John O’Rear gives a nice potted history of toy steam; rather than writing up one of my own, I shall quote from his webpage at http://johno.myiglou.com/steammain.html.
Model steam engines enjoyed a popularity starting in the 1880's, and extended into the 1960's. These models really were not a child's toy, any more than an elaborate model train is a child's toy today. Expensive, ornate, and complex to operate, they were more of an art form, practiced for a brief period, and now virtually extinct.
Beyond mechanical sculpture, these steam engines also served as a primary information resource. Mechanical models played a greater role in the emerging industrial revolution, than they do today. They were the 19th century counterpart of film and video. In a period of time that saw dramatic change in how our civilization was powered, but no motion pictures to illustrate the complex workings of the new engines, models were a primary instructional and reference material. If you wanted to see it in action, a model was the only way, and the public was hungry for knowledge of the machines that were transforming their lives. This was the Victorian era, when anything was possible, even having a functional model of a power generating plant on your desk before you had electrical power in your house. Machines were transforming the world, and everyone but everyone wanted to be in on it.
Upwards of five million model steam engines were made during this time. Most of the finest live steam engines were made in the Nuremberg area of Germany, which had become one of the centers of precision machinery manufacturing. In this locale could be found everything mechanical, from the first pocket watch; the Nuremburg Egg, to the precision drafing instruments with which engineers were designing even greater creations. Throughout the 1800’s, Nuremburg was famous for the very elaborate mechanical clockwork models, and this talent reached its peak with the live steam models, and the toys that they powered. In Bavaria, there resided the finest metalworkers in Germany, who were in general the finest metalworkers in the world. This was no coincidence, Nuremburg is located in one of the richest mineral deposits in all of Europe, and had a ready supply of the various metals. Precision machinery was invented there, and refined to a point of excellence.
Eight major manufacturers of model steam engines conducted business in the Nuremburg area: Bing, Carette, Doll, Falk, Krauss Mohr, Marklin, Plank and Schoenner. There were a number of minor manufacturers as well; Bischoff, Eberl, Hess, Heubeck, Issmayer, Neumeyer, and Scholler to name a few, but none approached the major builders in either volume or variety. Fleischmann also turned out a line of steam engines during this time, but their products were much simpler than those of the Nuremburg masters. There were two major builders of elaborate steam models in France: Rossignol and Radiguet, but current prices have precluded adding examples to this collection. The trade was not limited to Germany and France: Mamod, Bowman, Burnac and others in the UK, and Jensen, Empire, Ind-X, and Weeden in the US also produced modest steam models. None matched the elegance, the variety, or the precision of the Nuremburg makers.
If there were a 'golden age' of live steam models, it would be in the 1890-1930 time frame. Around 1900, production soared, as did diversity, and continued until the early 1930s. Even in the post WW1 era, when Germany was bankrupt in the wake of the Versailles treaty, elaborate models were still in high demand. The Nuremburg makers were one of the few bright economic successes in an otherwise dismal situation.
It was not to last. Schoenner had ceased active production by 1905, though formal purchase by Falk was not completed until 1912. Carette, still a French citizen, was deported from Germany in 1917, his company taken by Karl Bub. The worst was yet to come. As the Nuremburg makers rode the post WW1 boom to success, so they followed the subsequent Depression to failure. Germany was particularly hard hit, and precision model makers were the first casualties. Only those companies that had diversified survived, and those who specialized in elaborate models: Doll, Plank, Falk, Krauss Mohr, and Bing, fell one by one.
Bing invested heavily in an ill advised US division, the Bing Corporation of NY, headed up by a family member, John Bing. The financial losses from this contributed to their collapse. In at least four cases, Bing, Falk, Plank, and Doll, anti-Semitism of the 1930’s led to or hastened their demise, as the owners were Jewish. A most ungrateful fate, as those companies had kept thousands of people employed during the German depression of the 1920's. Plank sold out to Schaller, who bought their factory largely to get the optics from their magic lantern line. Fleischmann ended up with Doll, and produced Doll labeled engines as late as 1949. I have recently acquired what appears to be a post war Doll engine. Falk also sold out to Schaller. Marklin and Fleischmann survived on their model trains, but the rest disappeared.
After the end of WW2, the German toy industry was, like everything else in Germany, pretty much demolished. Fleischmann got a boost from the Marshall Plan. In the US Zone, the 'tin toys for tinned food' program was devised, whereby the toymakers got their factories operational, and sent the entire year's production to the US, in return for food supplies. This program is the reason that some older Fleischmann engines with 'Made in Germany US Zone' printed on the bottom, can be found in the US. The British took a somewhat different view, probably influenced by the large piles of rubble in their cities, and the large number of fresh graves nearby. British steam blossomed for a brief period, in the late 1940's and 1950's, but the engines rarely made it outside of the UK. Mamod and SEL were the major makers, with a host of smaller marques as well. Sadly, this mini boom was just in time to see the steam model lose it's popularity, and Mamod was the only UK manufacturer to survive. (not counting Stuart, who still thrives to this day)
By 1960, the model steam engine had become virtually extinct, kept in production only by Jensen, Mamod, Fleischmann, Marklin, and a latecomer to the market: Wilhelm Schroder, or Wilesco. While Wilesco dates back to 1912, their early business was kitchen utensils. They didn't begin producing their own steam engines until around 1950. Prior to this, they produced steam engine parts under subcontract to Fleischmann in the 1930's. While model steam engines were still being made in quantity in the 1960’s, the elaborate artwork had given way to austerity, in deference to the declining market. By the 1970's, Marklin and Fleischmann had dropped out, leaving only Jensen, Mamod, and Wilesco as major makers of steam models. In the post WW2 era, steam had been supplanted by the internal combustion engine, gas turbine, and nuclear reactor as the power source of the future, while motion pictures and television replaced models as a primary teaching and reference tool. And so, the interest in expensive mechanical renderings of the last century's motive power also became extinct.
