You read it in CTT, now see it in person

[Texas Pete]

Before I became Texas Pete (well over half my life now) I was New Yawk Pete, having "grown up" in upper Manhattan.

I'm here to testify that even without the exhibit of that magnificent tinplate collection, The New York Historical Society is well worth a visit if you happen to be in the city.

Pete

[Penny Trains]

Will Kalmbach be covering the exihibition in any of it's publications?

Becky

[Carl Swanson]

Jerry Greene's amazing collection of European and American toy trains from the 19th and early 20th century was featured in the October Classic Toy Trains. During the upcoming holiday season, key items from this world-class train collection will be on public display at the New York Historical Society Museum and Library, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024 www.nyhistory.org

The display, the first time the collection has appeared in a museum, runs from November 23, 2012 to January 6, 2013.

A press release from the museum noted that the collection was assembled over a period of 50 years by Jerry and Nina Greene and numbers 35,000 items made from approximately 1850 to 1940 and is almost certainly the most comprehensive representation of the work of every major early European train manufacturers, including the German firms of Märklin, Bing, Ernst Plank, Carette and Rock & Graner. 

“Many of the real buildings and bridges that you see represented here in scale model were destroyed in battle, but the toys survived both world wars,” Jerry Greene stated in the press release. “For me, these wonderful objects are a part of history. It’s now time to show them in public, so everyone can appreciate them. I hope they bring as much joy to others as they have brought to me.”

The display of hand-crafted and hand-painted toys will include the only existing Märklin ca. 1895 elevated station, as well as Märklin’s largest and most elaborate train station, ca. 1904; Marklin’s only known extant post office, ca. 1895; a Märklin girder bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel, ca. 1905; Rock & Graner’s extraordinary hand-painted road over double-arched brick bridge, ca. 1902; and Ernst Plank’s exquisite Ferris wheel from the turn-of-the-century.