Welcome To The International Hornby Company

Compagnie Internationale de Hornby Company - Hope you like the name I chosen for this section on Hornby International, although I think you will realise I got it from " Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits". Here I talk about French Hornby and other Meccano railway exports around the world. Hornby Trains in special liveries where made for only a few countries, and not always those with Hornby biggest train set sales. Sometimes only a few hundred where made for export in each batch. Meccano Sets as we know are universal so only labels and instructions needed to be remade to make them suitable for everywhere in the world.. Argentina, was the earliest and the most import export market followed by France, South Africa , New Zealand and Canada, closely followed by Holland, Denmark, Switzerland and Sweden of which were offered trains in special liveries. The export assortment of Hornby trains available, and the colours of goods rolling stock and accessories, were subject to the same variations as in Britain. No tin printed trains or accessories were made specially for export, but certain tin printed coaches were turned into export versions by overprinting the British enamel.

Lettering Found On Hornby Export Trains     Argentina    FCO   FCS   FCBAP   FCCA      Canada       Canadian Pacific      Denmark      DSB       France        ETAT   EST   NORD   PLM   SNCF  New Zealand  NZR  South Africa  SAR   SAS       Sweden      SJ  Switzerland  BB   CFF Also there were exports to Holland but could not find reference to lettering for those.