Roco, based in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, is a manufacturer of

model railway Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...

equipment.

History

The company was founded in 1960 by Ing. Heinz Rössler and started with a plastic Minitanks series of military vehicles. After export to the USA became successful, the model line was expanded with model trains in

HO scale HO or H0 is a rail transport modelling scale using a 1:87 scale (3.5 mm to 1 foot). It is the most popular scale of model railway in the world. The rails are spaced apart for modelling standard gauge tracks and trains in HO. NMRA"Mo ...

and the smaller

N scale N scale is a popular model railway scale. Depending upon the manufacturer (or country), the scale ranges from 1:148 to 1:160. In all cases, the ''gauge'' (the distance between the rails) is . The term N ''gauge'' refers to the track dimensions, ...

. TT scale was also subsequently added to the product line. The model rail product line covers many European countries including Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and also the USA. In the mid 1970s, Lionel HO trains were produced by Roco and Athearn before moving production to the Far East by 1978. On July 15, 2005 ''Roco Modellspielwaren GmbH'' was declared

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

and taken over by the creditor

Raiffeisenbank Raiffeisenbank refers to cooperative banks in Europe that are rooted in the early credit unions of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. The name is found in: * Raiffeisen Bankengruppe (Austria), Austrian group of cooperative banks. ** Raiffeisen Zentral ...

. After restructuring, a new company ''Modelleisenbahn GmbH'' was formed to consolidate the model railroad market. The Roco brand and associated logo continued to be used. To sharpen the focus on model railways, on October 1, 2007, the 'Minitank' product series was divested to the German model car manufacturer

Herpa Herpa Miniaturmodelle GMBH (or simply Herpa, an acronym for "Hergenröther und Patente”, the original name of the firm), is a German manufacturing company that produces die-cast scale model aircraft (under the " Herpa Wings" trademark) and plast ...

. In February 2008 Modelleisenbahn acquired Fleischmann from the owner family. Moving some production to lower cost factories like Slovakia and later Vietnam, the companies saw profitability again. Roco and Fleischmann continue as separate brands under Modelleisenbahn GmbH, while benefiting from

economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...

through joint development projects, marketing and procurement.Modelleisenbahnen: Fleischmann und Roco wechseln das Gleis
Handelsblatt, dpa, 14. Juni 2011Spritzgussproduktion wird aus Gloggnitz in die Slowakei verlagert
OTS, 2 March 2018

Products

From 2019 Roco is focused on HO gauge railroads, while Fleischmann is focused on N gauge railroads. Roco has also focused on innovation in digital train control for multiple gauges under the Z21 brand, where users can use iPhone/iPad/Android devices to operate railway models. With these strategies Roco/Fleischmann is the number one company in the DC railroad market segment in Europe, and number two company in the overall railroad company after

Märklin Gebr. Märklin & Cie. GmbH or Märklin (MÄRKLIN or MAERKLIN in capital letters) is a German toy company. The company was founded in 1859 and is based at Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg. Although it originally specialised in doll house accesso ...

which is focused on AC railroad models.Wer will Roco Fleischmann haben?
August 2017 Below are some examples of Roco train models. DSBs damplokomotiv N 202.jpg, DSB N 202 Roco M61 019.JPG, M61 019 Roco 63431 BR 132 201-5 DR.JPG, DR BR 132 201-5 DB E 144-5 Roco.jpg, DB E 144 480 Roco ACME.JPG, MAV 480 001

References

External links

{{Commons category, Roco
Company website

USA Distributor

Model railroad manufacturers Austrian brands Model manufacturers of Austria