Graham Farish produces large quantities of British outline model railway equipment in N gauge. N scale is a popular Model railway scale/track gauge Depending upon the manufacturer (or country the scale ranges from 1148 to 1160
History
The Poole, Dorset based manufacturer of radio parts and kits entered the model railway business in the late 1940s, after the need for radio sets reduced post World War II. Poole ( is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset on the south coast of England Dorset ( (or archaically, Dorsetshire) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949 Events and trends The 1940s was a period between the radical 1930s and the conservative 1950s which also leads the period to be World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The early 1950s models focussed on British OO gauge, and they manufactured track, wagons and other supporting items. The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive Many of the more obscure items such as the Graham Farish Coronation figures (by Russell Gammage) from 1953 are considered collectors items. Year 1953 ( MCMLIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
Originally the OO railway locomotives were powered by an unconventional 2 pole DC electric motor. Unfortunately many of their diecast items were manufactured with impure mazac (an alloy of zinc and aluminium), which later crumbled. An alloy is a Solid solution or Homogeneous mixture of two or more elements, at least one of which is a Metal, which itself has Zinc (ˈzɪŋk from Zink is a Metallic Chemical element with the symbol Zn and Atomic number 30 WikipediaNaming
Graham Farish really found its market niche with the arrival of N scale becoming under the Grafar brand the major supplier of British outline N scale models at a time when the market was shrinking and the other OO gauge players were suffering badly. N scale is a popular Model railway scale/track gauge Depending upon the manufacturer (or country the scale ranges from 1148 to 1160 The range included 4 wheel coaches, bogied suburban stock and corridor bogied stock: all of which is generic, but is accepted by most people. Peco produced better detailed models, but produced no locomotives (except the Jubilee), focusing on wagons and its own dominance of finescale track, which Grafar had withdrawn from. Peco is a UK-based manufacturer of Model railway accessories especially trackwork, based at Pecorama Beer in South Devon.
After the withdrawal of two competitive mass-market manufacturers, the Italian based Lima and German based Minitrix, for some years from the late-1980s Grafar was the only major supplier of British outline models in N scale - predicating its withdrawal from the OO scale market in light of greater competition in the developing collector scale market. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Lima SpA (Lima Models was a brand of railway models made in Vicenza, Italy, for almost 50 years from the early 1950s until the company ceased trading in 2004 Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Trix is a German company that originally made metal construction sets The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. Grafar produced reasonable models and had many fans, but their products were notoriously unreliable and regularly suffered splits in plastic gears, making the models run badly or in only one direction.
Takeover by Bachmann
In 2001, Graham Farish was purchased by Kader Industries of Hong Kong, and absorbed by its subsidiary Bachmann Industries. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Kader Industrial Company Limited was founded in Hong Kong in 1948 by Ting Hsiung Chao. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders Bachmann Industries is a Bermuda registered Chinese owned company globally head quartered in Hong Kong; specializing in Model railroading. Bachmann immediately closed the Poole facility and moved production to China, setting about improving the at times poor model robustness of the products by redesigning and latterly reintroducing the entire range. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National
Bachmann have since increase the size of the Farish range, by duplicating models introduced to the Bachmann OO range: the detail investigation and pre-production of an original railway vehicle is more detailed for an OO scale model, while for production into Nscale there is a simply a down-scaling of most components for production. Hence normally, an OO scale Bachmann Branchline model is followed around 6/9months later by an Nscale Graham Farish model - with the new 9F steam locomotive and Voyager diesel set being two examples. Bachmann Branchline is a brand name of Bachmann Industries used for British outline 00 gauge Model railways Bachmann a US company founded in 1835 The British Railways BR Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 is a class of Steam locomotive designed for British Railways by Robert Riddles The Class 220 Voyager is a class of Diesel-electric high-speed multiple-unit Trains built by Bombardier Transportation
Graham Farish products are generally divided into two categories. British made equipment is sought more by collectors because it is 'older' and 'British' while model railway users generally prefer the more robust and detailed Chinese-built models. The way to tell these two types apart is that UK built models have a yellow sticker on the ends of the box and models built in China have a white sticker on the end.
External links
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