Hornby - Britain’s best-loved model railway brand
1901
Frank Hornby patents his Mechanics Made Easy toy – the foundation of Meccano.
1908
Frank Hornby creates his Meccano brand for metal construction toys sewing the seeds for the Hornby Hobbies business we know and love today. The company is based in Liverpool.
1914
Hornby opens a new factory in Binns Road, Liverpool, to keep up with demand for his new Meccano products. It becomes Hornby’s base for the next 60 years.
1920
Hornby becomes the first trading name for Meccano and launches its first ‘O’ gauge clockwork trains. Electric versions followed, settling on a 20V AC system in 1925, but clockwork power remained the mainstay of the ‘O’ gauge range.
1938
Hornby Dublo is born. The first ‘OO’ scale models are the Gresley ‘N2’ 0-6-2T and ‘A4’ 4-6-2 Sir Nigel Gresley. The initial models were clockwork powered and all used either die-casting or tinplate for this construction. The sale of clockwork models ceased after the Second World War. The first electric models used a three-rail track system where the locomotives collected power from a central rail.
1947
Hornby Dublo returns to shops following the end of the Second World War. Its first production runs use castin…
