fall inside a hole
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Tot and Child Guidance Railroad
Tot Railroad
Tot Railroad was first produced by Keystone in 1950. These sets used wooden trains and tan rails made out of an early "unbreakable" styrene-like plastic. In the later 1950s Playskool bought Keystone and released Tot Railroad under the Lincoln Logs name and also released similar sets outside the United States. It was around this time in the late 1950s that Tomy adapted and adopted the rail standard for their new Plastic Rail trains which would eventually become known as Plarail. In the early 1960s, the "New" Tot Railroad with plastic trains was released under the Holgate name which eventually evolved into the Child Guidance Railroad.
| Year |
Set name |
Description |
Photo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Keystone "Tot" Railroad Model No. 417 | Larger early 1950s Keystone set with several bridges and switches |
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| 1958 |
Tot Railroad Model K415 |
Playskool-Lincoln Logs rerelease of an intermediate Tot Railroad set |
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| 1958 |
Playskool Son Primier Train | Playskool set released in France and potentially other parts of Europe. Believed to be the set that caused Tomy to adapt the Tot Railroad rail standard |
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| Holgate "New" Tot Railroad | Early 1960s version of Tot Railroad using polyethylene plastic trains and rails | ||
| More about Tot Railroad | More about Keystone, Tot Railroad, the rail standard, and the Plarail connection |
Child Guidance Railroad
Child Guidance Railroad was a fairly long-lived successor to the earlier Tot Railroad which first went on sale in America by late 1961, released by Archer Plastics spinoff Child Guidance Toys. The brand, products, and rail standard quickly spread and could be found in a variety of train sets in Europe, Australia, and even some in Japan.
Other Child Guidance trains
In addition to the Child Guidance Railroad system, Child Guidance also produced several other train toys
| Year | Set name | Description | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Musical Railroad | Large battery-powered locomotive that strikes metal notes to produce a tune like a xylophone when running |
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| 1969 | Motorized Shuttle Train | Fully-operational shuttle train with working turntable, lift, and yard all automatically selectable using just two buttons on the turntable |
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