| Hornby
is famous as the UK brand leader in the model
railway hobby. After the company’s founder,
Frank Hornby, was granted his patent in 1901 he
soon put his invention into production under the
name ‘Mechanics Made Easy’. This led to
the establishment of Meccano Ltd in 1907. Such
was the success of the company, Frank Hornby had
to regularly move his factory to new and larger
premises. Hornby
came under increasing pressure from rival company
Tri-ang Railways and following the acquisition in
1964 of Meccano Ltd by Lines Brothers (the parent
company of Tri-ang Railways), the companies were
merged in 1965 to become Tri-ang Hornby.
The Tri-ang Group was disbanded and sold in 1971
and the model railway system which had in 1972
been known as Tri-ang Hornby was renamed Hornby
Railways in January.
In 1980 the
company, now known as Hornby Hobbies Ltd, became
an independent company. Now simply called
"Hornby", the company retains the
position it has held for more than 50 years as
Britain’s leading model railway manufacturer
and in 2008 released some model cars to fit in
with their Skaledale brand.
The models are produced by Oxford
Diecast on
Hornby's behalf.
|
1245
