excellent Wide Gauge freight cars en- tered the line 1928-1930. Electric out- line locomotives came as Take-Apart Locom-Builder construction kits. They were the most powerful locomotives on the market, capable of out-pulling all others with their weight and ball bear- ing, double gear reduction motors. Pas- senger cars were lacquered and litho- graphed,
some with stamped FIRST CLOCKWORK LOCO-BUILDER KIT
boxcab and a 6¹/₄″ die-cast 0-4-0 steam- er. They both lacked brakes and re- quired holding the wheels firmly when being wound. Small 5¹/₄″ one-piece, four-wheel passenger cars were priced in line with Ives and American Flyer.
It also made an electric die-cast loco- motive that year, a compact No. 51 New York Central S-Motor, and in 1927, a No. 53 Milwaukee Road Bi-Po- lar, both with hand reverse. There were three different size, four- and eight- wheel passenger cars and a small line of eight-wheel lithographed freight cars: a boxcar, gondola, hopper, tank car and bobber caboose. This last car was very akin to a Fandor version made for the U.S. market. What is re- markable is the extensive, accurate prototype technical information on all the freight cars, far more than Ives or American Flyer dared print on theirs. Louis Hertz considered its lithography the finest in the industry. Wide Gauge was introduced in 1926 with a die-cast electric outline 3930, based on the Pennsylvania’s class L5 A.C. jack-shaft prototype, and in 1927, a 3920 die-cast Milwaukee Bi-Polar. Later O gauge steam locomotives and
lithographed people or hand painted cast passengers in open windows in better cars. They were stamped “Ger- many” on some tabs. The 1927 catalog showed Dorfan well on its way to forg- ing ahead of its competition. Louis Hertz also commented on its many innovative firsts such as die-cast locomotives and trucks, take-apart lo- comotives, sequence reverse remote control and automatic couplers among many others. Lionel dutifully copied these innovations. Unfortunately, Dor- fan’s “unbreakable” Dorfan alloy zamac castings were impure and subject to zinc pest, which saw too many warp, crack, crumble and rot away. This left owners unhappy with badly diseased models. Dorfan never properly solved this, zamac being a new technological development.
Two lithographed stations, the larg- er for Newark and the smaller for Montclair are definitely of German ori- gin. Among the accessories were bridges, boulevard and street lights, tunnels, semaphores and the like. But for all the superb quality and innova- tion Dorfan offered, it was unable to survive the Depression. That aside, its products were over-designed with too many complex parts requiring inten- sive hand labor to do what Ives, Lionel and American Flyer assembled more cheaply and efficiently. For example, one 7½″ O gauge passenger car re- quired 117 parts, plus decals. When it closed, a large stock of models were available for sale until 1936, a sad end to what “could have been.” For more Dorfan background,
I
heartily recommend Louis Hertz’s Rid- ing the Tinplate Rails and pp. 88-102 of Model Craftsman Publishing Corp. 1944 for an intimate look at Fandor. This last, covers Fandor often visiting the factory and speaking to the Forch- heimers. Case Kowal’s piece in Toy Trains, pp. 48-50 and Model Craftsman Publishing Corp., 1972, is another,
if
briefer take on Dorfan. And lastly there is Greenberg’s Guide to Early American Trains, 1993, with an excel- lent section on Dorfan and a detailed breakdown of its models. Dorfan was small, but still remembered as the quality company which gave the three Big Boys, Ives, Lionel and American Flyer, a run for their money.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 89
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