Bachmann Industries
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bachmann Industries (originally Bachmann Bros.) is a company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania specializing in model railroading. Today it is the largest seller, in terms of volume, of model trains in the world. Bachmann primarily specializes in inexpensive high quality entry-level train sets sold in the mass market.
It was founded in 1833 by Henry Carlisle and originally specialized in vanity products such as women's combs. In 1899 Carlisle's firm, now run by Henry E. Bachmann, merged with a competing firm being run by Henry E. Bachmann's father, Henry G. Bachmann, and the younger Bachmann's brother, Walter J. Bachmann.
Its experience in plastics led to a mass-market plastic fence released in 1947. Originally intended for decorating christmas trees it was adopted by early railway modellers. When Bachmann learned this they began producing other products for this market leading to the Plasticville line of buildings, which were popular accessories for Lionel and American Flyer trains.
Bachmann introduced its own line of trains starting in 1952. Today Bachmann offers trains in HO scale, N scale, On30 scale, and G scale in addition to buildings and accessories. In the United Kingdom Bachmann also offer OO gauge models under the Bachmann Branchline name and British (1:148) N gauge models under the Graham Farish name.
From 1952 many of the Bachmann models were made by Kader Holdings Company Limited a Hong Kong company set up for making the models and toys. In 1984 Kader acquired Bachmann.
As well as introducing its own brands Bachmann has also built itself up as the largest volume seller of model railways by purchasing other failing companies. In 1989 a European division was set up initially reusing the moulds previously used for the Palitoy 'mainline' model railway products to create the Bachmann Branchline models. 1992 it bought Liliput of Austria and in 2000 it bought Graham Farish.
Bachmann produces many of its products in China and does much of it's desigh work there as well. The company has also moved the production of other failing companies it has purchased offshore as well.
For the model railroader - beware: Bachmann Customer Support states that they DO NOT warranty trains that are purchased though Model Train & Hobby Expositions or on EBay, even though they are 'New-In Box' unless the seller is an authorized dealer. The limited lifetime warranty applies to powered equipment and to the original owner only, and only as long as parts are still available.
