This toy steam locomotive, made between 1954 and 1960, was built by Meccano Ltd for their 0-gauge range of Hornby toy trains. The Hornby toy trains and accessories are a microcosm of railway social and technological history in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century.

Trains were the first form of modern transport to be reproduced as toys. Wooden pull-along trains were available in Britain from the 1840s, not long after the commercial introduction of full-size railways. By the 1870s the wooden toy train was replaced with tin-plate locomotives, hauling carriages, which were often powered by clockwork or steam. The German toy manufacturers dominated the world market at this time. The First World War broke this monopoly and the rise of patriotism in Britain saw an emphasis on local toy production there.

The scene was set for the English inventor of Meccano, Frank Hornby, to market his 0-gauge trains in 1920. Hornby trains became the most comprehensive ever produced. The series developed into finely-detailed locomotives, as well as commercial vans, wagons and tankers together with a range of accessories including stations, goods sheds, signals, crossings, water tanks and signal boxes. They were exported from the Liverpool factory to many countries including Australia, Canada, Egypt, New Zealand, Rhodesia and South Africa. In Australia, Hornby trains of the four major British railway companies became as familiar to boys as Australian rolling stock.

Two years after Frank Hornby's death in 1936 Meccano Ltd introduced the smaller Hornby Dublo (00-gauge) table top trains which were more affordable and convenient than the 0-gauge. This gauge became the most popular type of toy trains for the next 50 years. From the late 1950s no further effort was devoted to 0-gauge trains and by the 1960s their popularity had diminished. Today model railway production is aimed at adult collectors and is increasingly removed from the traditional children's toy trains. Many of the original collectors have kept and added to their interwar childhood 0-gauge toy train layouts with stations, tunnels, landscapes and rolling stock forming a historical diorama of twentieth century land transport.

Marsh, Hugo, "Miller's Toys & Games Antiques Checklist", Reed International Books Limited, London, 1995

Margaret Simpson
Curator, Science & Industry
January 2008

The No.40 or Type 40 tank locomotive was made by Hornby from 1954 and is very similar to the Type 101 which had been issued in the four railway company liveries from 1947. Both the Type 40 and the 101 tin-printed tank locomotives were much less expensive versions of the Hornby No.1 locomotive which was enamelled.

The Type 40, with its single black livery, was in fact Hornby's rather slow response to the nationalisation of the British railway system on the full-size railways in 1948 which had seen the removal of the four former private railway companies.

The design of the British Rail emblem printed on the tank sides of the Type 40 locomotive is a good indicator of its production date. The emblem featuring a lion holding a wheel framed in a gold-lined circle were printed on locomotives made between 1954 and 1960 while emblems used after 1960 had the lion over or straddling a wheel. The Type 40 tank locomotive was issued until 1964.

Graebe, Chris and Julie, "The Hornby Gauge 0 System", New Cavendish Books, London, 2002

This toy steam locomotive is part of a large collection purchased by the Museum in 1985 from the tin toy collector, Ken Finlayson. As a boy, Finlayson admired steam trains but never owned a train set. As an adult he began collecting Hornby model trains, and his interest spread to other toy trains and tin toys. He increased his collection at auctions, swap meets and market stalls, and through his connections with toy dealers and other serious collectors. Some toys were simply found sitting neglected on the shelves of remote country newsagencies, brand new and never opened.

Finlayson's knowledge and love of toys brought him a collection of nearly 2000 items, including highly collectable tin-plate toys manufactured by respected names such as Carette, Bing, Marklin and Lehmann, as well as a variety of other German, English and Japanese makers. The Finlayson collection contains every type of transport toy - cars, trucks, tractors, fire engines, buses, motorcycles, aeroplanes, ships and trains, as well as novelty toys, robots, kitchen toys and Meccano sets. It represents the type of toys that were available in Australia throughout most of the twentieth century, including ones made here by Boomaroo, Wyn-toy, Cyclops, Ferris and Robilt. These Australian toys were usually built from heavy-gauge pressed steel rather than thin tin plate, making them sturdy enough for rough treatment in Australian backyards and sandpits.

Toy steam locomotive, Hornby No.40 tank locomotive "British Railways 3 82011", type 0-4-0, clockwork operated, 0-gauge, metal, made by Meccano Ltd, Liverpool, England, 1954-1960

This toy steam engine is a tank locomotive. A tank locomotive carries both its water supply in tanks placed around the boiler (in this case in side tanks) and a small supply of coal in a bunker behind the footplate rather than in a separate hauled tender.

The toy tank locomotive has a lithographed tin-printed livery of a goods locomotive black with red and white fine lining, and four, red, doubled-lined boiler bands. The locomotive is fitted with a steam dome, front and rear buffers, lamp brackets on the smoke box door and front buffer beam, coupled wheels, cylinders and is clockwork operated. The British Railways' emblem of a lion straddling a wheel is printed on the water tank sides. The locomotive numbers "3" underneath which is "82011" are carried on the bunker sides.

Made: 1954 - 1960

85/2583-29

1954 - 1960

85 mm

70 mm

190 mm