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Hornby Series
In 1901 Frank Hornby (1863-1936) started selling "Mechanics Made Easy". The "Meccano" trade name adopted a few years later, produced a construction system of metal strips with perforations for easy nut-and-bolt assembly.
The date of the first appearance of Hornby trains is uncertain. Some creditable authorities believe that Hornby trains were available before 1914, or in limited numbers in 1915, in Gauge "O" clockwork, and were available during World War I, though these claims have never been adequately verified. Nonetheless, it is certain, by 1920, Hornby clockwork trains were catalogued under the name "Hornby Trains"; and electric-powered Hornby trains first appeared in 1925.
The first Hornby trains set consisted of a small Gauge "O" 0-4-0 clockwork locomotive, numbered "2710", with a tender and an open wagon. In 1938, "Hornby Dublo" (i.e., Double "O", Gauge "OO") range of toy trains, both clockwork and electric, set a higher standard of truth-to-prototype with a relatively accurate Gauge "O" model of the Southern Railway "Schools Class" locomotive "Eton" and shortly followed by Hornbys most celebrated model, "Princess Elizabeth".
Construction of Hornby trains was halted with the onset of World War II. Production of the toy trains resumed in 1946, though in the immediate post-War years, a general shortage of raw materials interfered with the high demand of Hornby Dublo. Hence, new toy trains items were not introduced until the early 1950s. "In 1953 the old railway company colors were discontinued, and all models thereafter appeared in British Railways livery."
By the late 1950s, when construction of plastic toys begun, sales began to decline, and in 1965, Hornby was taken over by Triang (Lines Brothers), who incorporated some items from the Dublo line into its catalogue.
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