The Very First Toy Train

Cannot help you with your quest but I wonder if you have tried watching any episodes of

'HIiii on wheels'?   (Those last two letters are 'double toothpick' cause this program will

not let me type H_ _.)

That series is very informative tho sometimes violent in some scenes.

Very interesting question.  I found this:  http://www.greatesthobby.com/wgh/ms_2234.html

I have read (cannot recall where) that in the
U.S. the first toy trains appeared not long after the first real ones, c. 1830, and were wood with printed paper overlays.  Sorry, no pictures.

Bernard,

I am interested in watching it yes......but as with any series I wish to watch it from the beginning....I know it started last year or the year before. can I view the whole series on pay per view? 

The Erie Gauge war started in1864 and lasted 1 year. It had nothing to do with the Erie Railroad but instead had to do with the town of Erie wanting to remain insular and protect its own interests as opposed to those who would come in and by pass their town on the way to another where the labor wouldn't be so expensive. The local authorities hired about 150 men or "Rippers" who ripped and destroyed 8 miles of track. Sound familiar?

On a larger scale, we are going through the same thing now with China.....Back then the forces that were for nationalizing the gauge of track were called Madisonian as opposed to the way the Jefferonians regionalized approach.

If we had taken an insular approach and stuck with the small townish way of doing things certainly we wouldn't be as far reaching as we are now.

This is one thing I am glad that we have our system of government for. Standardization made things much easier in the long run, hooray for standardization!

Mike Maurice

PS. Even though they are long dead, we owe a great deal of our gratitude to these early tycoons and railroad pioneers who took our country (by hook and crook) out of the stone age and into the Iron Age.