Arnold (company)
| K. Arnold GmbH & Co.
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|---|---|
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| legal form | GmbH and Co. KG |
| founding | 1906 |
| Seat | |
| Branch | Toy industry |
| Website | www.hornby.de |
Arnold ( Metallspielwarenfabrik K. Arnold GmbH & Co. ) was initially a German company that manufactured tin toys and model trains , mainly in N gauge . It was later bought by the Italian company Rivarossi and is now part of the English Hornby Group.
history
founding
The company was founded by Karl Arnold in Nuremberg on October 4th, 1906 and mainly produced tin toys there. In 1913, the company moved into its own factory building on Blumenthalstrasse in Nuremberg ⊙ , which was later expanded on Deutschherrnstrasse. In the Second World War all Nuremberg manufacturing facilities were destroyed. After the end of the war, production was resumed in the branch in Mühlhausen, Upper Palatinate , until the Nuremberg plant was also rebuilt. The branch in Mühlhausen was retained because the lower land and labor costs in rural areas were an increasingly important calculation factor.
Change of orientation
Due to the gradual decline in sales of tin toys, the manufacturer shifted its product range to the development of a new type of model railway system at the end of the 1950s. In 1960, models with a gauge of 8 mm were presented for the first time at the Nuremberg Toy Fair as " Arnold Rapido 200 " on a scale of 1: 200. According to a letter to the editor, from the 1962 toy fair onwards, Arnold manufactured the models in a scale that was changed to 1: 160 with a 9 mm gauge. This was internationally standardized in 1964 for gauge N in NEM 010. Arnold was thus, after Casting Machine Tools Ltd. London , which initially relied on 9 mm, was a pioneer of the N gauge and was considered the market leader for many years, but from 1964 had to adjust to increasing competition from the Minitrix products (from Trix ) and from 1969 Fleischmann piccolo . It was not until 1966 that Arnold switched production to standard-compliant polarity - when driving forward, the right-hand rail is the positive pole.
Initially, the company almost exclusively produced N-gauge models. It was not until the 1990s that the product range was expanded to include a few vehicles in the nominal size TT . In addition to rolling stock and tracks, Arnold also produced a limited selection of accessories in the 1: 160 scale. These included various buildings and road vehicles.
Leading role in the N sector
The company developed many innovative products with which a certain technical superiority in the model railway market was achieved. In 1963, for example, a new type of N-gauge coupling was presented, which the Association of Model Railroaders and Railway Friends of Europe raised to the standard in its standards a year later . In 1967 Arnold brought out the first unabridged models of express train passenger cars for the Federal Railroad. In 1972 the first N-gauge steam locomotive with a smoke generator and passenger cars with interior lighting appeared, followed in 1973 by the simplex coupling for automatic decoupling at any point on the model railway layout. From 1981 Arnold was the first large-scale manufacturer to produce a replica of a mallet- type steam locomotive with an articulated twin drive . In 1985, Arnold brought out the Kleinlok Köf, the smallest N-gauge locomotive model that had ever appeared, in which a drive could still be accommodated.
An original special version were locomotive models with no drive, vaporized with real gold, which came on the market from 1976.
Around 1970 Arnold took over a small range of buildings, railway structures and accessories for size N from the Blattmann company in Emmendingen . Since around 1965, Blattmann had produced almost exclusively for the N market under the brand name Klei-We ( Klei ne We lt). Arnold brought out the kits from 1971 under his own brand name, such as the Renchen station building or the Lorch signal box, which is not quite prototypical . In addition, Arnold produced an extensive range of accessories, for example signal dummies and loads, in order to stimulate the N market. This made strategic sense, as Arnold concentrated exclusively on size N, whose market share is traditionally lower in relation to the H0 gauge and therefore only limited sales per model can be expected. As a result, Arnold brought out other building kits of his own, such as a transformer house or the Winsen (Luhe) station building .
Appearance on the market
Several developments had a problematic effect for Arnold: Arnold's mold construction soon fell short of the technical possibilities, both in terms of the fineness of the engraving and the accuracy of the model-based implementation. This applied, for example, to models with rounded spherical head shapes such as the E 103 or E 150 or small locomotives such as the E 69. The visual and functional design quality of the competitor Fleischmann was noticeably superior to that of Arnold when it entered the N-gauge market in 1969. The competitors Minitrix and Roco also soon improved their quality noticeably. For example, as early as 1973 two newly released freight cars from Arnold received a rather unfavorable verdict from the model railroad press. The innovations of the other main competitors discussed at the same time were rated much better.
