Gleise und Weichen » Ives Track of 1901

I have always been interested in early model railroading, and being american the original run of Ives trains was a very appealing topic to research (especially considering it's heavy german influence). 1901 was the first year of model railway production by Ives, and the beginning of the manufacture of O gauge in America.
Earlier this year, while browsing Liveauctioneers I came across an estate sale with a box of modern lionel track, stashed within being a smaller box of very early Ives.
Recognizing it's value I bought the box, and when it arrived I discovered something never before seen on Ives track, being the wire track lock of the Early Marklin and Bing design.
The train set that the track came from was the No. 24, the largest train set manufactured by Ives during that year, and considering no such track lock had been included on the hundreds of sets attributed to these fledgling years, would conclude that the track lock must have only been included with these deluxe sets. 1902 also saw the introduction of the flat metal plate to join rails together, meaning this track lock must have been exclusive to 1901 and possibly early 1902.
Here is the entirety of the track laid out, as it was during the presentation i held at the most recent York show Looking at the list of track for the No. 24 set in the 1901 catalog lists a number of differences from both the illustrations of the set as well as my set. In the illustration it is shown as having 3 brakes, 2 curved and 1 straight. In the catalog it is listed as having 2, and in my set there is only a single curved brake present, with an extra straight track included in the place of the original brake trip.
Here are higher quality photographs of the various pieces of track included, starting with the A, B, and C.

Next is the D track

The Brake Trip

The Crossover, the only special piece to include track locks. The center piece is constructed of cast iron painted a dark green, a difference to the contemporary switches produced in germany.

And the switches

The switch stands are similar in shape to that of Bing, but are constructed of cast brass and are painted bright red and gold. I have a fragment of one of these early switches that i acquired seperately, I'm saving it in hopes that it may be reconstructed as I have seen others on this forum.

Here is a photo of the catalog page for track, showing the use of german-bought stamps for the illustrations

The presentation, which was presented to the most dedicated Ives collectors, brought to my attention that no other collector had ever encountered track this early, and I thought it may be of interest to you all. Track, and especially early track and model railroading, facinates me greatly, and I hope you can all excuse my english as I know no german

Hi Foxwood

thank you for the interesting presentation!
Railway track is always the least documented part, so it is good to have some reverence.

Best regards

Domenik

Für diejenigen, die sich für (Spielzeug und Modell) Eisenbahnschienen interessieren und Englisch lesen können: Der amerikanische Sammler Charles Cooper hat eine Menge davon aus der ganzen Welt gesammelt und zeigt alles mit einer Beschreibung aller Unterschiede auf seiner Website.

https://www.railwaypages.com/toy-train-and-model-railway-tracks

Dies ist eine meiner Lieblingswebsites, da es, wie Dominik erwähnt, nicht viele andere Dokumentationen gibt.

Gruss
Fred

Hallo Davis,

danke für die ausführliche Information. Bin gespannt auch weitere Beiträge.

Grüße Heiko

Hier das dazugehörige Patent von Harry C. Ives von 1902.

Ah yes! We discussed this patent at the Ives meetup. All track produced after September of 1902 bears a patent stamp on the side of the rail, one that is lacking on all track found in the builk lot. I have a piece of slightly later Ives track which bears the stamp though. Thank you for reminding me of this.
I was incredibly lucky to find this lot, track locks are one of the many niche interests I have when it comes to early model railroading, a subsection of my greater interest with Track in general. If you would all be interested in seeing a pair of Schoenner switches i recently acquired i would be glad to share them

Some tlme ago we had a thread where a Schoenner switch was shown along the way, but I can't quite remember in which context. So I'd be glad to see a pair of those in more detail again.