototypes with H0 models such as the Swedish State Railways Class T21 and Danish State Railways class MY, MX, MO and P 4-4-2. Highly acclaimed, working Turntable, Traverser and Container crane models are available in H0 scale and are suitable for 00 operation. A number of building kits are also produced in HO/OO. Planned models in OO gauge are a British Rail DP2 and several versions of the Class 128 parcels DMU, in O Gauge a British Rail Class 31 and Class 52 Western are planned but production is dependent on enough customers placing advanced orders for them. It is hoped that these will mirror the success of the Deltic when it was released in 2011. Heljan www. heljan. dk List of UK suppliers Howes Models - Heljan UK supplier
