Fandor was a German toy company that specialized in toy trains,
particularly toys styled after American trains. It was founded in 1910 by Joseph Kraus and his cousins,
Milton and Julius Forcheimer, all from Nüremberg, Germany. The company name was derived from the names
of the founders' mothers, Dora and Fanny.
Protective tariffs following World War I made it difficult for German firms to compete with
American toy companies, so the Forcheimer brothers immigrated to the United States, taking one of
Fandor's engineers, John C. Koerber, with them, where they founded the U.S. company
Dorfan. Both firms worked closely together. Production was mainly clockwork
trains.
Fandor Electric trains made in the early 1930's are well known by collectors but are not highly
valued. The main reason for this is that in 'O' gauge the volume of the trains looked well
balanced and scaled, but in the larger gauge 1 everything looked rather out of proportion. The company was taken
over in 1936 by Keim & Company but when the factory was bombed during World War II it was never rebuilt.
