citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . october 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message a no. 42 trolley and trailer in the permanent collection of the children s museum of indianapolis . made between 1904 1909 . carlisle & finch is a producer of nautical equipment and searchlights and the inventor of the electric toy train . it is headquartered in cincinnati ohio . contents 1 history 2 see also 3 references 4 external links history edit founded in 1894 by robert finch and morton carlisle the company had two products an electric toy train and a carbon arc searchlight . it was particularly known for the dcb 224 aero beacon which is no longer produced . 1 the trains which entered the marketplace in 1897 stood about 5.5 inches tall were made of metal colorful and highly detailed and ran on metal track with rails two inches apart . they were the first complete electric powered trains to be introduced to the marketplace . citation needed three other smaller short lived u.s. toy train manufacturers including voltamp adopted carlisle & finch s 2 inch track . carlisle & finch s offerings were by definition non standard its status as the inventor of the electric train notwithstanding . citation needed at the beginning of world war i the united states government ordered carlisle and finch to cease toy train production in order to concentrate on producing searchlights for the united states navy and united states coast guard . at the end of the war the company did not resume toy train production choosing instead to concentrate on its profitable searchlight business . within a decade it was the largest producer of military searchlights in the country . citation needed finch bought out carlisle s share of the company in 1917 . over the ensuing decades it began producing equipment for civilian use with its searchlights being used in lighthouses and on offshore oil rigs . citation needed typically in lighthouses the aerobeacon was used to replace a fresnel lens . 2 see also edit seul choix light references edit aero beacon terry pepper seeing the light . trapani bob dcb 36 beacon ... fading away and all but forgotten by history stormherocs.com . external links edit company web site carlisle & finch electric trains in operation at youtube this article about a toy company is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e this model rail related article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title carlisle % 26 finch & oldid 534819283 categories toy train manufacturerstoy company stubsmodel rail stubshidden categories articles needing additional references from october 2011all articles needing additional referencesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from october 2011all stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages portugu s edit links this page was last modified on 25 january 2013 at 13 26 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view