ALL ABOARD!
Welcome to the Model Train Depot. Toy trains are at the center of a rapidly expanding hobby . The industry supporting the hobby is bursting with new products and lines, reproductions of old ones, replacement parts, and restoration supplies. If you are a railfan, scale model rairoader, hi-railer, collector or investor, chances are we have something here for you.
Don't be bullied into paying marked up prices at the department store or local hobby shop. Here you will find what you are looking for at discount prices. Whether it is a piece of rolling stock, a set, tracks, transformer or replacement part, the Model Train Depot has it covered. So, take a look around, add to your collection, or start a new hobby!
HISTORY OR MODEL RAILROADING
It is impossible to pinpoint when and where this model railroading emphasis began. The first practitioners were probably industrial model makers, engineers, machinists, tinkerers, and electrical experimenters living in the technological boom period after World War I. Since toy trains had been on the market since the turn of the century, it is safe to assume that many scale model railroads evolved from toy train layouts, spurred by the desire of their owners to make the trains more realistic in appearance and operation. In the 1920s, whatever could not be fabricated by modifying toy locomotives and rolling stock had to be built from scratch.
Scale model railroading came of age in the 1930s. Early in the decade, several companies began to service the hobby, profiding car construction kits, accessories, parts and supplies. National workshop and craft-type magazines regularly ran how-to articles about railroad models, and the hobby spawned a number of periodical of it's own. Many adults became scale model railroaders because they loved trains.
Recognizing another potential market, the major toy train manufacturers produced items targeted at the scale modelers in the years right before World War II. Lionel put out two streamliners, a Hudson, and a switch engine in 1/4-inch scale for O gaugers, and a small line in OO for those who had to conserve space. Meanwhile, A.C. Gilbert/American Flyer offered several HO sets and then retooled the entire line to 3/16-inch scale, paving the way for conversion to S gauge after the war. By the end of the 1930's the most popular scale was O, although inroads made by the smaller HO and OO trains had many modelers rethinking their use of available space.
After World War II, HO became the reigning scale, and N and Z scales, which were even smaller where in the experimental stage. During this time the rift between scale model railroaders and toy train enthusiasts widened, eventually causing a split. Scale modelers became their own distinct clasiification of train people.
Some toy trian operators continued to try to make the transition to exact scale, but many just gave up. The term "hi-railer," was coined in the 1940's for those operators who built layouts that combined elements of both scale and toy railroading. By that time the trians themselves had taken on a more realistic appearance with better detail and proportion. They were appealing to those modelers who did not have the inclination, time, or skills needed to build the trains yet wanted to enjoy having a model railroad.
(Taken from Toy Train Collecting And Operating by author John Grams)