Resal was founded in 1944 in Luzern by Rudolf Emil Sanchioni, who had begun an electro-mechanical workshop in 1941 and began making electric motors for construction sets in 1944. The brand name was formed from the initials of the founder’s name. In 1945 he produced a freelance 2-4-2 electric outline loco, powered by a 20 volt AC motor. To go with this loco with a diecast body, from 1946 Resal offered a tinplate bogie coach, dining car and postal van of 295 mm length. In 1947 a simple, again freelance, 0-4-0 electric outline loco in tinplate was added to the range, together with a shorter, 230 mm long, tinplate coach and postal van. Resal also used a diecast body of the Swiss Re 4/4 electric outline loco made by the firm of Spiewa in Zürich to produce a 4-8-4 loco, but only a few examples were hand-built and the model was never catalogued. Resal only made two goods wagons, both 4-wheel, for which the chassis of the 0-4-0 loco was used. One was fitted with stakes and a timber load, the other got the body of an Erno open wagon with a brakeman’s hut. Due to the competition by the other Swiss 0 gauge manufacturers Buco and HAG, who offered more life-like models, sales declined and in 1952 production was stopped.