Background information

Before Victorian times people travelled on horseback or in vehicles pulled by horses.   The first toy trains were made soon after the first real trains began to run in the 1820s. 

Toy trains could be powered in many different ways. some trains had to be pushed or pulled. Others went by themselves like real trains or by clockwork.

Clockwork trains like the one in the picture did not run for very long before the clockwork ran down. 
This train is made by hornby, a british toy making company and is somewhat of a collector's item.