references to primary sources . please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . september 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message bachmann industries ltd. bachmann brothers inc. type private company industry ivory celluloid plastics and accessories for model railroading founded 1833 headquarters hamilton bermuda hong kong key people henry carlisle henry g. father of henry e. and walter j. bachmann founders additional key people include joseph c. s. crowther bayard bud f. crowther arthur h. crowther and chester w. crowther products see history revenue us 146.87 million parent kader industries website bachmann trains bachmann industries bachmann brothers inc. is a bermuda registered chinese owned company globally headquartered in hong kong ; specialising in model railroading . founded in philadelphia pennsylvania the home of its north american headquarters bachmann is today part of the kader group who model products are made at a chinese government joint venture plant in dongguan china . bachmann s brand is the largest seller in terms of volume of model trains in the world . citation needed bachmann primarily specializes in entry level train sets and premium offerings in many scales . the spectrum line is the high quality model railroad product line offered in n ho large scale on30 and williams o gauge all aimed for the hobbyist market . bachmann is the producer of the famous railroad village product line known as plasticville . the turnover for bachmann model trains for the year ended 31 december 2006 was approximately 46.87 million a slight increase of 3.36 % as compared to 2005 . 1 contents 1 history 2 model railroading products 2.1 spectrum 2.2 big haulers and spectrum large scale models 2.3 williams 2.4 today and dcc 2.5 plasticville 2.6 e z track 3 other products 4 kader acquisition 5 global expansion 6 international 7 trivia 8 finance and acquisition 9 references 9.1 notes 10 external links history edit founded in 1833 by henry carlisle the company originally specialised in vanity products such as parasol handles and spanish combs made of ivory horns . its target market was aristocracy in the american south and louisiana . after the civil war it continued to make other types of hair ornaments and handles for walking canes now out of tortoise shell and ivory . in 1899 carlisle s firm merged with a competing firm run by henry g. bachmann and changed its name to bachmann bros. by 1902 bachmann bros. started to use celluloid for its products and by 1912 introduced optical frames that were made from it . it was around this time that bachmann bros. began experimenting in plastic . in 1927 shortly before they moved to their final philadelphia address they became the first american manufacturer of sunglasses . the line solarex would become very popular worldwide and would later be purchased by the us army and united states army air forces for their personnel during wwii . during wwii bachmann bros. was awarded the coveted army navy e award for outstanding contribution to the war effort by an american company . citation needed other notable products include birds of the world model kits plasticville usa shooting glasses for winchester repeating arms company now the u.s. repeating arms company and stein eriksen ski goggles . 2 model railroading products edit h0 scale bachmann spectrum center cab switcher . because of the sudden popularity of n scale model railroading around 1966 bachmann entered the trains market by starting its n scale trains products in june 1968 3 with cars packaged in white jewel cases . 4 however problems of initial run led to a retooling the following year . 5 in 1970 bachmann entered the ho trains market . 6 a second retooling occurred around 1973 when trains started to be packaged in black jewel cases . 5 in 1978 bachmann changed its logo to the present one . 7 trains began to be packaged in blue jewel cases . bachmann bros. held exclusive licenses to produce models of trains manufactured by budd company passenger trains and united aircraft s high speed train . several product lines are produced under the bachmann name including spectrum edit a bachmann spectrum 44ton . in 1988 bachmann introduced the spectrum line of higher quality equipment including updated motors more realistic paint schemes and better detail . 8 9 spectrum was considered a totally different company from the regular bachmann company . the initial offering was a ge 44 ton diesel . later on the spectrum line expanded to include a pennsylvania railroad k 4 pacific an emd gp30 and a general electric dash 8 40c . in 1998 bachmann introduced their spectrum h0 scale 2 8 0 consolidation which was selected model of the year by the readers of model railroader magazine . 10 by 2000 spectrum was no longer considered a separate product and became one of the bachmann product lines as spectrum was finally included in bachmann s regular catalogues . 11 big haulers and spectrum large scale models edit in 1988 bachmann started to produce large scale also known as g scale or garden scale train sets called the big haulers . they were first introduced in sets consisting of a locomotive one or two freight cars and a caboose set 90100 was the first set . the locomotives were battery powered and were radio controlled . 12 in 1989 they began making train sets using track powered electric locomotives . 