Robert "Bob" Grubba was the director of engineering for Lionel Trains in the late 1990s.
Lionel, LLC is an American designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads that is headquartered in Concord, North Carolina. Its roots lie in the 1969 purchase of the Lionel product line from the Lionel Corporation by cereal conglomerate General Mills and subsequent purchase in 1986 by businessman Richard P. Kughn forming Lionel Trains, Inc. in 1986. The Martin Davis Investment Group (Wellspring) bought Lionel Trains, Inc. in 1995 and renamed it Lionel, LLC.
He started Broadway Limited Imports in 2001 with partners Tony Wenzel of Oriental Limited and Bob Zimet of QS Industries, maker of QSI sound systems. Broadway Limited Imports was the first company to offer sound and remote control equipped HO trains, and won the Model Railroader Magazine 2002 and 2003 Product of the Year and HO Model of the Year awards. Mr. Zimet and Mr. Wenzel sold their shares to Mr. Grubba in 2004 and the company was moved to Ormond Beach, Florida.
Broadway Limited Imports, LLC (BLI) designs and manufactures limited-run HO scale and N scale model railroad locomotives and rolling stock. BLI products, produced in extremely limited quantities, are equipped with Digital Command Control decoders and the ability to reproduce the recorded sounds of actual trains.
Model Railroader (MR) is an American magazine about the hobby of model railroading. Founded in 1934 by Al C. Kalmbach, it is published monthly by Kalmbach Media of Waukesha, Wisconsin. Commonly found on newsstands and in libraries, it promotes itself as the oldest magazine of its type in the United States, although it is the long-standing competitor to Railroad Model Craftsman, which - originally named The Model Craftsman - predates MR by one year.
In 2004, Grubba founded Precision Craft Models, Inc. which was the first company to install sound systems and remote control in the smaller N scale model trains.
Robert Grubba holds the following US patents:
| Patent No. | Title |
|---|
| 1 | 7,307,394 | Control and motor arrangement for use in model train |
| 2 | 7,298,103 | Control and motor arrangement for use in model train |
| 3 | 7,215,092 | Radio-linked, bi-directional control system for model electric trains |
| 4 | 7,211,976 | Control and motor arrangement for use in model train |
| 5 | 6,765,356 | Control and motor arrangement for use in model train |
| 6 | 6,616,506 | Inserted molded traction tire for a model toy train |
| 7 | 6,485,347 | Puffing fan driven smoke unit for a model train |
| 8 | 6,441,570 | Controller for a model toy train set |
| 9 | 6,186,074 | Drive assembly for model train |
| 10 | 5,188,173 | Pressure control system and cable guiding device for use in drilling wells |
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Railway modelling or model railroading is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale.
Joshua Lionel Cowen was an American inventor and the co-founder of Lionel Corporation, a manufacturer of model railroads and toy trains. Cowen also invented the flash-lamp in 1899, an early photographer's flash light source.
O scale is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Originally introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad scale in the United States and remained so until the early 1960s. In Europe, its popularity declined before World War II due to the introduction of smaller scales.
Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer in business from 1919 to 1980. Its products were often imprinted with the slogan, "One of the many Marx toys, have you all of them?" Arguably, Marx was the most well-known toy company through the late mid 20th century.
The A. C. Gilbert Company was an American toy company, once one of the largest in the world, who originated the Erector Set, which is a construction toy similar to Meccano in the rest of the world.
American Flyer is a brand of toy train and model railroad manufactured in the United States.
The Ives Manufacturing Company, an American toy manufacturer from 1868 to 1932, was the largest manufacturer of toy trains in the United States from 1910 until 1924, when Lionel Corporation overtook it in sales.
A toy train is a toy that represents a train. It is distinguished from a model train by an emphasis on low cost and durability, rather than scale modeling. A toy train can be as simple as a pull toy that does not even run on track, or it might be operated by clockwork or a battery. Many of today's model trains might be considered as toy ones as well, providing they are not strictly scale ones in favor of a robustness appropriate for children.
