In the first decades of the Twentieth century Issmayer, which had started to make toy trains around 1879, produced a number of so-called ‘novelty railways’, railway sets with special features that allowed the trains to perform certain functions. These were 0 gauge trains and always clockwork-driven. This coach is part of one of these novelty sets, which was advertised as an “incline railway” and dates from around 1910. The set consisted of two locomotives, a coach, an engine shed and an oval of track which ran on a section of raised embankment. One of the locomotives pulled the coach and when the train was about to climb the inclined part of the track, the second locomotive appeared from the engine shed on a siding and helped push the train up the embankment. When the train was nearly at the top, the second locomotive would return automatically to the engine shed and the whole operation would be repeated when the train again passed the siding and started to climb the incline. The coach has a coupling on one end to hook up to the locomotive, but at the other end has a large buffer beam for the banking engine to push against. On the underside of the coach is a tinplate arm, weighed with a piece of lead, which activates trips or levers in the track which operates the banking engine.