The Hugar Train (Hugar)
| Exhibit |
|---|
The Hugar Train (Hugar) |
 |
| location: |
|
Arch Four , Area 43 00-gauge Miscellaneous (display) |
| Shelf 4
1947 |
A wonderful green Southern Railway wooden-bodied "EMU" (Electrical Multiple Unit) electric train set finished with with green-lithographed paper, and made by Hugar.
The set consists of two green driver cars, marked 11047, connected to a central green carriage, and has a large green metal power controller, proudly marked "The Hugar Train".
Dating
The set dates from around WW2, when larger manufacturers would have had trouble getting hold of metal to produce their model railways, leaving the market potentially open for some enterprising smaller maker to step in to fill the gap with mostly wooden trains.
The Brookes book relates a story of the sets being on sale in 1943, and mentions examples with cabs numbered numbered 23941 and 33943, perhaps suggesting dates of 1941 and 1943 (and perhaps a manufacturing start date of 1939). Our example is numbered 11047, which is similarly suggestive of a manufacturing date of 1947, just post-war.
Then again, if the models' front and sides were created using unamended papers from Merco, then these might refer to Merco's printing dates, making them "not manufactured before" dates for the Hugar models that subsequently made use of them.
Further reading
The Hugar Train and its variations and accessories are described and prolifically photographed in
- Paul Brookes, The Illustrated History of Hugar Models (Paul Brookes, 2014), ISBN 9780956187925 Chapter 10: The Southern Electric Train Set c. 1939-1943, pages 161-170.
