What is this stuff? Well, I'm glad you asked.
Like me, my son Harrison is crazy for trains. He has dozens of the wooden Brio and Thomas style trains, plus gobs and gobs of track. He knows what a shunting yard is, what a loop to loop track configuration looks like, and the basics of train formations. He also knows that long trains and sharp the curves lead to spectacular wrecks. Ahhh, to be young.
What he doesn't know was that in 1993 and 1994, before the Thomas brand of wooden trains exploded in popularity, some were made in the Hummingbird Toy Company in the little town of Arcade, NY. Yes, the same Arcade that is home to the Arcade & Attica Railroad, which I have waxed on long about here and here. I don't know the full history of the Company but I found this article that provided some good information.
Here are some pictures of took of the building in July 2017 while trainspotting:
Among other things, they manufactured Yo-Yos and during a flood in 1989 hundreds of the round toys were washed down the nearby river. There was even a book written which was based on the event. Though the flood didn't kill the Company, they expanded too quickly including taking on the Thomas the Tank Engine wooden train line. They lasted until 1995, and then closed for good. From what I understand, the building was recently demolished.
A friend lives in the area and during one conversation he mentioned finding old Thomas train toy wheels buried in the dirt outside. I asked him to collect some for me and he kindly obliged with a shoebox full of "stuff". Here is how it came to me (well, imagine it all dumped in a box).
If you think it looks like a box of muddy wood rubbish, you aren't far off. But as someone who loves the Arcade and Attica Railroad, and also loves Thomas the Tank Engine, I see more than just muck. I see history, and playthings that never made it into children's hands.
I was expecting only a wheel or two, not a box of stuff, so I was both happy and surprised at the bounty. There were a bunch of Toby the tram engine bodies, some which were discolored from brown to green; parts for a Silver Percy; a couple of Mavis black/yellow diesel engines, many parts for generic red/green steam engines; a Thomas body; unidentifiable wooden blocks that could of been loads for flat cars or maybe freight car bodies; two different parts for boats; lots of wheels; a tree (!); and even a Thomas body.
I washed them all in soap and water with a toothbrush, and were they filthy. I only ended up cleaning two Toby bodies as I figured I have no need for another five. I also left the Thomas body untouched, which is what an archaeologist might do (I have seen enough Indiana Jones to figure it out). The wheels I tried to clean but I was more concerned they might go down the drain and jam our garbage disposal.
In the end, I don't quite know what to do with all this stuff. For now they will get stored with my other A&A memorabilia. But I am putting Thomas on display with my other A&A models, because Harrison will get a kick out of that and I can tell him the story of the Hummingbird Toy Factory when he is older.
Who would have thought such a popular toy came from such a tiny factory in a small town in Western New York?
