Real trains and model trains run on parallel tracks, both having been around-and-around since the 1800s.
The first steam locomotives huffed at the turn of the 19th century. Model trains and the first garden railroads date to the mid- to late 1800s, according to the Garden Trains Association of Waukesha, Wis.
Changes followed like a line of cars behind the engine -- from wood toys, to wind-up tin trains, to Lionel's first electric toy train in 1901.
Model trains ran full steam ahead through the 1950s. Every boy of the era had a train set or at least "a friend with a train set," according to the association.
And plastic models split the track -- this way to toy trains for children, that way to increasingly detailed and realistic model trains for adult hobbyists.
One difference between a boy with a toy train and a man with a garden train: Nobody tells the big guy he can't take his train outdoors.
HomeStyle on 05/16/2015