All that remains are the fossils of an earlier era, elegant remnants of an elegant time.
My first exposure to a toy steam engine was in an educational setting. My high school Physics teacher had one, and brought it to class to demonstrate how the expansive power of steam was used to drive steam engines and turbines. The engine he owned was a Jensen; I think it was a Jensen Steam Engine Model 70G, as pictured below. It did not burn fuel to boil the water, rather, it had a heating coil, and was plugged into the wall. It would generate steam as long as the boiler had water in it. Needless to say, I was facinated with it (since I remember it to this day.)
The early toy steam builders made mostly stationary steam power like the Jensen pictured above, with a few working steam locomotives and marine engines thrown in. But a few made steam toy traction engines; such as the Bing self-propelled portable steam engine shown below (from John O’Rear's website; the real one would have needed a horse to steer it, and was a midway development between the portable steam engine and the traction engine)
Mamod, founded by Eric Malins (the name was shorthand for "Malins Models"), made stationary engines up to 1961. But, while browsing the Gamages Of London toy Catalogue in the late 1950's he came across the advert below for the Mastrand steam roller. He ordered one, and used it develop the Mamod steam roller.
Here is my 1962 Mamod Steam Roller. The Mamod Steam Roller first came out in 1961. But, the company was in the middle of moving to their new plant at Quarry Bank, and the boxes had the old address marked out, and a new label placed over it. In 1963, they made a change to the burner; thus I am able to precisely date this one.
I bought it e-bay for $20.00, planning to place it out in the garden as a yard ornament. But, then, I saw a 1961 Mamod roller for sale on e-bay; which provided the history above. It then sold for $200; needless to say, it never found itself in the garden. I gave it a light restoration, and was able to coax it into running order, and loved running it. These early style rollers made a pleasant ringing sound as it rolled. I may have ran it too low on water, and the boss for the whistle came unsoldered, ending it's running career for now. It now occupies a place of honor on top of my hutch.
Mamod then came out with the Mamod Traction Engine in 1963. It and a later version first introduced in 1967 became the most popular steam toy Mamod ever produced, with over 486,000 produced. I don't own one; the picture below is a 1965 example from another website.
Next is my Mamod Steam Wagon. I named it Foden, since it resembles well a full size Foden steam wagon. Mamod introduced them in 1971, ten years after they came out with the Mamod Steam Roller. In 1976, Mamod went from the green you see here to blue, so this example dates from between 1971-1975. (You can still buy one new today, but they are now brown.) Like the Mamod Steam Roller pictured above, it runs on what the British call "mineral spirits", we buy it in the store as rubbing alcohol.
This is another "distressed" model I bought on e-bay. "Foden" must have spent some years sitting on a shelf in a barn or garage, as the side facing the camera was badly rusted in places. I cleaned off the rust as best I could (but did not repaint it, another working restoration), and managed to coax it into running order as well. It is harder to run, since the burner is under the pickup bed and between the frames; and since it is heavier, it needs a flatter surface than the steam rollers.
Next is a later model (after 1975) of a Mamod Steam Roller. Nicholas and I named ours "George", after the Aveling and Porter steam roller that appears in the Thomas the Tank Engine stories. (We also named the older roller "Georgette".) I bought this one on e-bay in 2001, and appears never to have been fired. When I first got it, Nicholas and I ran it on a vacant floor of the office building I used to work at it; that is where I took the picture you see here.
Notice the small red throttle lever on top. Starting in 1967, this lever was added to all of the mobile steam engines, and allowed you to run them in reverse as well as regulate the speed. After a boy was badly burned in an alcohol fire while running a toy steam engine, the entire Mamod line was revised in 1976-1977 to burn solid alcohol fuel tablets. "George" has the solid fuel tray; though I usually run it on Sterno, since I can buy it in the store, or even get partly used cans for free. The other two models have the liquid alcohol burners.
All three of these can still purchased today. Rival Wilesco offers a similiar line; except they do not have a steam railway set, which Mamod does offer. The Wilesco line has a better quality feel to it's models; listening to them run on youtube videos, they seem to sound closer to prototype as well. The Mamod models offered today also seem to be of lesser quality than their earlier offerings; making my collection all the more treasured.
There are lots of videos of Mamod models on the web; I made this poor quality video at the same time as the picture above. However, Adam and others on dial-up will probably have an easier time running it than the youtube offerings.
http://rides.webshots.com/video/3093400 ... 2983hQbDMT
With Autumn in the air, this is the time of year when my thoughts turn from planes to those of steam, and running my steam toys. My Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CDs are also filling the slots in the truck's CD player; Benjamin and I have been listening to them for a couple of weeks now.
