A bit of Roco history

[rekoboy]

I posted this article on the TT 2.5mm section of the RM Web - now I think I have probably missed most of my potential audience - so here we go again!

I thought I might present you with a little Roco history. Some of you may think that Roco started out from the beginnings of the company as a manufacturer of high quality H0 trains - that development came much later. Roco started life around 1960 under Karlheinz Rössler as a manufacturer of cheap plastic toys, often as free gifts for food and drink producers! The very first locos produced by Roco were approximate TT-120 scale unmotorized 'push 'n go' overhead line electric locos, sold with either 4-wheel passenger carriages or 4-wheel goods wagons in blister packs or given as free gifts with Austrian Korona coffee or with sweets and bubble-gum made by Schatzmann. A while ago I bought two of the ÖBB electric locos from a German acquaintance with the intention of motorizing one of them using a BTTB/Zeuke chassis and adding proper pantos, glazing etc. There are copious hints and reports on the German TT-Board website on projects involving early Roco toys. I have still not started on the electric loco - my attic and study are littered with unfinished work, I am sorry to say! What is interesting about these toy trains is the quality of the mouldings - there are a lot of the early Roco goods wagons and carriages  in service still across Germany, usually just the very good bodyshells mounted on BTTB, Zeuke or Tillig chassis. Following the production of these toy trains and the successful introduction of the popular and cheap H0 scale Minitanks series Roco entered the real model railway market, first as a sub-contractor for the American company AHM, and in partnership at first with Mehanotechnika of the former Yugoslavia. This website in German might be of interest....http://www.bahnmuseum.at/herst.roco01.html