Kusan-Auburn was a subsidiary of Kusan, an established plastics manufacturer who, under
the guidance
of president Bill McLain, purchased AMT's tooling in 1954 and used it as a base
for their own line of trains. They were unique in being able to run on either two or three rail track.
After Kusan acquired the inventories and production tools of Auburn Model Trains,
the equipment was moved to a new plant at Franklin, Tennessee, which had been especially prepared
for train production. 1955 was spent on re-tooling efforts, and the development of new manufacturing processes.
The Kusan KF-110 Atomic Train in 'O' gauge was the first toy train to have an
"atomic theme." This was Kusan's first toy train and its introduction was the
subject of an article in the June 29, 1957 issue of Business Week. It was produced between 1957 and 1960.
The company described it as "An exciting new train with extra play value in each
unit." Some of these sets were made for the Sylvania Corp., who gave them away with the purchase of a
televsion set.
Kusan also continued to manufacture and kept the highly detailed line of AMT created aluminum
extruded passenger cars alive, using the dies it had purchased. These 'O' gauge cars, originally
issued in 4 styles - a Baggage, Combine, Coach and Observation, became a full range of eight car sets,
with Baggage-mail, Roomette, Diner, and Dome car. Each offered in a choice of seven different Famous
American Railroad names, including NYC, PRR, Southern, C&NW, Texas Special and Santa Fe Railroads.
In addition to producing the passenger cars and box cars from the AMT tooling, Kusan also
made their own molds for producing F-7 diesel locomotives, boxcars, gondolas, refrigerator cars,
depressed-center flatcars, flatcars, hoppers, tank cars, cabooses, the military-themed cars, and
stock cars. They also made their own DC power supplies, sectional three rail and two rail track with
plastic ties. Kusan also put out a
series of cardboard strucures, billboards and signs. During the 1956-1958 period Kusan developed
new items for the line, and added innovations. This included a system called "Duo-Trac" which
featured a slide switch under the Diesels, passenger cars and cabooses which allowed the equipment
to be operated on either two, or three rail track.
Kusan created many "space train" items in the late 1950's prompting
Lionel
to do the same, just as they had done with creation of their aluminum extruded passenger cars to
compete with AMT's. In another attempt to challenge Lionel, Kusan made a smaller size
two-rail, DC-powered train line, which was to compete with Lionel's 0-27 trains.
Kusan produced 'O' gauge Diesel A units in six road-names and color schemes. They were NYC, MKT,
AT&SF, Southern, PRR, and C&NW. Kusan also made many special-order models. A few were produced by
the thousands, such as the "Gravy Train", and some were one of a kind. Among these limited run
orders were three 'O' gauge passenger sets for the B&O, and one each for the UP, and ACL Railroads.
Due to increased competition from Lionel, and the decline in the train market, Kusan was
financially forced to phase the line out beginning in 1958. In 1961 the line ended production in the
United States. For a while in the 1960's the trains were made in Mexico.
Andy Kriswalus purchased much of the tooling from Kusan in 1967 and, shortly thereafter, began producing
a line of rolling stock under the Kris Model Trains name. Kris Model Trains, or KMT, only produced the box,
stock, and refrigerator cars from the Kusan dies, and on some of these cars they mounted die-cast trucks
from the Kusan tooling. In the early 1980's, after Kriswalus' death, the tooling was sold to
K-Line and Williams Electric Trains, who continued
to use it to produce parts of their budget lines.
One relic of the Kusan era that wound up causing some controversy later on, was a small,
nonprototypical (but realistic-looking enough to be convincing)
genral purpose (GP) type switcher. Williams manufactured it briefly, calling their version of
the small diesel the 'Mighty-Mite'. K-Line also purchased this original Kusan tooling from
Jerry Williams, but K-Line never actually used it. They later had an agreement
to mold the body cab for Ready Made Toys (RMT). RMT called this item the "Beep"
(for Baby Geep). RMT, a company that subcontracted for Taylor Made
Trucks (TMT), had gained a license to put the Lionel logo on die-cast vehicles. In 2001, RMT used
the Beep tooling to produce a Lionel-logoed mini-locomotive, which TMT placed on a freight truck.
But when collectors realized the body could be removed from the semi-permanently attached chassis
on the truck bed and placed on a Beep chassis, making a powered non-Lionel Lionel locomotive,
Lionel revoked TMT's license. This RMT/TMT Beep remains the only Lionel-logoed locomotive ever
produced by and marketed by someone other than Lionel.
Ready Made Toys released the Beep in a powered version, priced at $49.95
and lettered for numerous
railroads, in late 2003. Released at a time when few brand-new locomotives retail for less than $400
and fewer still for under $200, the Beep is much more popular this time around.
