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Offline rmsailor  
#1 Posted : 15 May 2015 12:05:41(UTC)
rmsailor

Scotland   
Joined: 20/01/2006(UTC)
Posts: 569
Location: Kirkcaldy, Fife
Today is the 152nd birthday of Frank Hornby. A Liverpool shipping Clark, he invented Mechanics Made Easy, later called Meccano in1901. Hornby "O" gauge trains started just after the first World War, initially as a development of Meccano. At that time there was considerable anti-German feeling so he had an open market. However a lot of what he did was inspired by Marklin. Conversely of course Marklin marketed a construction range based on Meccano. Dinky toys followed in 1934 and Hornby Dublo "OO"trains in 1938, after Frank's death.

Production continued of all the ranges after the war with the second half of the fifties being the golden age of Dublo trains but faced with increasing competition they could not match, Meccano Ltd went into liquidation in 1964 and the different product lines were sold off. Tri-ang, their principle competitor, aquired the Hornby range and initially called themselves Tri-ang-Hornby, though there was little integration. Eventually the Hornby moulds went to subsiduary company, Wrenn who marketed them for the next forty years or so. Hatton's of Liverpool aquired a lot of the Hornby stock and continued to sell it for many years.

Tri-ang themselves had there own financial troubles and take overs and eventually, with the Tri-ang name having gone a different way, the Hornby name was adopted for the Hornby Hobbies company which still exists.

For anybody interested in the History of Meccano, New Cavendish press produced a nine volume history of the company. Now out of print but readily available second hand. Similarly for Tri-ang and Tri-ang-Hornby there is the three volume set by Pat Hammond. Wrenn is covered in the book by Gunter Maurice.

Bob M
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Offline kimballthurlow  
#2 Posted : 16 May 2015 01:01:40(UTC)
kimballthurlow

Australia   
Joined: 18/03/2007(UTC)
Posts: 6,655
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Originally Posted by: rmsailor Go to Quoted Post
Today is the 152nd birthday of Frank Hornby.... the golden age of Dublo trains but faced with increasing competition they could not match, Meccano Ltd went into liquidation in 1964 and the different product lines were sold off. ... Bob M


Hi Bob, and thanks for the reminder.

Yes it seems a pity, but the Dublo three rail range was as good as anything Maerklin made at the time, and their DC motors perhaps simpler.
Maerklin made the decision to stick with their AC three rail, and made good over time.

Meccano on the other hand, got the jitters with the competition, and decided to invest in 2 rail, which diverted probably needed money.

regards
Kimball
HO Scale - Märklin (ep II-III and VI, C Track, digital) - 2 rail HO (Queensland Australia, UK, USA) - 3 rail OO (English Hornby Dublo) - old clockwork O gauge - Live Steam 90mm (3.1/2 inch) gauge.
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Offline rmsailor  
#3 Posted : 16 May 2015 10:03:51(UTC)
rmsailor

Scotland   
Joined: 20/01/2006(UTC)
Posts: 569
Location: Kirkcaldy, Fife
Hi Kimball,

Apart from the competition which they were not matching, Corgi cars were better than Dinky, Lego was simpler than Meccano and Tri-ang trains perhaps 20% cheaper than equivalent Dublo, towards the end Hornby made a number of mistakes with some inferior products like the Deltic and Co-Bo diesels which did not match earlier products and in 2-rail a track system of which it has been said you required a maths degree to understand the geometry.#

Bob M.
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Offline Bryan  
#4 Posted : 19 May 2015 01:07:15(UTC)
Bryan

Australia   
Joined: 08/09/2010(UTC)
Posts: 209
Location: Bowral, NSW, Australia
Hi All

This was posted on another site long ago on the demise of Dublo, still appropriate.


On the 14th February 1964 Lines Bros took over Meccano Ltd which changed UK model trains forever. There have been many reports on this merger, however very few to me seem to have the real story. If you read the ‘Factory of Dreams’ book, it paints Meccano as having been left behind post-war on the industrial front, not excelling in any direction. However, just to mention one point, what about the super detailed Dublo, undeniably state of the art manufacture in 1959. There are also the reports of Tri-ang Railways taking over the Dublo market in the late 1950’s. Not quite correct, as Dublo was in a different league and basically a superior product to Tri-ang. The real truth here was Tri-ang took over the cheaper Hornby O-gauge clockwork market, not the more expensive Dublo market. Look at the sales figures of both Tri-ang and O-gauge products, one increased while the other declined in unison. There was also the Dublo 2-rail trackage system which did not help, however still not the main reason to me.

In 1964, Bassett-Lowke closed down followed by Leeds Model Co, two very old established model train companies. The British Trix company were also in trouble, looking for a buyer at this particular time. The Lone Star range of 000 electric trains looked promising, but once again like Dublo, they put in a large investment in and it did not continue in production long. Tri-ang Railways were in a similar situation, with a slightly different story. Their main production in 1964 seemed to be producing the X04 motors for Minimodels, a sister company, who had the successful Scalextric slot cars at the time. If it was not for this major production, Tri-ang (Rovex) could have also been in similar trouble to Meccano. Even across to the USA, Lionel Trains were also in trouble financially, going into exporting plastic kits via Lines Bros to fill the sales rooms.

So in February 1964, 51 years ago, the UK model train industry was in severe recession and a major casualty was Meccano’s independence. This recession in my mind was the real reason for Meccano’s financial problems in 1964. All the Dublo tooling as we know went to Wrenn where in the 1970’s their production levels were extremely high, far higher than under late Dublo production. This is a testament to what Meccano could have done if they survived independently, with Dublo. So to me the basic reason for the Meccano takeover by Lines Bros, in 1964, was a very bad recession in the model train industry, far more than anything else that has been reported in the past.

In summary it was the slot car craze in the early 1960's which killed off Hornby- Dublo. The question I would love to ask is how did Marklin survive though this slot car storm.


Cheers
Bryan

Edited by user 19 May 2015 09:40:36(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

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