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Hornby Model Railway trains coaches track and layouts This was a very well planned range of electric and clockwork models. They lead to the adoption of 00 gauge as a broadly accepted modeling standard in Britain, whereas much of the rest of the world had adopted HO gauge. Clockwork models were not produced in 00 gauge after the World War Two. Hornby was slow to realise the potential of plastic unlike some of its competitors who could produce cheaper but still good quality products like Triang-Rovex. |
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In 1964, Lines Bros Ltd., 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 favour of Tri-ang's less costly plastic designs. The Tri-ang group was disbanded in 1971 when Meccano Ltd's owner Lines Bros. filed for bankruptcy. 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 which were producing high quality detailed models. Detail on the models was upgraded to make the product line more attractive to adult hobbyists. By 1980 the market was extremely tough and Dunbee-Combex-Marx was liquidated, placing Hornby 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. Manufacturing was moved to Guangdong province in China in 1995 to cut costs and improve quality because of competition from Dapol, Lima and Bachmann Industries. Hornby tried to become more profitable by producing licensed train sets to increase its appeal to a younger customer. The railway sets based on Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express have been particularly profitable ventures. Hornby decided to acquire it’s competitor Lima, an Italian model railway equipment manufacturer that had previously acquired Jouef, a French manufacturer. Some of the ex-Lima models appear in the main Hornby products list. This range is known as Hornby International. This acquisition also included the Rivarossi line of HO-scale products, also originally from Italy, and the Arnold brand of N-scale products. In November 2006, Hornby Hobbies acquired Airfix and Humbrol paints for the sum of £2.6 million. Airfix is now a successful tradename of Hornby. In May 2008, Hornby announced the acquisition of Corgi Classics Limited, one of the world's oldest makers of collectable die-cast models of trucks, buses, cars and airplanes. Bachmann Industries Model Railroading Equipment Manufacturer Graham Farish Model Railway Equipment Manufacturer In 2001, Graham Farish was absorbed by Bachmann who were originally an American company, are now owned by Kader Industries of Hong Kong, China. To cut production costs Bachmann immediately closed the Poole facility and moved production to China. Bachmann improved the model range robustness by redesigning them as they reintroducing the entire range. Bachmann have downscaled the N gauge models and added them to their OO gauge range. British made Graham Farish models is sought more by model railway collectors because it is 'older' and 'British'. New model railway enthusiast generally prefer the more robust and detailed Chinese-built models. The way to tell these two types apart is that UK built models have a yellow sticker on the ends of the box and models built in China have a white sticker on the end.
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