fall inside a hole
Tot Railroad (1951-1960)
First written April 15, 2024
Tot Railroad was a fairly early American wooden toy train system as well as an early toy train system to use plastic, first releasing in 1950 featuring polyethylene rails and wooden trains. Keystone Manufacturing of Boston, Massachusetts was the original manufacturer and produced several different sizes of sets throughout the 1950s until going out of business and selling off their equipment in 1958. More information about Keystone can be found on the Collecting Keystone website. Playskool acquired the Tot Railroad toolings and released Tot Railroad under the Lincoln Logs brand in the United States and also exported the standard to Europe under the Playskool brand. It was this Playskool version that appears to be the jumping-off point for Plarail as a train system, with early boxes acknowledging the Playskool connection. In the very early 1960s Playskool redesigned the Tot Railroad system with more modern plastic tracks and plastic trains and cars as "New" Tot Railroad under the Holgate "Teach-a-Tot" brand, Playskool having merged with Holgate in 1958. This range was somewhat short-lived, with Playskool selling all-wooden Skaneateles train sets throughout much of the rest of the 1960s.
The Tot Railroad rail standard is based on a fairly simple range of components - a "standard" curve and straight rail, a two-piece bridge, a parallel switch, a yoke turnout, a lead in ramp, and a bumper or buffer piece.
Tot Railroad trains
Tot Railroad trains are rather simple small wooden toy trains with single-piece bodies. All locomotives produced were steam locomotives and cars included open-well gondolas, flatbeds, and passenger cars/cabooses.
Early trains use a metal ring coupling system. A flat piece of metal runs through a slot cut in the underside of the chassis and is bent up at either end to accommodate a ring. The axle pegs sticking the wheels in place also strap over the bent metal, holding it up into a groove so it does not shift around or escape. These rings often come off (the example I have is missing all the originals and was supplied with string replacements by a previous owner, although I formed some new rings out of a paper clip) and the system was replaced with a hook and loop system by 1964. The example shown here is in rough shape with a beat-up gondola and the train missing its funnel.
When Playskool took over the range in 1958 the trains were changed to be larger with a different finish.
Slightly different trains with a different axle system were used in the European Son Premier Train. These trains have a much less pronounced cab and only a funnel, no dome.
Tot Railroad rails
The Tot Railroad rail standard is slightly shorter than Plarail's, with straight rails measuring ~201mm long. Curve rails are a 45 degree eight-to-a-curve standard with one-way connection joints and flippable rails. The rail surface is entirely smooth (or not intentionally textured, anyways) and the rails feel almost like a styrene but are apparently polyethylene. They are not particularly flexible and can certainly be broken, although it is possible that the rails did used to be somewhat more flexible and the plastic mix has degraded with age.
These rails can connect to Plarail, but the earlier Keystone track does not have strain-relief splits. It seems these were added fairly early on, as they appear on some Keystone sets before the coupling system was changed circa 1954 or so. Rail components have slot marking numbers near outboard connectors.
The later Keystone and Lincoln Logs sets use updated rail with strain relief on both sides of the connection. Some of these later rail toolings have different slot markings that look to have been done by hand with an engraver. Playskool's European Tot Railroad track is marked with letters, often inside a different molding pip, instead of numbers.
The bridge rails come in "up" and "down" variations and are usually one one right after the other as a single unit, although the largest sets included wooden blocks to use as risers and really any other object that is the right height - stacks of books, other toys, containers - can be used to support the track. Each bridge half is the same length as a normal Tot Railroad straight. The central arch is tall enough to run the rail and train under.
The two most interesting rails are these funky switch rails. Each of these was only ever produced in the single orientation of connectors - I.E. no alternate concave/convex configurations. The dimensions of these rails are a little odd - the parallel switch is the length of a normal straight rail (~201mm) and moves the outer spur over about 38mm. The key relationship is that the "yoke" rail is a normal curve rail with a spur that travels outwards the same distance as the branch of the parallel switch - thus they can be used in layouts together complimentary. Because of the handedness of these switches, complex layouts must be planned carefully if you want to reconnect track spurs together, and some instructions say to start building from the switches as they determine the direction of the connectors on all other rail pieces. No joint rails were ever produced. These rails were adapted for early Plarail use, with the parallel switch track lasting into the 1970s.
The last two types of Tot Railroad rail are the lead-in and bumper. The lead-in is a track-to-surface ramp that allows trains to be driven down onto the floor and back up. The bumpers or buffers can cap off sidings. The Keystone bumpers were produced in one orientation while the lead-ins were produced in "tongue end" and "open end" variations, with Playskool developing the opposite type of bumper later on.
Tot Railroad Sets
Tot Railroad was originally released in several different sizes with model numbers ranging from 402 to 421, with larger numbers being larger sets. Playskool's Lincoln Log Tot Railroad sets were rereleases of some of these sets with a K prefix.
