Dorfan was an American toy company based in Newark, New Jersey, specializing
in 'O' gauge and Wide gauge toy trains. 'Wide Gauge' is the name Dorfan used for 'Standard Gauge' since
'Standard Gauge' was a Lionel trademark. Dorfan was founded in 1924 by Milton
and Julius Forchheimer, two immigrants from Nuremberg, Germany, whose family was involved in the production of
Fandor trains. The name "Dorfan" was derived from the name Fandor.
A Fandor engineer, John C. Koerber, helped to get Dorfan
started. The name was made from the first names of their mother's sisters, Fanny and Dora. Dorfan opened for
business at 137 Jackson St. in Newark, N.J. 1924 was a good year to start making and selling trains -
business was booming and the stock market was on a roll.
Dorfan trains were promoted as being educational in that they were easy to disassemble. Dorfan actually
encouraged its customers to take the trains apart and learn how they worked. Dorfan was the first
U.S. train manufacturer to use zinc die casting methods on a large scale in its manufacturing process.
Their trains were made primarily of a copper-zinc alloy termed Dorfan Alloy, which was strong and light
weight, but impurities in the alloy oxidized over time causing the metal to expand and crack.
Unfortunately, being a pioneer usually has a price. Dorfan replaced the damaged parts, but at great expense.
Since most Dorfan castings are now deteriorated, many collectors replace defective castings with reproductions.
Along with its idea of being a more thought provoking toy train, it placed well detailed and painted
passenger busts in the passenger cars. Dorfan used lithoed and painted sheet metal for its freight and
passenger car bodies and frames. The trucks could either be diecast or stamped sheet metal. Less expensive
lines were lithographed stamped steel, but also had flat lithographed figures. Dorfan had two high end products
that are prized by collectors today. One was a crocodile style electric engine, and the second was an
accessory gantry crane.
Dorfan, at its peak, had about 150 employees, but was unable to weather the depression with its higher
detail and hence more expensive trains, and ended production in 1934, although old inventory was sold at
least until 1936.
As a result of the decaying castings on the engines, few Dorfan trains survive today, making them among the
rarest and most valuable of toy trains. While Dorfan engines are difficult to find in good condition, the
same is not true for the cars, since they were made with tinplate. Some of the Dorfan tooling was later
used by Unique Art to make its tinplate trains in the early 1950s. T-Reproductions came into possesion of some
of the original Dorfan tooling in the early 2000's
