Railway modelling or model railroading is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale.
Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store and acquired a number of craft retail companies, including RadioShack in 1963. In 2000, the Tandy Corporation name was dropped and the entity became the RadioShack Corporation.
LGB stands for Lehmann Gross Bahn - the "Lehmann Big Train" in German. Made by Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk in Nuremberg, Germany, since 1968 and by Märklin since 2007, it is the most popular garden railway model in Europe, although there are also many models of U.S. and Canadian prototypes. LGB caused a revival of garden model railroading in the United States when it was introduced. LGB is sold in North America through Wm. K. Walthers, who took over from Ernst Paul Lehmann's subsidiary, LGB of America, when Märklin bought the LGB assets. Most of the European prototypes were manufactured in Germany, while much of the North American rolling stock was made in China. Production was later moved to Hungary.
American Flyer is a brand of toy train and model railroad manufactured in the United States.
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.
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.
Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Originally a weighing scale manufacturer, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinders, radios, farm tractors, feed mills, locomotives, and industrial supplies until it was purchased by Penn Texas in 1958 and later, in 1999, by Goodrich Corp. It used the trade name Fairbanks-Morse.
John Whitby Allen was an American model railroader who created the HO scale Gorre & Daphetid model railroad in Monterey, California, and wrote numerous magazine articles on model railroading starting in the 1940s. Allen was renowned for his skill at scratch building and creating scenery. He also pioneered the technique of weathering his models for a more realistic appearance. In addition to his superdetailing of locomotives, rolling stock, structures, and scenery, Allen was known for populating his model world with scale figures in humorous scenes. Other techniques Allen promoted were realistic train operation and the use of forced perspective to create the illusion of a model railroad layout larger than it really was.
The Fuller Brush Company sells branded and private label products for personal care as well as commercial and household cleaning. It was founded in 1906 by Alfred Fuller. Consolidated Foods, now Sara Lee Corporation, acquired Fuller Brush in 1968. In 1991, the company was placed in private ownership but, in 1994, it became a subsidiary of CPAC Inc., which from 2007–2012 was owned by the private equity group Buckingham Capital Partners. From December 2012 through Dec 2017, the Fuller Brush Company was owned and operated by David Sabin and Victory Park Capital. Since January 2018, the Fuller Brush Company has been owned and operated by Galaxy Brush LLC, located in Lakewood, New Jersey.
Tyco Toys was an American toy manufacturer. It was acquired by Mattel in 1997.
Athearn is a United States manufacturer of model railroad equipment, produced and distributed by American hobby manufacturer Horizon Hobby, Inc. of Champaign, Illinois, USA.
Wm. K. Walthers, Inc. is a manufacturer and distributor of model railroad supplies and tools.
Life-Like was a manufacturer of model trains and accessories. 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, 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.
George Sellios was the owner of Fine Scale Miniatures (FSM), a business dedicated to producing detailed model kits of structures for model railroad enthusiasts. He is also an accomplished modeler and is well-known in the hobby for his layout, the Franklin & South Manchester Railroad which attracts visitors from around the world.
Faller is a German toy company founded in Stuttgart in 1946 by brothers Edwin and Hermann Faller. The company later relocated to the brothers' home town of Gütenbach in the Black Forest.
Wooden toy trains are toy trains that run on a wooden track system with grooves to guide the wheels of the rolling stock. While the trains, tracks and scenery accessories are made mainly of wood, the engines and cars connect to each other using metal hooks or small magnets, and some use plastic wheels mounted on metal axles. Some trains are made to resemble anthropomorphical, fictional, and prototypical railroad equipment.
Bowser Manufacturing is a United States manufacturer of model railroad equipment, located in Montoursville, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1946 by Bill Bowser in Redlands, California, he used his skill as a machinist to design and produce one of the first lines of accurately scaled steam locomotive kits in HO scale. In 1955, his financial partner Donald Acheson forced Bowser out of the company by enforcing a buyout clause in their agreement. After Acheson sold the considerable backstock of kits and parts, he sold the company to Lewis English in 1961. The company has since grown and continues to produce its own line of injection molded plastic model kits and ready-to-run locomotives.
Noch GmbH & Co. KG, from Wangen im Allgäu is a manufacturer and importer of accessories for model trains, especially for building landscapes. It makes products for all common sizes of model trains.
Sidney Howe Short was an electrical engineer, inventor, physicist, professor and businessman. He is known for the development of electric motors and electric railway equipment. His inventions were so successful that even his competitors dubbed him "The Trolley King". He also developed telephone equipment much like that of Alexander Graham Bell. As a businessman he was president, key engineer, or advisor of different companies related to electrical equipment. It is claimed that he had nearly as many electrical innovations as Thomas Edison.
