In recent years there has been nothing short of an explosion in interest in model trains and railways. Some people think this is due to baby boomers now buying train sets for their children, keen for them to experience the fun that they can recall having as children.

There is no denying that this is certainly the case for me. I am a baby boomer myself and I recall spending many happy hours with my brother and father building complex model rail networks. We completely transformed our dining room into what we called our railway room with a huge, elaborate system of tracks and buildings. We managed to remain in the railway room up until Christmas of that year when we had family guests coming for Christmas dinner and my mother insisted that the railway was dismantled and the dining room returned to its original use. I can distinctly recall how disappointed my father was when he was forced to dismantle and box up the train track, locomotives and trackside buildings.

In fact, reflecting on those days, I think it was doing things with my father that was more important to me than the model railway. My father never really showed any interest in my school work or playing football or and sports for that matter. But when it came to model trains and railways he would suddenly become animated and enthusiastic. The one guaranteed way to get him to put down the newspaper and leave his comfortable armchair was to suggest we have a session on the railway.

Model trains are good for any age, providing a fun, rewarding and engaging hobby. Model trains are not toy trains. They are scale models of the real thing and can provide a valuable educational aid, helping youngsters to become familiar with the history of rail transport, the development of railway technology and how locomotives have developed through the ages.

Way back in the 1850s Marklin, a German manufacturer of dolls-house accessories, introduced the first boxed train-set. This was intended to broaden their market by appealing to boys. They were also responsible for producig accessories for their train sets including trackside buildings. The company are still going strong today.

Electric powered trains are reputed to have been introduced by the American company Carlisle and Finch in 1897 but it was the Lionel Corporation who were responsible for developing the product. Their first Electric train, called the Electric Express, was actually not intended for sale. It was originally intended to be used as a storefront display.

Jump forward to today and you will find many fathers, like myself, who have fond memories of many hours shared with their fathers building and playing with model train sets. We buy systems for our own children but, in truth, its more about us re-visiting our own childhoods and the happy times that we spent with our trains.