More Dorfan

Steve, 

A very interesting video, thanks. When seeing the Dorfan 425 station I thought it looked familiar. I have a station which has no trademark but was sold to me as being Kraus Fandor wich looks very similar; see the pictures. The station base-plate measures 22 by 10 cm. The Dorfan station seems to have lithographed windows and doors while the Kraus Fandor has no doors, just openings, and separate window inserts and awnings above the door openings. There are 2 contacts for (I asume) lighting the station.

Regards

Fred

great find Steve.

After seeing all these Dorfan posts, I'm starting to become a fan of Dorfan! Pretty neat little trains.

What amazes me is the bent axle. With the usual fragility of Dorfan die-cast, how could the axle have bent without damaging the wheels or the body?

I agree completely with this bolded portion!

Fred, your station is the same Dorfan "Montclair" #425 station.    The lithographed version is earlier, the later versions were enameled.  Since the later versions also had doors and windows punched out of the tin, they also were able to add interior lighting which would not have worked with the closed litho version.  The two slots in the front of the enameled station are for a tinplate clock bracket which stands out from the building, it replaces the litho clock on the earlier version. The tinplate awnings also replaced the lithographed awnings.  On some of the later ones, the roof and interior light bar are held on by an ingenious system of metal snaps that i have not seen used on other tinplate.

david

Very cool stuff and looks great!

David,

Thank you for this information; I assume that the later versions were still from the 1930's? According to the TCA Western description of Dorfan (http://www.tcawestern.org/dorfan.htm), the Dorfan stations were made by (Kraus-)Fandor. I wonder whether any of these have a trademark (my station has not) and would that be Dorfan or Fandor?

Regards

Fred

according to the McKenney (Greenberg) text, the copper-zinc based Dorfan alloy was touted and likely demonstrated as being extremely rugged.  "...it has been reported that when new, a diecast locomotive ...could be thrown against a concrete floor and not break!"

it was only after a few years when impurities in the zinc began to oxidize and expand that cracks in the shell started to compromise the integrity of most Dorfan alloy castings.

cheers...gary

OK, thanks for the info Gary. The loco must have fell off the table (or whatever) early in life.

Some got through without the impurities and the castings are rock solid. This one has a great casting. Sometimes the impurities were localized to a small area of the casting and the rest is solid. When doing the motor mods on some, cutting is like cutting through heavy steel.

Steve

I would question the idea that Fandor manufactured the Dorfan Monclair 425 station.  There was a relationship between the companies, but not to that extent.  Imports from Germany were limited or restricted in the 1930's.   Fandor was also under increasing pressure in Germany in the 30's, and in no position to help.  Dorfan was pretty much on their own, and they did their manufacturing in this country.

Here is a Fandor station from about the same period (possibly a little earlier?), and it is marked as such.

David,

Just searching further on Dorfan I found the following page (in American Premium Guide to Electric Trains from 1986) which is mentioned to be a copy of Dorfan Modern Electric Train Catalog of 1930. The Station No 424 looks like your Fandor station. I am puzzled!

Regards

Fred

Steve,

You seem to have a knack for finding the nice stuff! Congratulations on your purchase! They make a fine addition to your layout. 

Yes, and the larger station below, the #426, is one I have several of, it is definitely a Fandor station. So it would seem I am wrong, Dorfan did sell Fandor-made stations, at least as late as 1930.  The 1920's to early 1930's was when a lot of Bing was sold in this country also.  It was during the mid- to late 1930's that conditions changed in Europe,  prior to that there was more German imports.  When did Dorfan start?  Quite late 1920's I believe, so Fandor may have helped supply inventory as it was getting started?

david