RMweb Premium M.I.B Posted February 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8, 2011 When I were a lad, Hornby and Lima ruled the roost over the fading Triang brand (I know that Triang owned Hornby) Then interlopers like Airfix RTR and Mainline snuck in and raised the RTR bar. Airfix was just becoming GMR (I think). I go off and play with very fast cars and in 2010 decide to "return". Hornby is still here, no Lima, who is Dapol, what is a Bachman - whose idea was it to shrink triang type tension locks on Bachmans, Where did Replica Railays appear from? Please can someone explain who merged with who, and fill in the gaps. TY Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMJ Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Lima still exists within the larger Hornby group but only for European models. Old Lima is in the Hornby Railroad range of items that are not detailled as much. Dapol took over many of the Airfix kits in 80's and started with a few locos & wagons in OO. Some now made by Hornby. Some of the Airfix/Mainline were produced by Kader (parent company of Bachmann) so some of these were put in the early Bachmann catalogues. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium spamcan61 Posted February 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8, 2011 Where did Replica Railays appear from? That part is perhaps easiest answered by the 'company history' part of their web site:- http://www.replicarailways.co.uk/information/company-history Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dilbert Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 A concise chronology of events (4mm RTR world only) : 1981 Meccano (owner of Airfix) goes bust, Palitoy (the owner of Mainline) acquires the Airfix GMR range. 1984 : General Mills (the owner of Palitoy) decides that Palitoy will stop trading in Europe. after that, Dapol acquires the original Airfix tooling, Replica strikes a deal with Kader (who owned the Mainline tooling) c1985 : Dapol and Replica have a judicial spat, which Replica wins c1989 : Kader creates Bachmann in the UK - existing agreements with Replica grind to a halt c1995 : Dapol sells Airix tooling to Hornby c2002 : Lima hits the dust and sometime after, Hornby picks up the Lima range ...dilbert Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennine MC Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 c1985 : Dapol and Replica have a judicial spat, which Replica wins ...... c1995 : Dapol sells Airix tooling to Hornby And at some point (I think) after the second of those two, Dapol changed from being David Boyle (who also had a business in exotic birds or somesuch) to the Dapol we now know. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dilbert Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 And at some point (I think) after the second of those two, Dapol changed from being David Boyle (who also had a business in exotic birds or somesuch) to the Dapol we now know. Yes, I had forgotten that at some point Dapol had acquired the Wrenn tooling - IIRC it was sometime 1992-1993... at this point things changed with Wrenn bodies on Dapol chassis , the burnt out Winsford factory etc... nothing really new though (product wise)... dilbert Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mike Bellamy Posted February 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8, 2011 That part is perhaps easiest answered by the 'company history' part of their web site:- http://www.replicarailways.co.uk/information/company-history Very interesting reading that - and their 5 year plan from 1986 and to see how many of their proposed models are now available from other manufacturers Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted February 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8, 2011 A concise chronology of events (4mm RTR world only) : [*]1981 Meccano (owner of Airfix) goes bust ...dilbert Correction due I think 1964 Meccano (Owners of Hornby Dublo and not the owners of Airfix) goes bust and is bought by Lines Bros (Owners of Triang) on 14 Feb 1964 for £781,000. Supposedly Triang & Hornby ranges to be amalgamated but HD is passed to G&R Wrenn (also under Lines Bros Control). Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 The Airfix/Mainline/Dapol relationship is made a bit more complex by Mainline after its acquisition of Airfix commissioning some items that were not made by Kader - the 2P and 56 in particular which became part of the toolings acquired by Dapol despite not having any Airfix origins. (Numerous magazine articles and captions equally get mixed up as to who originated a particular model) To really confuse matters Dapol after failing to gain access to the Kader toolings released their own copies of ex Mainline wagons with the result today you can find new, or second hand as appropriate, what appear to be the same basic model in Mainline, Replica, Dapol, Bachmann and Hornby packaging Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted February 8, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8, 2011 An interesting aside to the various comings and goings is that some of the wagons in the Branch Line ranges are from the same source as some in the Hornby range, although they may have been updated subsequently! Apparently there were sometimes two sets of tools for the same wagons with different owners and one set ended up going down the Hornby route and another the Bachmann. Keith EDIT: BH beat me to it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Another oddity is what happened to Trix / Lilliput (UK) - Lilliput ended up with Bachmann and they made use of the A4 but Dapol catalogued the A2 (never made it though) and did produce some Trans-Pennine bodies on Dapols own chassis. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dilbert Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Correction due I think 1964 Meccano (Owners of Hornby Dublo and not the owners of Airfix) goes bust and is bought by Lines Bros (Owners of Triang) on 14 Feb 1964 for £781,000. Supposedly Triang & Hornby ranges to be amalgamated but HD is passed to G&R Wrenn (also under Lines Bros Control). That's right - I don't know what came over me ... at the time Lines Bros went bust, Airfix GMR was a profitable part of the group... dilbert Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium M.I.B Posted February 9, 2011 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 9, 2011 "today you can find new, or second hand as appropriate, what appear to be the same basic model in Mainline, Replica, Dapol, Bachmann and Hornby packaging" That was the reason for my post. Many thanks to all for clearing that lot up. (Ooops - I had forgotten to list Wrenn - probably because I never had any of their stuff). