For additional background information, with illustrations, please refer to the web pages of TCA Western Division Index of Manufacturers and the Ives Trains Society.
Ives was the first US producer of 0 gauge toy trains, in 1910, followed by Lionel in 1915 and American Flyer, 1918. Ives produced boxed sets, locomotives and passenger cars marked Wanamaker Railway Lines in 1924, for the John Wanamaker Company of Philadelphia department store chain.
Ives was the second toy train maker to introduce a remote reversing mechanism, or E Unit in Lionel's terms, the first being Dayton-Dinky in 1922. It is said that the Ives reversing unit was the main attraction of Ives to Lionel following the demise of Ives. The Ives reversing unit was invented and patented by H P Sparkes, an employee of Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh, the patent being granted in 1927, having been applied for in 1923. The rights were jointly owned by H P Sparkes and another Westinghouse employee, Benjamin H Smith, and were sold to Ives in 1924. Both Sparkes and Smith were transferred to the Newark NJ plant of Westinghouse, late 1920s, Sparkes forming the Steam Electric Company in Bloomfield NJ during the early 1930s. It appears Sparkes had connections at Lionel as some of his locos used Lionel bodies, the 0 gauge 260E and Standard gauge 385.
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