industry model railway components founded 1901 1980 hornby hobbies ltd founder frank hornby headquarters margate kent england key people roger canham executive chairman frank martin deputy chairman revenue 51.6 million 2013 operating income 8.24 million 2007 net income 7.66 million 2007 number of employees 200 2010 website www.hornby.com hornby railways is a british model railway brand . its roots date back to 1901 when founder frank hornby received a patent for his meccano construction toy . the first clockwork train was produced in 1920 . in 1938 hornby launched its first 00 gauge train . in 1964 hornby and meccano were bought by their competitor tri ang 1 and sold on when tri ang went into receivership . hornby railways became independent in the 1980s . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1920 1938 1.2 hornby dublo era 1938 1963 1.3 tri ang hornby 1964 1972 1.4 hornby railways 1972 1980 1.5 zero 1 1.6 rocket 1.7 hornby hobbies limited 1980 present 2 gauges 3 collector and enthusiasts groups 4 brands 4.1 lima 4.2 jouef 4.3 arnold 4.4 rivarossi 4.5 skaledale 4.6 lyddle end 5 in media 6 hornby collectors 7 see also 8 notes 9 references 10 external links history edit early history 1920 1938 edit a characteristic logotype hornby o gauge tinplate models hornby was at first a tradename for the railway productions of meccano ltd and based in liverpool which released its first train a clockwork 0 gauge 1 48 model in 1920 . an electric train soon followed but was under designed and the few that were made were sold out in france . in 1925 a much more successful electric model was introduced operating on the high voltage of 110 volts ac power . safety concerns saw low voltage 4v and then 6v motors introduced followed by a reliable 20v ac system which was developed in the early 1930s . however clockwork remained the mainstay of the hornby 0 gauge trains until 1937 and became the only power available in liverpool made 0 gauge trains from 1949 . competitors in the uk were leeds model company and bassett lowke . a factory was established in france which developed its own range of french outline trains but liverpool dominated export activity elsewhere with large numbers of hornby trains exported to australia new zealand argentina and scandinavia . even though the export models were often painted in foreign liveries hornby trains looked very british . hornby attempted to break into the american market by setting up a factory in 1927 in elizabeth new jersey to make american style trains . these were colourful and attractive but low market and only clockwork . they probably would have failed in the marketplace because several established u.s. firms could undercut them and hornby offered no better class goods or electric models but the wall street crash precipitated matters . in late 1929 meccano ltd. sold its new jersey factory to the a. c. gilbert company and hornby trains had vanished from the u.s. market by 1930 . the leftover inventory was sold in canada and in the uk and some of the tooling was reused for products in other markets . hornby dublo era 1938 1963 edit logo 1956 1961 hornby dublo model of an lms coronation locomotive city of liverpool meccano introduced its oo scale trains in 1938 under the name hornby dublo . the locomotives were diecast metal and the carriages and wagons were generally made of tinplate . this was a very well planned range of electric and clockwork models successfully consolidating 12 v dc as the standard for oo scale . this led to the adoption of oo as a broadly accepted modelling standard in the uk whereas much of the rest of the world adopted ho scale . as for their o gauge locomotives electric hornby dublo locomotives ran on a third rail electric system with the track built on a pressed tinplate base . both oo and ho use the same track gauge but their scales are different . beginning as literally half o gauge the ho models of continental prototypes at 3.5 mm foot scale were workable but hornby chose to slightly increase the scale to 4 mm foot for the smaller british prototypes to provide more internal space for a motor . this has had the effect remaining to this day of making their gauge an apparent 4 ft 1 in rather than the true standard gauge of 4 ft 8 in . the range expanded quickly but was curtailed from 1940 due to world war ii production being completely suspended in 1942 . production resumed after the war but did not reach full capacity until 1948 . clockwork models were not produced in 00 scale after the war . in 2008 a special commemorative model of lner class a4 4498 sir nigel gresley was produced in period packaging to celebrate the 70th anniversary of this introduction . like its counterparts bassett lowke and exley in the uk and lionel and american flyer in the us hornby thrived in the first half of the 1950s but struggled in the second half of the decade . the company was slow to recognise the threat posed by rival manufacturers particularly triang rovex 1 and to realise the potential of plastic . in 1959 far too late hornby introduced two rail track and moulded plastic rolling stock the super detail series but even then the system was complicated and difficult to use in comparison to its rivals . meanwhile the company plugged on producing a range of very old fashioned 0 gauge models in 1957 completely retooling much of the range instead of taking the opportunity to discontinue it indicative of major failings at management level . tri ang hornby 1964 1972 edit logo 1966 1972 in 1964 lines bros ltd. the parent company of rival tri ang railways purchased meccano ltd. and merged hornby and tri ang into tri ang hornby . 