Technically, it was technically unfavorable to equip the Arnold models with flanges that were too sharply pointed, which led to derailments when used on track material from other N manufacturers. The use of plastic wheels on the wagons caused uneven running, and it also led to the "collecting" of dirt on the wheel tread on tracks from third-party manufacturers, with bumpy running as a result. The desired compatibility with material from other manufacturers - already in the early days of size N a decisive advantage of this gauge - was not promoted by Arnold. Other manufacturers such as Fleischmann or Roco relied on the high-quality but expensive metal wheel sets right from the start. The drive technology and smoothness of the locomotives from Arnold, especially the steam locomotive models, and the general implementation of scale, proportions and engraving fell in comparison with the other providers. Because in order to make the models robust and strong and to accommodate the drive better, the models of the old electric locomotives were a bit too big in scale. With the appearance of comparable models among the other market participants, these outstripped Arnold. For example, the robust model of Arnold's E 94 freight train electric locomotive was 1 mm in width and 2 mm in height larger than the model based on the same model released by Fleischmann some time later, a very noticeable difference in this size.
Market change and decline
Arnold's tendency towards cost-saving production caused homemade competitive disadvantages. The car housings were dyed through, which, despite the semi-matt structure of the granulate and surface, led to the typical “plastic color” of the models and immediately set Arnold's products apart from those of other manufacturers. The competitors ensured an authentic and convincing finish for their housings through the complex painting process. In addition, Arnold held on to the under-detailed base frames made of cast zinc for a very long time and thus fell far behind. Arnold's strategy of using a standard chassis for the freight cars, in order to save the molding costs for additional chassis, led to downright bizarre results. The result was that the proportions of a number of models had to be distorted or the wheelbase - as a decisive optical feature - deviated significantly.
Around the mid-1980s, the H0 size market became increasingly attractive again for buyers. Contributing to this were: the ever better detailing, but above all the gradual willingness of the producers to take into account the technical standards of European model railways , in particular the introduction of the standard coupling shaft so that the compatibility and function of the models were greatly improved regardless of the manufacturer, and finally the increasing availability of less or not at all shortened express train passenger cars. The previously great advantage of size N, that it had always had these system properties, has now become increasingly less. With the reunification of Germany, a new, rewarding market with many interesting role models opened up for model railway companies in size H0. The size N was less common in the GDR; The 1: 120 scale formed a massive market segment with material from VEB Berliner TT-Bahnen , so that the established West German manufacturers tended to have to deal with this new market segment. However, every addition for the TT gauge inevitably affected the other sizes; in case of doubt, the N. become.
Preservation of the brand name
The company had to file for bankruptcy in 1995 and was taken over by Italian competitor Rivarossi in 1997 . The Nuremberg property was sold and subsequently occupied by residential and business uses. In 2001, production in Mühlhausen was also discontinued. The model molds were brought to Italy. In 2003 Rivarossi was also insolvent. As a result, Hornby Plc acquired in 2004 . Parts of Rivarossi and thus also the brand name Arnold and the Arnold molds.
Arnold model railway products have been available in stores again since 2006. The models were initially developed in England and Italy, and since 2009 in Spain and Germany. After many existing models in N and TT gauge were initially launched on the market in revised form, new N-gauge models have been developed again since 2009. For the first time a 1: 148 scale model for the British N-gauge market was announced for 2013 . It is a model of the five-part Pullman electric multiple unit Brighton Belle .
literature
- Guido Kruschke, Ralph Zinngrebe: Fascination Arnold. The history of the N gauge from 1960 to the present day in a historical and technical perspective. from Arnold Modelleisenbahn GmbH, Mühlhausen , item no. 0082, published July 2000.
Web links
- Arnold model railways at Hornby International
- Hornby - Arnold area , Germany sales for Arnold
Individual evidence
- ^ Hornby International
- ↑ a b entry "Arnold & Co." at nuernberginfos.de, accessed on November 19, 2013
- ↑ Miba 12/1961 p. 493
- ↑ Miba 3/1962 p. 95
- ↑ Miba 4/1961 p. 147
- ↑ Miba 3/1966 p. 101
- ↑ NEM 356, coupling head for size N , accessed on February 25, 2019
- ↑ Railway magazine 11/1973, Alba Verlag Dusseldorf
- ↑ Hornby Italia
- ^ Hornby España
- ^ Hornby Germany
- ↑ Arnold New Items 2013 ( Memento of the original from January 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