Set Types
| Sold |
Set
number |
Description |
Photo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950-1951 | 408 | Medium set with eight curves, three straights, one switch, one two-piece bridge, a bumper stop, and a four piece train | Can be seen here |
| 1950-1951 | 417 | Larger early 1950s Keystone set with 12 curves, six straights, yoke, two switches, two two-piece bridges, bumper, and four-car train |
|
| Unnumbered large set with many curves, three bridges, and two complete trains. uses new strain-relief track but old coupling system | Can be seen here | ||
| 1954-1955 | 402 | Smallest set with seven curves, yoke, lead-in, and three-car train | |
| 1954-1957, 1958 | 406, K406 | Small Tot Railroad set with eight curves, one straight, one yoke, one switch, one complete bridge, one lead-in ramp, and three car train |
 |
| 1954-1957, 1958 | 415, 105, K415 | Medium set with 11 curves, three straights, yoke, switch, two two-piece bridges, lead in, bumper, and four-car train. Also sold as 105 "Ding Dong School Tot Railroad" |
 |
| 1954-1957, 1958 | 421, K421 | Largest Tot Railroad set with 16 curves, four straights, yoke, switch, three bridges, lead in and bumper, two complete trains, and wooden blocks, station, and tunnel |
 |
| 1958 | Son Premier Train Boite 1 | Smaller French set with eight curves, two straights, yoke, switch, bridge, bumper stop and ramp and three-piece train |
 |
| 1958 |
Son Premier Train Boite 2 | Larger French set with 11 curves, three straights, two of each switch, two complete bridges, two of each track ender, and a four-car train |
Keystone Tot Railroad Model 417 (1950)
The larger of the two initial 1950 Tot Railroad sets, this 417 set comes with two bridges and a nice selection of track and switches as well as a four-car wooden train. This set and the 408 use this similar blue design while later Keystone sets used a cream background with reddish-orange boarders and printing.
Most of the rails in my set were marked up by a previous owner, but I did not pay very much for the set in return so I did not mind. I have since cleaned the rails, although some marks still remain, and a closer more vigorous cleaning would probably clean them up for good.
The track included is enough to make up some nice larger layouts. I really like this layout, it seems like the interaction between the yoke and switch was designed exactly for layouts like this. The bridge rail, of course, takes advantage of the relationship formed between the curved rail radius being the same as a straight rail to form nice figure-eights.
Another suggested layout is this one with several different sidings spread around the layout. A third has a nice loop with a yard in one corner. The wooden trains honestly ride sort of rough, especially perhaps these earlier ones, and can bottom out on the hills.
I always love a yard.
The fourth suggested layout is a nice compact loop with an internal yard on one side and a siding extending out. With some other toys like a boat or crane or lighthouse you could easily make a little pier scene.
Lincoln Logs Tot Railroad Model K415 (1958)
The K415 set from 1958 is the Playskool Lincoln Logs rerelease of the previous 415 set. Other than changing the trains to the Lincoln Logs type, it is the same track plan as the previous Keystone 415 set. Lincoln Logs set boxes are more colorful than the older Keystone boxes.
The joints of this system allow for some play, like in this suggested layout where to keep things "on grid" the parallel switch should really be flipped so that the spur gets biased down to meet the spur of the yoke instead of biasing the rest of the loop back onto itself upwards, with the thru line continuing on to meet a point even lower, but it still all works out. My copy of this set is missing the trains. It does, however, include this instructional leaflet showing the suggested layouts and replacement parts form.
Son Premier Train (1958)
In 1958 in France Playskool released two Son Premier Train or My First Train sets based on the Tot Railroad standard. They used similar wooden trains and the same rail standard but in a light blue. The boxes appear to be translated for sale in German and Italian language territories as well. This box has the 406 number on it but contains an additional straight rail versus previous 406 sets.
This is the smaller of the two sets, with a three-unit train, one of each switch, and enough track to make some small layouts.
Unlike previous Tot Railroad sets, these Premier Train sets use light blue strain-relieved rails. They are a lighter blue than Plarail.
Also included is a leaflet showing more Playskool toys as well as layout suggestions of the 1 and 2 Premier Train sets.
The layout suggested on the top of the box takes advantage of the interaction between the yoke, switch, and a diagonal straight rail to connect a loop back around to itself. It is believed, I think because of the blue rails and the inclusion of Playskool on early Plastic Rail boxes as well as the timing, that this is the version of Tot Railroad that Tomy began to build the Plarail standard off of.
Holgate "New" Tot Railroad (1960-1961)
In 1960 Playskool redesigned the Tot Railroad system with new plastic trains, softer black plastic rails, and more plastic accessories. This system was sold as a "Teach-a-Tot Toy" under the Holgate Toy Company name, which Playskool had acquired in 1958.
This system used a range of differently-colored plastic locomotives and cars as well as a much wider range of plastic accessories.
New track is molded from a softer black plastic with sleepers in the tooling. New ascending tracks work with a new series of risers.
In addition to the rails, New Tot Railroad also had many plastic accessories like light poles, crossing gates, and telegraph poles, some of which even ended up being adapted for Plarail in the early 1960s.
Although it seems that Tot Railroad is largely lost to time, it does seem to have been a relatively popular train toy, staying on sale for a decade with multiple sets released in different regions. By 1956 it was already referred to as "famous" and had appeared in contemporary television like I Love Lucy and it continued to live on as the origin for both the Child Guidance Railroad and its many offshoots as well as the still very popular Plarail.