Penn Line Manufacturing

Lore & Background

Penn Line was founded in 1947 by three hobbyists—Albert M. Mercer, K. Linwood Stauffer, and Robert Faust—who believed existing model railroad equipment lacked realism. At the time, Japan and Germany produced few models due to the recently ended World War II, and major U.S. brands Lionel Corp. and American Flyer did not put as much authentic detail on their O and S gauge trains as those gauges would have allowed. Penn Line's founders chose the smaller HO gauge, reasoning that the potential for realism from more elaborate layouts made HO the best compromise, even though HO was far from the standard it later became.

The company's early contribution was using printer's lead to cast locomotives, which allowed much finer detail than stampings could achieve. Penn Line produced about a half dozen different locomotives based on prototypes from the Pennsylvania Railroad, which inspired the company name. In the early 1960s, Penn Line entered the emerging slot car market, attempting to bring the same realism to slot car racing. They produced a nicely detailed Indianapolis-style set endorsed by A. J. Foyt, but the product was poorly powered. Problems with this product caused Penn Line to declare bankruptcy in the fall of 1963.

Reader's Guide

Penn Line's significance lies in its early adoption of HO gauge and its use of printer's lead for die-cast locomotive bodies, which produced a level of detail uncommon at the time. The company's founders correctly anticipated that HO gauge would become the standard for realistic model railroading, as its smaller scale allowed for more elaborate layouts. Although Penn Line produced only about half a dozen locomotive types, all based on Pennsylvania Railroad prototypes, its commitment to fine detail influenced later manufacturers. After the company's bankruptcy in 1963, most of its Pennsylvania Railroad die-cast steam locomotive kits were later produced by Bowser Manufacturing and remained available as of 2007. Penn Line's brief foray into slot cars, while commercially unsuccessful, demonstrated the founders' consistent pursuit of realism across different hobby markets. The company's legacy is preserved through the continued availability of its locomotive kits and its role in the early popularization of HO gauge.

Did You Know?

• Penn Line used printer's lead to cast locomotives, allowing very fine detail.
• The company produced about a half dozen locomotives based on Pennsylvania Railroad prototypes.
• Penn Line declared bankruptcy in the fall of 1963 after a poorly powered slot car set.

The Scales That Built an Empire

In 1823, inventor Thaddeus Fairbanks struck out on his own in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, opening an ironworks to produce two of his patented creations: a cast iron plow and a heating stove. A hemp-dressing venture followed in 1829, but it was his platform scale, patented in the summer of 1832, that would define a dynasty. Working alongside his brother Erastus, the pair built E. & T. Fairbanks & Company into a force that shipped thousands of scales across the United States, Europe, South America, and even Imperial China. Their instruments earned a remarkable sixty-three medals in international competitions over the years. Meanwhile, in Beloit, Wisconsin, former missionary Leonard Wheeler was perfecting the Eclipse windmill, a rugged water-pumping design that would eventually dot the Western landscape—and even reach Australia—with roughly half a million units. A Fairbanks employee named Charles Hosmer Morse, who had opened a Chicago office, brought Wheeler's windmills into the Fairbanks orbit. By the century's close, the merged operation was known as Fairbanks Morse & Company, headquartered in Chicago, with a factory in Montreal, Quebec, that had been operating since 1876.

From Windmill Backup to Diesel Dominance

The company's foray into power generation began in the 1890s when it acquired the Charter line of engines, the first commercially available gas engines. The original concept was practical: provide a backup power source for Eclipse windmills on windless days. Farmers embraced the machines, and their use quickly spread to electricity generation and oilfield work. Small lighting plants built by the company also found eager customers. The fuel and technology evolved steadily. Kerosene-burning units appeared in 1893, coal-gas models followed in 1905, semi-diesel designs arrived in 1913, and full diesel engines debuted in 1924. When Rudolf Diesel's American patent license lapsed in 1912, the company leapt into the large-engine market. The Model Y semi-diesel became a standard workhorse in sugar, rice, timber, and mining mills, available in one-to-six-cylinder configurations producing 10 to 200 horsepower. The Y-VA, developed in Beloit and introduced in 1924, was the first high-compression, cold-start full diesel the company built without relying on any foreign patent. By the 1930s, Fairbanks-Morse had expanded into marine CO engines—hundreds of which powered ferry boats in the Philippine Islands—as well as diesel locomotives, tugs, and ships.

The Z Engine and the 800-Page Catalog

By the late nineteenth century, Fairbanks-Morse had become something of an industrial general store. Its Western expansion brought a catalog that swelled to include typewriters, hand trucks, railway velocipedes, pumps, tractors, and a bewildering array of warehouse and bulk-shipping tools. The company marketed itself as a turn-key supplier, bundling tools, plumbing, gauges, gaskets, parts, valves, and pipe into single orders. The 1910 edition of that catalog stretched past eight hundred pages. One product line earned a devoted following: the "Z" engine. In July 1914, the company renamed its headless 1.5-horsepower model the "Z," a designation engine historian C.H. Wendel documented. Every Z engine carried its gasoline tank in the base. The line grew through 1917, and by 1918 the headless design was retired in favor of a capped version, while larger units gained the ability to burn kerosene. An entirely enclosed "Z" style "D" appeared in 1928. Sizes ranged from 3 to 20 horsepower, and over half a million units rolled out in the following three decades. Farmers particularly favored the Z, and today it remains a sought-after collectible. The line was eventually sold off to Bell in the early 1980s.

Decoy Ships, Submarines, and Three Heirs

Fairbanks-Morse's marine engines played a surprising role in World War I. Sixty 30-horsepower CO units were installed in British decoy fishing vessels designed to lure German submarines within range of six-inch naval guns. Decades later, in 1939, the company developed a marine engine using an opposed-piston layout reminiscent of German Junkers aircraft diesels. The 38D 8-1/8 variant, available in four- through twelve-cylinder configurations, became the most common submarine engine in the U.S. Navy through the 1990s, delivered in large numbers. The company's reach extended beyond engines. In 1934 it acquired Audiola Radio Co., entering the radio business, though a 1939 factory fire prompted a quick exit. Brief, low-volume forays into automobiles, tractors, corn shellers, hammermills, cranes, televisions, and refrigerators also marked the era. In 1958, the Penn-Texas conglomerate purchased the company, ending its independent existence. Today, three separate entities—Fairbanks Scales in Kansas City, Missouri; Fairbanks Morse Defense in Beloit, Wisconsin, a subsidiary of Arcline Investment Management; and Fairbanks Nijhuis, part of Pentair Water in Kansas City, Kansas—each stake a claim to the heritage, though none is a complete direct descendant of the original firm.