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Dorfan Trains

History

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 Dorfan 'O' Gauge Engine & Tender 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 Dorfan #3930 Electric Crocodile Loco in Standard Gauge 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 Dorfan 'O' gauge lithographed pullman coach with passenger silhouettes 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

Dorfan tinplate lithograhed Pennsylvania RR Box car in 'O' gauge Dorfan tinplate lithographed Pensylvania RR hopper car in 'O' gauge Dorfan tinplate lithograhed Indian Refining Company tank car in 'O' gauge
Dorfan tinplate lithograhed flat car in 'O' gauge Dorfan tinplate lithographed New York Central RR coal car in 'O' gauge Dorfan tinplate lithograhed caboose in 'O' gauge

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