Urban Mass Transit in Miniature

Book description

Urban mass transit underwent a revolution during the Belle Epoque, from 1870 to 1914. In a few decades, we went from horse to electricity. After the war of 1870, Paris and the major French cities had a hippomobile transport system: the omnibus, single or double-decker, drawn by one or two horses. The Universal Exhibitions of Paris, in 1889 and 1900 were the opportunity of a real leap towards modernity, marked first by the arrival of the tramway and then by that of the metropolitan.

Toys have followed this evolution very closely, and we find in the Christmas catalogues the miniature models of all these innovations. Even the mechanical sidewalk set up at the 1900 exhibition was transposed to a toy.

This book does not cover trains or individual cars, which are the subject of separate publications.