1 the former hornby line was discontinued in favour of tri ang s less costly plastic designs . the hornby dublo tooling was sold to g & r wrenn which continued to make most of the loco range and superdetail rolling stock . remaining stocks of 0 gauge were either scrapped or sold to the local retailer hattons . hornby railways 1972 1980 edit logo 1978 1996 a hornby model of a br standard class 9f the tri ang group was disbanded in 1971 when meccano ltd s owner lines bros. filed for bankruptcy . the former tri ang hornby was sold to dunbee combex marx becoming hornby railways in 1972 . by 1976 hornby was facing challenges from palitoy and airfix both of which were producing high quality detailed models . detail on the models was upgraded to make the product line more attractive to adult hobbyists . zero 1 edit a 16 channel command control system named zero 1 was introduced in late 1979 . zero 1 was based on digital not analog technology and as such was a forerunner to the nmra digital command control dcc system which appeared in the 1990s . advertisements claimed that 16 locomotives could be operated independently at the same time . though an important milestone zero 1 was not widely successful ; the controller units and decoder modules required for the locomotives were expensive but with clean track and well serviced locos the system worked well . control of points and other accessories was available in a very simple manner . locomotives equipped with a zero 1 decoder could not be used on conventional direct current systems making it difficult to run one s locomotives on friends layouts or club layouts . this was a common issue with command control systems in that time period . locomotives with no decoder could not be used on a zero 1 layout either . the master control unit was discontinued in 1985 the slave controller loco modules and accessory modules were still available until the late 1980s . the system is still used today by many modellers highlighted by the demand on such sites like ebay for the items in the second hand market . despite being on the market for a short time zero 1 had the largest installed base among command control systems in the early 1980s in north america according to a reader survey done by model railroader magazine . zero 1 had 3 phased introductions . phase 1 master controller and basic system master controller slave hand held slave unit and loco modules phase 2 accessory control points signals etc. phase 3 micro mimic display allowed for led s to represent status of points and signals on a mimic display panel the system was mains dependent so a 50 hz version and 60 hz version were available 60 hz us only main master unit discontinued in 1986 and finally the last time loco modules were listed was in the 1991 catalogue limited supplies of r955 loco module are available . repairs to zero 1 units were no longer undertaken by hornby due to them stating lack of available parts required . rocket edit as part of the 1980 rocket 150 celebrations hornby released a live steam powered 3 gauge locomotive a model of the stephenson s rocket 2 3 a major goal was to make real live steam accessible to an indoor domestic environment . the boiler was considerably smaller than the external diameter surrounded by a thick insulating jacket to prevent burns . it was fuelled by butane gas from cigarette lighter refills . to provide more torque from the small cylinders gearing was adeptly hidden between the cranks and the wheels . the track was of asymmetric moulded plastic units representing the fishbelly rails of the period . these could be assembled either way round to give either curved or straight track . by 1980 the market was extremely tough and dunbee combex marx was liquidated placing hornby in receivership . hornby hobbies limited 1980 present edit in 2006 a cotswold rail class 43 hst power car carried a livery advertising hornby . it has since been repainted . in 1980 hornby became hornby hobbies and in 1981 a management buyout saw the company back on a sound footing . it went public in 1986 . by the early 1990s hornby again faced competition from newcomers such as dapol and established foreign manufacturers including lima and bachmann industries . manufacturing was moved to guangdong province in china in 1995 completed by 1999 in a cost cutting exercise . 4 as part of the process hornby also bought in some of dapol s products and also some of the old airfix moulds by then owned by dapol . train sets based on thomas the tank engine and friends and harry potter 5 the hogwarts express have been particularly profitable ventures . in september 2003 hornby released its first steam powered 00 gauge locomotive a model of the record breaking mallard . several other live steam locomotives have now been produced . gnr class j13 model of this period since then hornby has bought lima an italian model railway equipment manufacturer that had previously acquired jouef a french manufacturer . some of the ex lima models appear in the main hornby products list . this range is known as hornby international . this acquisition also included the rivarossi line of ho scale products also originally from italy and the arnold brand of n scale products . they also took over the spanish model railway company electrotren . electrotren had been the spanish importer for scalextric sold in spain as superslot . the takeover was at the request of the spanish company and was not due to obvious financial problems . they have remained independent outside of the hornby international umbrella . with competition mainly from bachmann industries and to a much lesser extent from minor and generally niche players such as the