Toy Museum
Exhibitions
- Passenger train with clockwork steam engine (gauge 0) and tunnel by Adolph Schuhmann, Nuremberg, around 1930.
- Train station and electric locomotive by Karl Bub, Nuremberg, around 1935. Passenger figures, O. & M. Hausser, Neustadt/ Coburg, around 1935.
All aboard, please! Playing with Train Sets
26 March to 10 October, 2010
To celebrate "Railway Year 2010 in Nuremberg", the exhibition in the Toy Museum displays tin trains manufactured in Nuremberg. The dominant characteristic of most of the toy trains exhibited is their robustness. The work of about a dozen companies active between 1900 and the 1960s is on show. Major export-oriented tin toy manufacturers such as Bing and Bub made railway trains and accessories on a grand scale before World War I. Other producers, such as Kraus and Schuhmann managed to keep their hold on the market right until the 1930s. Trix conquered a new market with table-top small gauge train sets. After World War II, the companies Biller and Fleischmann set new quality standards with their solidly built metal train sets for playing and model train sets. At the same time, cheaper ranges manufactured by Beckh, Distler and Wimmer were also quite successful. But in the 1960s, when they had to compete with increasingly perfect model trains sets fashioned from plastic or die-cast metal, the era of tin trains inevitably came to an end. When playing with model trains, many boys felt transported into their dream job of engine driver. The exhibition illustrates this aspect of play with amusing private film footage. The exhibition is supplemented by construction sets and wooden train toys.
A programme of events accompanying the exhibition offers guided tours for families, as well as handicraft, painting, and photography activities for children.
