Hornby Railways

Hornby Railways is the leading brand of model railway in the United Kingdom, and its company roots date back to 1901, when founder Frank Hornby received a patent for his Meccano construction toy.

Hornby, then known as Meccano Ltd., released its first train, a clockwork O gauge model, in 1920. An electric train followed in 1925, operating on AC power, and Hornby switched to DC in 1929.

From 1927 to 1929, Hornby sold clockwork trains in the United States as well as in the UK. Although the trains, manufactured in a factory in Elizabeth, New Jersey, were colorful and attractive, they failed in the marketplace because several established U.S. firms undercut its prices. In late 1929, Meccano Ltd. sold its New Jersey factory to the A. C. Gilbert Company, and Hornby trains had vanished from the U.S. market by 1930. The leftover inventory was sold in Canada and in the UK, and some of the tooling was reused for products in other markets.

Hornby introduced its OO gauge trains in 1938, under the trade name Hornby DublO, only to discontinue all train production the next year due to World War II. Production resumed after the war but did not reach full capacity until 1948. The locomotives were die-cast, and the cars were generally made of tinplate.

Like its counterparts Bassett-Lowke and Exley in the UK and Lionel and American Flyer in the US, Hornby thrived in the first half of the decade but struggled in the late 1950s. In 1959, Hornby abandoned 3-rail track in favor of more realistic two-rail track.

In 1964, the parent company of rival Tri-ang Railways purchased Meccano Ltd., and merged Hornby and Tri-ang into Tri-ang Hornby. The former Hornby line was discontinued in favor of Tri-ang's less costly plastic designs. The former Hornby products and modules being sold to G&R Wrenn. In 1967 Hornby was merged internally into Rovex Industries, which by 1969 was Rovex Tri-ang Ltd.

The Tri-ang group was disbanded in 1971 when Meccano Ltd's owner Lines Bros. filed for bankrupcy. The former Tri-ang Hornby was sold to Dunbee-Combex-Marx becoming Hornby Railways in 1972. By 1976 Hornby was facing challenges from Palitoy and Airfix both of whom were producing high quality detailed models. Detail on the models was upgraded to make the product line more attractive to adult hobbyists. A multiple train control system named Zero 1 was introduced in the early 1980s. This analogue system was a forerunner to the digital system DCC (an NMRA open standard) which appeared in the 1990s.

By 1980 the market was extremely tough and Dunbee-Combex-Marx was liquidated placing Rovex in receivership. In 1980 Hornby became ""Hornby Hobbies"" and in 1981 a management buyout saw the company back on a sound footing. It went public in 1986.

By the early 1990's Hornby again faced competition from newcomers like Dapol and established foreign manufacturers including Lima and Bachmann Industries. Manufacturing was moved to Guangdong province in China in 1995, and was complete by 1999, cutting costs and improving quality according to the company. As part of the process Hornby also bought in some of Dapol's products and also some of the old Airfix moulds (by then owned by Dapol). Train sets associated with Thomas the Tank Engine and Harry Potter (the "Hogwarts Express") have been particularly profitable ventures. In September 2003 Hornby released its first steam-powered OO gauge locomotive, a model of the record-breaking Mallard. Several other 'Live Steam' locomotives have now been produced.

Since then, Hornby has bought Lima, an Italian model railway equipment manufacturer that previously acquired Jouef, a French manufacturer. Its items have yet to be integrated into the main Hornby products list.

References

• Schneider, Lewis (May 2000). Hornby's Made in USA Trains. Classic Toy Trains, page 84.

External links

• http://www.hornbyrailways.com