Why not Aussie Trains??

I have mentioned several times on previous posts that I have a really strong interest in Australia's heritage, particularly regarding Railways and Transport.  Why then is there such a strong American emphasis on my Toy Train collection?  Why don't Aussie Toy Trains feature in my forthcoming Museum?  Both good questions, and the simple answer is that there simply are not enough Australian-made toy trains to create a worthwhile display.  There are a few though, so let's have a look.

Prior to World War Two Australian children had relied heavily on British-made toys, which for most boys meant that they had a Hornby O gauge train set.  After WW2, with British industry struggling to get back on it's feet, there was a vacuum in the Aussie toy market, and several local manufacturers attempted to meet this need.  There were three main toy train makers- Ferris, Maurlyn and Robilt- although there were other smaller concerns as well.  There is an excellent book about Australia's Toy Train industry called Spring, Spark and Steam which details every known maker, and which I thoroughly recommend if this subject is of particular interest.

The Ferris company specialised in making early car radios (we had one in our Holden), but diversified into toy trains.  They made a few different styles, but perhaps the most common type was the Sydney Suburban train.

I'm sure that these were quite popular in Sydney, but as a Melbourne Boy they were of limited interest in comparison to the other 'big' manufacturer's offerings.  Robilt trains were built only a few miles from where we lived, although I didn't know that then.  My introduction to Robilt trains was also what I still consider my 'Greatest Find'.  In suburban Melbourne our local council would have occasional collections of rubbish which was too big to be taken by the dustman each week.  We would put all this stuff out on the nature strip by the street, and in due course it would be collected by contractors.  Things like old mattresses, tree stumps, old prams, all sorts of stuff!  For young boys it was a real adventure!!  The prams would be stripped of their wheels for use on Billy Carts, bits of wood acquired for cubby houses, and other interesting stuff duly carted home, much to our parents chagrin!  In one of these piles of junk down the street I found a small cardboard suitcase.  This was opened, expecting either junk or nothing at all, but low and behold it was a complete Robilt train set in good condition!!  I couldn't get home quickly enough!!  I had never seen anything like this before, although in retrospect it was probably only ten to fifteen years old when I found it.

The locomotive was like this, except that mine was black, with V.R. on the tender.  It is clockwork O gauge.

There were two carriages like this.  The top-of-the-line locomotive that Robilt made was a fairly good model of the VR S class steam locomotive used to pull the Spirit of Progress train.

So you can see that there were some really nice Aussie Toy Trains, but certainly not enough variety to base a whole museum on.  Now there are also some really excellent HO and O gauge model trains of various Australian prototypes made by companies such as Austrains, Auscision and Train-o-rama.  I do eventually hope to build a scenic model railway for the museum based on a Victorian Railways line around the 50's or 60's, which is what I remember when growing up.  This is some time off though.  In the meantime I am gathering a nice collection of models, as well as the continual search for the wonderful old Robilt, Ferris and Maurlyn toys.