Buco (model railway)
| A. Bucherer & Co AG | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1919 / 1926–1957 |
| Seat | Amriswil and Diepoldsau , Switzerland |
| management | August Bucherer |
| Branch | Toy industry |
The & A. Bucherer Co AG (abbreviation Buco ) was a Swiss toy - and toy train -producer.
history
In 1919 August Bucherer founded A. Bucherer & Cie . He was no longer a newcomer to the manufacture of model railways , as he worked as a model maker at Märklin from 1907 to 1911 and then until 1918 as technical manager at the Bruno Ulbricht toy factory in Nuremberg .
First wooden toys and metal figures, the so-called Saba figures, were made. The Saba figurines were mainly exported to the USA, but when the latter massively increased import duties , this line of business had to be discontinued.
In 1923 the DEF-Eisenbahn (The Railway For the Garden) was presented. The construction of this railway was stable. The upper parts of the vehicles were made of wood , the lower parts of angle iron . A child could sit comfortably in a carriage. The clockwork of the locomotive was wound with a crank. But the production of this railway was very expensive and production had to be stopped in 1926 when the company went bankrupt .
In the same year a new company was founded A. Bucherer & Co AG (Buco). The new range included wooden promotional items , wooden boxes for Ernst pasta or Sprüngli chocolate. The wooden construction kit Buco-Ingenieur became famous . Board games, wooden animals, dollhouses and shops with and without equipment were also made. At that time, the crossbow logo for local work was printed on the packaging . Imported toys were difficult to find during and after World War II and the company first made wooden clockwork trains as train sets. The rails were made of aluminum with wooden sleepers.
Toy trains
Toy train track 0
In 1947 the first two-axle Buco clockwork locomotive 212 in gauge 0 was presented. The electric version 301 with remote control followed a year later. In 1949 the four-axle Buco locomotive 304 was delivered with the same electromechanical design. These train sets were based on the Gotthard express train of the time: an SBB Ae 4/6 locomotive with older express train passenger cars .
The Buco locomotives were sometimes less powerful than competing products, but the mechanical parts were very durable. In 1953 the Bucomatic overvoltage drive funnel was presented.
In contrast to the Swiss model railway manufacturers Hag , Erno or Resal, Buco offered the most diverse range, especially in the field of freight cars . The range was limited to a niche in the market: the manufacture of SBB wagons.
The rails consisted of wooden sleepers with a three-wire rail system (sometimes two-wire for the clockwork locomotives). The transformer was first manufactured by Elektro-Apparatebau Olten (K. Loosli & Co.) and in 1953 proprietary, patented transformers were built.
There were also lots of accessories such as switches , buffer , signals , control panels , arc lamp , transformers , overhead lines . The buildings were not forgotten either. In the catalog for Christmas 1949 there were tunnels , various train stations, goods sheds, signal box, railroad keeper's house, etc. In the 1956/57 catalog, the tipper car was shown as the last innovation in 0 gauge. It was then only sold from stock, also in 1958 by the successor company.
Toy train gauge H0
Due to the economic pressure from Märklin u. a. In 1954, the company was forced to produce the smaller H0 (half-zero) track in addition to track 0 . Due to the time pressure, there was a collaboration with Trix , Nuremberg and then with the Liliput company , Vienna. These partially supplied semi-finished plastic products that were modified by Buco. With some model adjustments and its own packaging, the Buco gauge H0 got its own character.
In 1954 Buco developed the SBB RBe 4/8 type 661 double multiple unit, the "red double arrow". The SBB had put two railcars of this type into operation for excursion traffic in 1953. This model is still known today. At the MUBA 1954 the hand sample of the "Red Double Arrow" was shown. The 2-axle electric locomotive with a zinc die-cast housing offered at the same time came from remnants of Trix and was modified to Buco.
Two locomotives were added to the 1955 catalog, the Ae 3/5 and an A 3/5 steam locomotive . A Swiss steam locomotive in H0 gauge was unrivaled at the time. However, it only had the wheel alignment in common with the various models and was not particularly popular at the time.
From 1955 Buco took over the further development of the Ae 4/7 from the former manufacturer Car and Jibby . It was later taken over by the Hag company to compensate for outstanding debts.
The company's own track system was a three-wire rail system and even then was made of plastic . It was also considerably cheaper than the corresponding Märklin track section (1954: CHF 1.00 versus CHF 1.90 from Märklin). There were even extendable pieces of track with a variable length of 81-108 mm. The developed transformer was built conventionally but the exterior was unusual. It was the reduced version of the driver's cab of the red double arrow of the SBB.
The first two freight cars L7 and K4 developed in-house were manufactured in 1957 and were also the last two freight cars. At the end of 1957 the end came.
Buco toy trains today
A selection of products from the former Buco company will continue to be manufactured as replicas with the original tools or partially newly manufactured tools; Original stocks are also still being sold.
In September 2009, the tools and stocks of the gauge 0 changed from private property (Mr. Krähenbühl F.) to the company Tiefenbach Mechanik GmbH in Bauma. For this purpose she founded Buco Spur 0 GmbH in Bauma (Messrs. Sudler Andreas and Grotz Fritz). The material for gauge H0 was taken over from the model railroad meeting point Amiba-Lokschuppen (Mr. Erich Brechbühl) in Wetzikon.
literature
- Swiss toy trains , Goldach trade press 1984
- U. Höschen, M. Buitelaar: Handbook for model railroad collectors. Determination and reference work with market prices for early toy and model railroads from Swiss manufacturers, motorized vehicles, passenger and freight wagons from 1919 to 1969 , Hilden 2008, Verlag Mikado Schweiz-Edition, Hilden 2008
