MY EARLY AMERICAN
TOY TRAIN COLLECTION

- NEW ACQUISITIONS FOR 2008 -

DP Clark Floor Train - circa 1905

DP Clark is usually credited with introducing the floor "friction" toy in the 1880s but there were so many imitators that sometimes the history gets cloudy. From what I can learn DP Clark was the first to patent the friction toy with a partner. A few years later, Mr. William Schieble became a partner in the DP Clark operation. In the early 1900’s Clark left the company and Schieble began making his own toys under the Schieble Toy Company moniker. Just a few years later, Clark returned to toy manufacturing with the Dayton Toy Company and the lawsuits began. I’m not sure anyone is quite clear on who sued who but both Schieble and Dayton spent many years and a great deal of money fighting for rights to the friction mechanisms begun at DP Clark.

This loco is from about 1905 and is of wood and sheet metal construction (total length 19 inches). Earlier models were of basically solid wood, both having wheels of cast iron.

Hill Climber Group

This is a group of four "Hill Climber" type toys from my collection. Left to right we have a Schieble loco (ca. 1920), a Converse "Pay as you enter" trolley from about 1910, a Morton Converse loco (ca. 1900), a my newest acquisition - a DP Clark loco from about 1905. For size comparison note that the trolley is 22 inches in length.

Note - I've played with all of these on my garage floor, and the most impressive performer is the DP Clark - a very surprisingly good runner. One can quickly see why these toys were so popular in their day.

Early Small Lionel sets

I've had these sets for years but show them here because they represent the lower end of the Lionel line in the late 1920s. They came with simple 4 wheel passenger cars and an electric outline loco. The bottom set, consisting of a 248 loco and 529/530 cars is the same as my father's childhood train set (the original being in the care of my older brother). This is the set that I remember most around the Family Christmas tree and that has picqued my interest in early toy trains.

Small Ives sets - circa 1915

Here shown are early, lower end, Ives sets from the 1915 period. They all have the simple 4 wheel 50/51 passenger cars - the black wheels put them in the 1914/1915 era as other years used bright metal wheels. Each car is 4 color lithographed (with slight tone variations) and different roof colors.

Top set is pulled by a cast iron wind-up loco #2, the middle a tinplate metal electric 3250, and the bottom a cast iron electric 3200. The middle set was my first Ives set and the beautiful litho of the cars lead me to start collecting early Ives trains.

Lincoln Log Railroad Figures

I grew up with these popular, lead, O-gauge railroad worker figures and when I started collecting old toy trains acquiring them was high on my list. Fortunately they have survived in great numbers and are easy to find in good condition. It soon became a bigger challenge to collect the various original boxes. I have 3 types.

As shown above, the earliest box was the brown, long box on the right (1930s), followed by the brightly colored one (middle) in the !940s. In the early 50s they came in a box which could be folded into an O gauge Station (the top becoming the roof) and which even contained a cardboard strip of printed O gauge track (left)! Lincoln Logs and these figures were made by J.L. Wright, the brother of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.