13 in 1989 bachmann also began selling locomotives freight cars and passenger cars as separate items . since the early years bachamnn introduced a high quality line of prototype 1 20.3 locomotives and rolling stock in their spectrum line . williams edit in 2007 bachmann purchased the williams electric trains company which has allowed the company to expand into the o scale market . williams offers a more traditional train layout reminiscent of the 1950s with diesel engines and rolling stock similar in look to the same o gauge products introduced by lionel trains during the golden ages of model railroads . steam engines include semi scale and scale representations and their classic scale hudson engine is a beautiful high quality die cast engine offering terrific performance and value . williams by bachmann has produced a new 44 ton switcher that has been introduced in 2015 to rave reviews with new tooling to produce a highly detailed version advancing williams to higher levels of detail but still remaining a value leader in the o gauge segment . today and dcc edit in an effort to fill the quality gap the between the spectrum brand and the regular bachmann trains bachmann introduced a mid ranged bachmann plus series in 1992 when production was moved to china . 14 eventually the entire standard product line would be upgraded to the quality level of the plus series which led to the drop of the plus series and the birth of the current silver series in 1997 . 9 bachmann doubled the msrp of its products and cars are now packaged in clear plastic display jewel cases . 11 in 2001 bachmann started to produce trains in on30 scale o scale on ho tracks . 15 in 2002 bachmann introduced its thomas and friends range in h0 00 scale . new products have been released since 2005 usually new rolling stock and engines which have moving eyes . in 2007 a new line of structures was released . in 2010 bachmann released several garden scale models of thomas & friends characters . since 2006 16 bachmann has been concentrating on implementing a digital command control dcc system and products in its product lines with the help and partnership of the german company lenz elektronik gmbh . bachmann released its dynamis dcc system in 2007 which enabled bachmann to catch up technologically with other dcc companies . currently bachmann ho spectrum lines are dcc on board while the vast majority of its n spectrum lines are dcc ready . plasticville edit following the war s end bachmann came up with the product which made their name a household word ... plasticville usa ... an assemble yourself kit of homes stores and other buildings to enhance train layouts . plasticville usa products are still popular accessories for lionel and american flyer trains . bachmann s plasticville products originally in o scale and later expanded to ho scale and n scale were originally manufactured by bachmann in philadelphia but later manufactured in hong kong . they have been made exclusively in china by plastics moulding manufacturer kader holdings company limited since 1999 . the hobby of collecting plasticville has increased in recent years to the point that the plasticville collectors association was founded in 1999 and incorporated in 2001 . e z track edit originally like most other train manufacturers bachmann s train sets used conventional snap track originally in brass then switching to steel in the early 1980s . in 1994 bachmann introduced the then revolutionary e z track that featured ho track built onto a moulded plastic roadbed that could be assembled like typical ho track . this allowed for operating ho trains on the floor without worry of dust lint and carpet fibres though traditional tabletop layouts could also be designed using this track system . while integrated roadbed track was not invented by bachmann foreign train manufacturers such as kato precision railroad models and m rklin trains all had their own types of roadbed track the e z track was still new and innovative to the north american ho train market . originally offered only in steel a nickel silver version of the track line came out in 1996 and a wide variety of track length and turnout selections became available in the line including e z command dcc turnouts . after the success of the ho track line e z track was also made available in n scale as well . train sets manufactured by wm. k. walthers and athearn also come with e z track as both companies do not make their own ho track . other products edit during the 1960s bachmann produced plastic models of animals animals of the world series birds of the world series and dogs of the world series called nature craft kits . they also produced their own mini planes slot cars marketed in both ho and a slightly smaller version of 1 32 scale cars and sets with 1 32 scale track purchased from strombecker corporation whom by the early 1970s closed down its slot car business ; military models with fujimi that include fighter planes helicopters and tanks ; and toy robots called toys of tomorrow with tomy . 17 bachmann would drop the toy robots within a couple of years . 18 the bachmann fujimi models would be dropped during the 1970s . bachmann dropped slot cars and mini planes from its product lines after the kader takeover see below but instead entered the radio controlled model market . 19 in 1982 they revived their nature craft kits as birds of the world . 20 by 1987 they have dropped all other toys and only concentrated on model trains and accessories . 21 in 1998 bachmann did try to sell a short lived product a radio controlled motorcycle . 8 bachmann s mini planes list included several commercial airline models such as boeing 707 in american airlines pan american world airways trans world airlines and fictional bachmann airlines marking convair cv880 in delta air lines and twa marking boeing 727 in delta eastern airlines twa and united airlines marking douglas dc 9 in delta eastern and twa marking douglas dc 8 in united and japan airlines marking boeing 747 in japan airlines pan am and lufthansa marking douglas dc 10 in american marking ford tri motor in twa marking and douglas dc 3 in american airlines marking . 22 complete list of 22 bachmann birds of the world officially released to