This week we are going to join up with our philatelic friends, and run in con-"junction" with Royal Mail whose new commemorative issue of twelve stamps celebrates Hornby model railways.
Of course, we are not being so restrictive, mainly because actual cards of Hornby trains seem non-existent, we are just going to look at model trains - and it looks like it`s going to be a really interesting week.
We started the week on Saturday the 14th of February, with our most cryptic clue, or clues.
This card is primarily to represent Liverpool, which, in 1863, was the birthplace of Frank Hornby, the maker of the trains that the stamps celebrate, but also the maker of Meccano, the construction toy, and of Dinky, a brand of small diecast model cars, and other transportation vehicles.
But there was also a second clue, for these are PLAY-up cards, and the original idea of model trains were not for adults to accumulate, they were for children to play with, in the hope that they would turn into engineers, and train drivers.
Our second clue, of Sunday the 15th of February, of "Dirt-Track Racing" ought to have given us TRACK, which is one of the most important parts of any train set, though when the earliest model trains were manufactured they ran by clockwork along the floor. These came to be known as floor trains, trackless trains, or even carpet trains. Most of them just ran in a straight line until they hit an obstacle but some included mechanisms to make them run in circles.
Thirdly, on Monday February the 16th, we brought you another one of these lovely Revillon cut out cards, this one being of a station, to show that a model railway is not just a train, there are ancilliary buildings, and station staff, and passengers, plus other things, like weighing machines, and chocolate dispensers, which were all manufactured in metal or lead at one time.
On which note I have to say I always got much more excited by getting hold of a box of peripherals like weighing machines and passengers than I ever was when I got a box of trains....
On which note, if anyone else would like to send us any information from their collection which relates in any way to our theme of the week, please do.The e-mail is webmaster@card-world.co.uk - and this is the same for any corrections, or for general cartophilic correspondence and chat.