When was the first train set made?

When was the first model train set created and available?

Okay, so model trains… Whoa, that’s a deep dive. I always thought they were, like, always around.

The earliest one I’ve ever heard of was a custom job, 1859, Saint-Cloud park, France. Made for some prince. Fancy. A real one-off, you know? Not exactly mass-produced.

Then, jump forward a bit – 1891. Märklin in Leipzig, Germany, started setting some standards. They’d been around since 1859 themselves, but this was a big deal. More widely available, I guess. This is what people typically mean when they talk about the start of toy trains as we know them.

So, two different answers, depending on what you mean by “first”. One a bespoke item for royalty, the other the dawn of proper commercial production.