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During the Victorian period toy and model trains and locomotives fell into a number of categories - there were the live steam engines, expensive and only for the wealthy, there were pull along trains in all shapes, sizes and materials, penny toys in lead and tin and latterly clockwork engines. The steam and clockwork engines might be intended to run on the floor, or a simple track assembled by the user, but there was no real sense of system about these trains.
Tunnel-travel was a feat that could not be duplicated with floor toys that had to be pushed by hand or pulled by a string. Having your train go through a tunnel, untouched by human hands, proved that it was operating entirely under its own power by the magic of remote control.
The hobby of "playing with toy trains", as some put it, has been going on, and taken quite seriously indeed, for a century and a half.
In the early to late 1800's, they were for the most part child's toys. Funky looking wood and cast iron (the plastic of the 19th century) were a static model pulled by a string along the floor. Some were powered by actual steam. Picture a 7 year old child pouring alcohol into the boiler and lighting it (in the house) to actually produce a steam powered locomotive! Frankly, I would have loved to have seen that!
Actually, yes - it appears trains started out as being able to run on the ground, without tracks; maybe all we can call them is trackless trains and yes, they still exist as model trains.
During the Victorian period toy and model trains and locomotives fell into a number of categories - there were the live steam engines, expensive and only for the wealthy, there were pull along trains in all shapes, sizes and materials, penny toys in lead and tin and latterly clockwork engines. The steam and clockwork engines might be intended to run on the floor, or a simple track assembled by the user, but there was no real sense of system about these trains.
Tunnel-travel was a feat that could not be duplicated with floor toys that had to be pushed by hand or pulled by a string. Having your train go through a tunnel, untouched by human hands, proved that it was operating entirely under its own power by the magic of remote control.
The hobby of "playing with toy trains", as some put it, has been going on, and taken quite seriously indeed, for a century and a half.
In the early to late 1800's, they were for the most part child's toys. Funky looking wood and cast iron (the plastic of the 19th century) were a static model pulled by a string along the floor. Some were powered by actual steam. Picture a 7 year old child pouring alcohol into the boiler and lighting it (in the house) to actually produce a steam powered locomotive! Frankly, I would have loved to have seen that!
The translation workplace 
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