The first mass market railway sets where made by Marklin in Germany in 1891 but it was a group of English hobbyists who in 1904 began model building. The first electric models where introduced just before the First World War. Rovex Plastics Ltd developed an electric toy train for Christmas 1950. The company was bought out by Lines Bros and in 1951 sold under the Tri-ang Railways name. In 1954 the renamed Rovex Scale Models Ltd moved to Margate, Kent.

One of the largest names in model railways is Hornby. Its roots date back to 1901, when founder Frank Hornby received a patent for his Meccano construction toy. The first clockwork train was produced in 1920. In 1938, Hornby launched its first 00 gauge train.

Triang railways was a British manufacturer of toy trains, one of the elements of the Lines Bros Ltd company who traded using the brands Tri-ang, Minic, Pedigree, and Frog. The Tri-ang Railways name was dropped a few years after Lines Bros took over the Hornby name although the majority of the trains were still the original Tri-ang models.

Railway scale is referred to as the gauge of which there are many. The most popular being OO or HO gauge with N gauge now very popular. Triang produced the shortlived TT range in the 1960’s and there are now tiny gauges like T and Z gauge.