Dorfan was an American toy company based in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.O gauge O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad sca ...

and

Wide gauge Standard Gauge, also known as wide gauge, was an early model railway and toy train rail gauge, introduced in the United States in 1906 by Lionel Corporation. As it was a toy standard, rather than a scale modeling standard, the actual scale of ...

toy train A toy train is a toy that represents a train. It is distinguished from a model train by an emphasis on low cost and durability, rather than scale modeling. A toy train can be as simple as a toy that can run on a track, or it might be operated b ...

History

Bringing years of previous toy making experience, Milton and Julius Forcheimer, two immigrant cousins from

Nuremberg, Germany Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ci ...

, whose family was involved in the production of Fandor trains founded Dorfan in 1924. The Fandor brand name is an amalgam of Fannie & Dora (who were the mothers of Milton & Julius). When Milton & Julius immigrated to America, they reversed the names Dora & Fannie to create the Dorfan name. A Fandor engineer, John C. Koerber, helped to get Dorfan started (McKenney 1993; Dorfan, pp. 165-166). Dorfan entered into a well developed American market for electric trains. A market dominated by Ives, Lionel and American Flyer. But it entered at a most opportune time, the American market was in an upswing. Dorfan gained considerable market share through promotion, innovation and manufacture. Dorfan gained enough ground to be included among the "Big Four" of American prewar model train manufacturers (McKenney, Greenberg 1993; Dorfan, pp. 5-6,163–165). Dorfan produced detailed tinplate rolling stock with diecast power units. Dorfan was the first U.S. train manufacturer to use

die casting Die casting is a metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity. The mold cavity is created using two hardened tool steel dies which have been machined into shape and work similarly ...

in its manufacturing process. They had developed an alloy train body that would withstand a fall to a concrete floor without breaking. Dorfan was also the first to have "Distance Remote Control", a reversing unit without a fixed sequence. Dorfan is also noted as one of the first to have passenger figures visible in coach windows. However, being the pioneer of something at times has its disadvantages. Dorfan's alloys suffered from impurities, which weakened the metal and caused the trains to disintegrate over time, an early victim of

zinc pest Zinc pest (from German ''Zinkpest''), also known as zinc rot and zamak rot, is a destructive, intercrystalline corrosion process of zinc alloys containing lead impurities. Prepared under the direction of the ASM International Handbook Committee. ...

. Dorfan replaced the damaged parts, but at great expense. Dorfan was also unique in its approach of building model trains that could be easily disassembled and reassembled, encouraging its customers to take the trains apart and learn how they worked (McKenney, 1993; Dorfan, pp. 166–167). At its peak, Dorfan had about 150 employees, but the Great Depression crippled the company and was not able to recover. It ended production in 1934, although old inventory was sold at least until 1936 (McKenney 1993; Dorfan, pp. 165-166). Because of the inevitable deterioration of the engine castings, limited numbers of Dorfan trains survive today, making them among the highly sought after models by collectors. Some of the Dorfan tooling was later used by Unique Art to make its tinplate trains in the early 1950s (McKenney, 1993; Dorfan, pp. 166).

References

Toy train manufacturers Defunct toy manufacturers Toy companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Newark, New Jersey Defunct companies based in New Jersey Manufacturing companies established in 1924 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1934 1924 establishments in New Jersey 1934 disestablishments in New Jersey Toy companies established in 1924 {{Model-rail-stub

History

Further reading

See also

References