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Dapol also repackaged stock that they acquired from the Airfix and Mainline as their own which probably means that a Dapol boxed wagon might be the original Kader produced one for Mainline or could be the Dapol copy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 2ManySpams Posted February 9, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 9, 2011 And don't forget the young upstarts...Heljan and ViTrains Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 And also: ... no Lima... The Lima group tools having been acquired by Hornby, ex Lima people formed a new business in Vicenza,; ViTrains, mostly HO, but two OO products. ... whose idea was it to shrink triang type tension locks on Bachmann... Mainline had a reduced size version from their launch, Airfix went for a very small version, probably smaller than the current miniature tension locks, Bachmann launched with the reduced size type originated by Mainline, then introduced the current miniature pattern about ten years ago, Hornby fairly quickly followed suit. ... I had forgotten to list Wrenn... Finally clanked to a halt - mercifully - a few years ago, probably... Never advanced beyond reheated remains of HD. No one has mentioned Heljan, who have been steadily introducing a range of OO diesels and goods rolling stock, Murphy's who initially commissioned from Bachmann but now are a brand in their own right producing Irish models, OO Works batchbuilding small steam types, Silver Fox offering finished models on bought in RTR chassis, Golden Age who are offering a brass range of steam era models, Fiatrains so far one off LMS twins, and some recent entrants such as Real Track with DMUs announced. Probably missed a few too, there's never been more RTR on offer in OO. Edited to add: 2Many Spams had the same thought! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium M.I.B Posted February 9, 2011 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 9, 2011 Dapol also repackaged stock that they acquired from the Airfix and Mainline as their own which probably means that a Dapol boxed wagon might be the original Kader produced one for Mainline or could be the Dapol copy. I think that is what set off my "wonderings" - I have a Dapol boxed item that has a Mainline chassied wagon in it. I haven't popped the body off the chassis to see whether the underside is marked Dapol or mainline. I agree with the later statement that there has never been so much RTR - I was just enquiring about the names from my yoof and the "common" volume makers of today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etched Pixels Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Correction due I think 1964 Meccano (Owners of Hornby Dublo and not the owners of Airfix) goes bust and is bought by Lines Bros (Owners of Triang) on 14 Feb 1964 for £781,000. Supposedly Triang & Hornby ranges to be amalgamated but HD is passed to G&R Wrenn (also under Lines Bros Control). Keith Slightly murkier (as ever). The 'Wrenn' name was used for a varety of ex Dublo products but there were changes and links - the switch to the tri-ang coupler and there was a brief period in 1970/1 where it was branded Triang-Wrenn. The next year Wrenn went back to being family owned until 1992 when they were sold on to Dapol (David Boyle at the time - the Dapol of Dr Who stuff etc) and in 2001 was sold bty Dapol to some Wrenn collectors. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dilbert Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 and in 2001 was sold bty Dapol to some Wrenn collectors. going by the 'Moorvale' name... dilbert Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted February 9, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 9, 2011 That's right - I don't know what came over me ... at the time Lines Bros went bust, Airfix GMR was a profitable part of the group... dilbert Exactly when were Airfix part of Lines Bros? Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigherb Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Think we missed the Jouef Playcraft range, as Jouef is now owned by Hornby theres a thought that nice little North British shunter with a new chassis in the Railroad range. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
naugytrax Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I think everyone's been mentioned now - except for Graham Farish, who had an interesting OO range for some time, eventually exiting the OO market when Airfix and Palitoy entered it. They had die-cast locos, Pullmans and generic 57 ft coaches , wagon models of gradually increasing verisimilitude, and of course track. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chameleon Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I remember shopping (at Cardiff Canton depot during the GWR 150 celebrations no less) just after Palitoy pulled the plug on Mainline. I still have the Manor, Mogul and warship i bought for about £6 each as they were giving them away as surplus stock. Wish I'd bought more MK1s now! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Think we missed the Jouef Playcraft range, as Jouef is now owned by Hornby theres a thought that nice little North British shunter with a new chassis in the Railroad range. There was also the mk3 coaches and the overwidth 40 they produced - maybe a certain Stove R will look perfect behind one of those 40s Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted February 9, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 9, 2011 Slightly murkier (as ever). The 'Wrenn' name was used for a varety of ex Dublo products but there were changes and links - the switch to the tri-ang coupler and there was a brief period in 1970/1 where it was branded Triang-Wrenn. The next year Wrenn went back to being family owned until 1992 when they were sold on to Dapol (David Boyle at the time - the Dapol of Dr Who stuff etc) and in 2001 was sold bty Dapol to some Wrenn collectors. New 'Wrenn' products are still available and every so often a limited edition item appears for collectors. Their website has the information. 36E Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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