ALL ABOARD THE !

hildren’s play moved onto lines and rails very quickly in step with the devel- opment of public transportation. The true rise of toy happened in the 1800s – they were just bigger in the beginning. The first railway with steam- C driven trains in was built in the 1830s, and this inspired the many toy manufacturers in the country to start making toy trains. The tin toy trains were modelled after the real steam-driven ones. Toys that imitate different vehicles can be seen as a part of both the history of toys and the history of industrialisation. They brought technology, speed and horsepower in the world of children.

The possibilities that railways offer were not appreciated in until after the middle of the 1800s. That the normal folk would be able to easier move from place to place was not seen as useful, in fact it was seen as a threat. The crown transportation service served the officials and the upper classes. The time was finally right in 1862, and the first railway line was built from to Hämeenlinna. The railway network was quickly expanded and in the year 1870 one could travel by train from Helsinki all the way to Saint Petersburg. In the beginning of the next century, in the year 1903, the rail from Helsinki to Karjaa via was completed. It was then that Kauklahti among others got its own railway station. Railway stations buildings were begotten as a part of the construction of railways, and they soon became public buildings characteristic of city milieus.

Tram traffic started in Helsinki in the 1890s and the cars of that time were pulled by horses. started to replace horses in long distance traffic during the 1930s. The world’s first underground railway or was opened to the public in the year 1863. Eliel Saarinen planned underground rails to the suburbs in his city plan for great- er Helsinki during the 1910s. The planning of the metro was started as late as the 1950s and the Helsinki metro was opened in 1982. The metro project was one of the biggest investments in Finland at that time. A contest was arranged to find a symbol for the metro, and the finalists were presented in the newspaper. The winning symbol was something totally different, but the public was enchanted by the Mole by Osmo Leivo. Over 5000 people signed a petition for the Mole, and the symbol was printed in stick- ers, t-shirts and drawn in the metro tunnels.