From The Brighton Toy and Model Index
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| {{Toymaker}}{{FH150}}
| | #REDIRECT:[[:Category:Frank Hornby]] |
| '''Frank Hornby (1863-1936)''' has the distinction of being responsible for originating not just one, but ''three'' of the biggest British toy brands.
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| ===Meccano===
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| First came [[Meccano]], a construction toy that started out as "Mechanics Made Simple", and which evolved into a smoother more stylised form that we now recognise as the classic Meccano shapes.
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| ===Hornby Trains/ Hornby Railways / Hornby Dublo===
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| Next came [[Hornby Trains]] / [[Hornby Railways]]. Since Hornby was already making toys that used all-metal wheels and parts, metal locomotives and carriages were an obvious development. The UK market had been dominated by the German brands [[Marklin]] and [[Bing]], but during WW1,Hornby realised that German imports wouldn't be as popular after the War, and started planning tolaunch a range of trains and train setsonce the War had finished and the supply chain normaised.
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| After [[Bing]] and [[Bassett-Lowke]] had brought out their "[[table railway]]" [[00-gauge]] format trains, Hornby recognised that the smaller size and reduced material costs opened up the model railway format to a range of potential customers who couldn't afford the price or the space needed for a [[gauge 0]] layout, and produced [[Hornby Dublo]].
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| ===Dinky Toys===
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| To supplement their [[gauge 0]] railways, Hornby started producing a range of matching [[1:43|1/43]]-scale trackside accessories such as signal boxes and stations, and if a customer had a model railway layout with level crossings and bridges and houses and roads, what they needed to complete the set was a matching range of 1/43-scale cars, which Hornby then obligingly produced. Since these could also be sold to people who didn't actually own a train set, Hornby gave them a separate brandname: "[[Dinky Toys]]".
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| ==Books==
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| * ''Anthony McReavy'' '''The Toy Story: The Life and Times of Inventor Frank Hornby''' (Ebury Press, 2002) ISBN 009188117X
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| * ''M.P. Gould'' '''Frank Hornby: The Boy Who Made $1,000,000 with a Toy''' -- a small-format book written for the American market, with the help of FH. The reprinted book is a curiosity to modern eyes, with its Victorian-sounding commentary out-Baden-Powelling Baden-Powell. Also available online (see below)
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| ==Things named after Frank Hornby==
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| * '''British Rail "Class 56" diesel locomotive number 56101''' is named the "Frank Hornby". This locomotive now appears to have been sold and shipped to Hungary http://www.class56group.co.uk/archives/tag/56101 .
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| * '''British Rail "Class 86" electric l"bo-bo" locomotive number 86414 (1986–2001)''' was also named "Frank Hornby". The Hornby company produced a model of this locomotive, R.388 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCcXW2ftQHM .
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| * '''[http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-frank-hornby "The Frank Hornby" (jdwetherspoon.co.uk)]''' is a J.D. Wetherspoons pub in Maghull, Liverpool.
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| {{links}}
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| * [http://www.totalpolitics.com/print/373/they-were-also-mps-frank-hornby.thtml They Were Also MPs: Frank Hornby (totalpolitics.com)]
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| * [http://www.eliwhitney.org/new/sites/default/files/minisites/hornby/preface.htm ''M.P. Gould'' '''Frank Hornby: The Boy Who Made $1,000,000 with a Toy''' (1915) (eliwhitney.og)]
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| [[Category:Hornby]]
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Latest revision as of 22:03, 3 August 2013
