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.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Hornby sold trains in the United States as well as in the UK. It withdrew from the US market during the Great Depression.

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 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 Tri-ang group was disbanded in 1971 and the former Tri-ang Hornby became Hornby Railways in 1972. 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.

In 1980 Hornby became an independent company and went public in 1986. Manufacturing first moved to Guangdong province in China in 1995, and was complete by 1999, cutting costs and improving quality according to the company. 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.

External links

• http://www.hornbyrailways.com