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, and sold on when Tri-ang went into receivership. Hornby Railways became independent in the 1980s, and became listed on the London Stock Exchange, but due to recent financial troubles, reported in June 2017, is presently majority owned by turnaround specialist Phoenix Asset Management.
Bachmann Industries is a Bermuda registered Chinese owned company, globally headquartered in Hong Kong; specialising in model railroading.
MTH Electric Trains, a privately held company based in Columbia, Maryland that is formerly known as Mike's Train House, is an American toy train and model railroad designer, importer, and manufacturer.
Trainmaster Command (TMCC) is Lionel's electronic control system for O scale 3-rail model trains and toy trains that mainly ran from 1994 to 2006. Conceptually it is similar to Digital Command Control (DCC), the industry's open standard used by HO scale and other 2-rail DC trains. It has one advantage over DCC, in that TMCC-equipped locomotives can run simultaneously with non-TMCC locomotives and Lionel Legacy engines as well as LionChief and LionChief Plus equipped locomotives. The latter require a dedicated remote controller. MTH Corporation's DCS controller can be configured to control TMCC locomotives, and all four systems can be operated on the same track simultaneously. Each simply requires a constant track voltage. TMCC/Legacy "broadcasts" its signal to the antenna on the locomotives which listen for signals that first identify the particular locomotive by number and then it issues given commands as to speed, direction, sounds, lighting and other features. DCS performs similar functions but transmits a carrier over the rails which are picked up through the locomotive's electrical pickup contacts. While TMCC/Legacy and DCS remote controls relay operator commands to a device that transmits them to the train, LionChief/LionChief+ also issue remote control commands but the remote and locomotive are married and each locomotive requires a separate remote control. This system requires no additional wiring as the control is directly "narrowcast" to the locomotive in the same way as a television remote control or garage door opener functions. In 2017, Lionel released a universal remote for LionChief+ that will learn addresses for up to three locos at a time, simplifying the operation of multiple trains.
Lionel Corporation was an American toy manufacturer and retailer that was in business from 1900 to 1995. Founded as an electrical novelties company, Lionel specialized in various products throughout its existence, but toy trains and model railroads were its main claim to fame. Lionel trains, produced from 1900 to 1969, drew admiration from model railroaders around the world for the solidity of their construction and the authenticity of their detail. During its peak years in the 1950s, the company sold $25 million worth of trains per year. In 2006, Lionel's electric train, along with the Easy-Bake Oven, became the first electric toy inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
The Flying Yankee was a diesel-electric streamliner built in 1935 for the Maine Central Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad by Budd Company and with mechanical and electrical equipment from Electro-Motive Corporation. It was also the name of a passenger train, the third streamliner train in North America after the Union Pacific Railroad's M-10000 and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's Pioneer Zephyr; the Flying Yankee was, in fact, a virtual clone of the latter, except that it dispensed with the baggage/mail space to seat 142 in three articulated cars.
Tyco Toys was an American toy manufacturer. It was acquired by Mattel in 1997.
Life-Like was a manufacturer of model trains and accessories that began as a division of parent company Life-Like Products, a manufacturer of extruded foam ice chests and coolers. In 1960 the company purchased the assets of the defunct Varney Scale Models and began manufacturing model trains and accessories under the name Life-Like in 1970. In 2005 the parent company, known as Lifoam Industries, LLC, chose to concentrate on their core products and sold their model railroad operations to hobby distributor Wm. K. Walthers. Today, the Life-Like trademark is used by Walthers for its line of value-priced starter train sets.
The San Diego Model Railroad Museum is a model railroad exhibit in San Diego, California. At 27,000 sq. ft., it is the largest such indoor exhibit in North America, and one of the largest in the world. The museum is on the lower level of the Casa de Balboa Building on the Prado in Balboa Park. The museum is open Tuesday through Friday 10 AM - 4 PM, Saturday & Sunday 11 AM - 5 PM and is closed on Mondays.
