Model Train Brands

Bachmann 

Bachmann produces enough trains annually to circle the globe.

This is big accomplishment for a company that never set out to manufacture trains in the first place.

Bachmann Trains is located in Pennsylvania and is considered the largest seller of model trains world-wide. Serving mainly an introductory market, Bachmann products are easily affordable.

In existence since 1833, Bachmann originally went into business selling vanity items like combs and brushes. It was founded by Henry Carlisle, and by 1899, it was being run by Henry E. Bachmann in 1899. Henry E. decided to merge the company with a competing firm run by his father, Henry G. Bachmann.

In the mid-1940s, the company was getting involved in plastics. To extend its market outside of combs and brushes, Bachmann firm made an item that was originally designed for decoration on Christmas trees. However, it soon would completely change the direction of their company.

They found out people were using this Christmas decoration item for fences on model train layouts. Bachmann then remarketed the "fence" under the Plasticville brand. It was so successful that the brand moved full scale into producing a line of buildings, scenery, and accessories for model train layouts. As accessories to Lionel and American Flyer trains, the Bachman brand experienced substantial growth.

Determining it had enough brand name recognition with the success of its scenery and accessory products, Bachmann moved into producing actual working engines and rolling stock in a variety of scales in 1952. Primarily working in O scale (1/48th size) and HO (1/87th size) scale, they steadily worked into other scales.

Bachmann was on the forefront of the market by selling full and complete, ready to run starter sets. They still are a force in that market today, especially in N scalee (1/160th size). 

Bachman has grown to produce engines, cars, scenery, and accessories for five scales: Large scale, O scale, On3 (narrow gauge O) scale, HO scale and N scale. The have plants in the United States (still located in Philadelphia, Pennsylva), Great Britan, Germany, and China.     

Lionel

Lionel trains have long been a standard of model railroading. It may be the best known name in the world of scale model trains.

Lionel was the brand of model train that our grandparents and parents enjoyed. After some rough times, it is ready to bring joy to a new generation.

The company associated with model trains has gone through a number of different owners and changes through its inception to today. Still, it has been synonymous with the thrill that is model railroading.

Humble beginnings

New York City, 1900. Joshua Lionel Cowen founded Lionel Trains in a small office at 24 Murray Street at the age of 23. His Electric Express and the products to follow would put a mark on United States. In 1906, the company pioneered three rail track for model trains. This track has a center rail that carried the electrical current and was designed to eliminate short circuits.

Lionel Trains sought out other markets early in its history. It put out a line of electric racing cars in 1912 that predated popularized slot cars by nearly 50 years.  By the 1920s, Lionel Corporation (as it was now known) was building sites outside the US and was buying the competition. It purchase of Ives Manufacturing, Lionel gained technology to put reverse movement into its model trains.

Making a few famous items

The Great Depression had a big effect on Lionel and it spent a little over four years in receivership. During that time, however, Lionel produced an item that antique dealers and collectors long for- a wind up handcar featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse first made in 1934. During this time, Lionel also ceased production of Standard gauge trains to focus exclusively on its O-27 gauge of trains. The latter half of the 30s saw the release of its popular New York central Hudson locomotive, and the introduction of a steam whistle sound unit.

During the height of World War II, Lionel assisted the war effort by producing compasses while it stopped building metal trains. It did offer, for a time, a non-electric paper train set. After the war, Lionel began producing steam engines that made smoke. By the 1950s, Lionel was a household name and was offering combat-oriented train sets. The 1960s saw some misguided marketing steps- mainly, not recognizing the popularity of HO scale and making product to suit the demand, and was bankrupt by 1969. 

Lionel branched into the toy retail business in the 1970s, and its name was leased to General Mills. It opened a plant in Michigan under the name Fundimensions and was maintaining the quality of old. Between the 1980s and the end of the 1990s, the company had been sold a couple of more times, though not before a resurgence in of the 700E locomotive that had a surprisingly long run of production, and the introduction of true wireless train control.

Experiencing renewed vitality

Today, Lionel is experiencing growth and profitability again. Over the last 10 years, Lionel has licensed its name and logo for a variety of memorabilia items and other railroad items. This, along with renewed interest in Lionel's main gauges of O and O-27, has brought Lionel back from being another "fallen flag" of the model railroad world.

Brio 

Brio is perhaps the most well-known maker of trains powered by the imagination. Or by little fingers.

No trains made by Brio use AC current. Brio makes trains made out of wood. The engines, cars, track, buildings, bridges- are all wood. They are the most popular train sets for the very young.

But that is not how the company began

In 1878, Ivar Bengtssonn pooled his efforts with a childhood friend and made wood baskets to sell. They traveled from their native Sweden to sell baskets in Denmark, and were successful. He later began making other items, such as kitchen utensils. After marrying in 1884, Ivar and his wife had a growing family. In 1902, they decided to move near Osby in the southern part of Sweden, to be closer to where he sold his wares.

Soon after, he was publishing a catalog of items. By 1907, his catalog included around 170 items, some of which were toys. The most popular item was a wooden horse. In 1908, Ivar's two eldest sons were preparing to leave Sweden and head for America to seek a better lifestyle. Ivar persuaded their sons to stay and take over the family business, along with their youngest son. The parents transferred the whole company to Viktor, Anton and Emil and the company became known as Brothers Ivarsson Osby.

Taking a different business approach than their father, the sons went to Germany on a buying spree after securing a loan. Though they sold many different items, they found that after World War I, baby strollers were in short supply. They decided to make them in Osby in 1935. Within two years, they had 150 employees. Ivar stayed involved, and oversaw the building construction and maintenance for the business. He died in 1948.  

The Brio Company is still majority-owned by the family today. Dag and Bengt Ivarsson, the grandchildren of Ivar, are the main owners of Brio. They still hold to the ideal that a toy should be educational as well as a joy to play with.

Today, Brio offers a wide range of wooden railroad toys for age groups from 1 to 10 years old. They are logically designed and all parts of one set will be compatible with another. The wooden toys are simple, yet lead children to discover and learn about their world.

Newer products from Brio include Smart Track segments and battery powered engines. The Smart Track pieces will activate other pieces on the layout, even as you build on to it.

Brio is intent on keeping the magic of railroading alive to every new generation of children.   

Some facts about Brio Trains:

Since 2001, the Brio factory in Killeberg, Sweden has produced 6.1 million sections of wooden track- the equivalent of 27,800 sections per day- including weekends!

Brio uses eight million magnets a years in their wooden railways.

They use 18 million wheels for their train engines and cars.

Brio uses sells waste wood to their municipal thermal power station. The average yearly amount produces 7,528 MWh of energy.

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