Craft Kits

Bachmann Industries is a Bermuda registered Chinese owned company, globally head quartered in Hong Kong; specializing in model railroading. more...

Home
Airbrush
Art Clay & Sand
Basketry
Beads
Bedazzler
Bernina Sewing Machine
Berroco Yarn
Buttons
Candle Soap Making
Card Embroidery
Card Making
Cardmaking Scrapbooking
Ceramic Molds
Creative Memories
Crochet
Cross Stitch
Embroidery
Fabric
Fabric Quilt
Fiskars
Floral Supplies
Handcrafted & Finished...
Home Arts & Crafts
Husqvarna Sewing
Husqvarna Viking
Janome Sewing Machine
Kids' Crafts
Bead Kits
Craft Books
Craft Kits
Drawing & Painting
Foam & Felt Shapes
Holiday
Other
Sand Art
Stickers
Needlecrafts & Yarn
Quilting
Sewing

Founded and with its North American headquarters based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bachmann is today part of the Kader group, who model products are made at a Chinese Government joint-venture plant in Dongguan, China. Bachmann's brand is the largest seller, in terms of volume, of model trains in the world. Bachmann primarily specializes in inexpensive high quality entry-level train sets sold in the mass market. The turnover for Bachmann model trains for the year ended December 31, 2006 was approximately $46.87 million, a slight increase of 3.36% as compared to 2005.

History

Founded in 1833 by Henry Carlisle, the company originally specialized in vanity products such as Spanish Combs made out of ivory horns and tortoiseshell. Its target market was in the American South and Louisiana. After the Civil War it continued to make other type of hair ornaments and also walking canes. In 1899 Carlisle's firm, now run by Henry E. Bachmann, merged with a competing firm being run by Henry E. Bachmann's father, Henry G. Bachmann, and the younger Bachmann's brother, Walter J. Bachmann. The company changed its name to Bachmann Bros. By 1902 it started to use celluloid for its products and by 1912 introduced optical frames that were made from it. In 1929 they became the first American manufacturer of sunglasses. The line, "Solarex" would become very popular and later purchased by the US Army and United States Army Air Force for their personnel during WWII. Other famous products include shooting glasses for Winchester Repeating Arms Company (now the U.S. Repeating Arms), and Stein Eriksen ski goggles.

Plasticville

Bachmann's experience in plastics led to a mass-market plastic fence released in 1947. Originally intended for decorating Christmas trees it was adopted by early railway modelers. When Bachmann learned this they began producing other products for this market leading to the Plasticville line of buildings, which are still popular accessories for Lionel and American Flyer trains. Bachmann's Plasticville products, originally in O scale, and later expanded to HO scale, and N scale were originally manufactured by Bachmann in Philadelphia, but have been made in China by plastics molding manufacturer Kader Holdings Company Limited since 1999. The hobby of collecting Plasticville has increased in recent years to the point that the Plasticville Collectors Association was founded in 1999 and incorporated in 2001.

Read more at Wikipedia.org