Arnold

Karl Arnold founded a metal-toy factory in Nuremberg in 1906. It specialised in tin toys and also made boats and doll’s houses. The factory suffered heavy damage during the Second World War, but toy production resumed in November 1945. In the 1950s, cars and tractors became a new focus.

Arnold entered model railways under the Rapido name. The Verein für historisches technisches Spielzeug dates its electric 9 mm-gauge railway to 1960. The official Arnold history records production of small Rapido 200 trains in 1:200 scale from 1960 to 1962, followed by the 1:160 Arnold Rapido range on 9 mm track from 1962. In 1964, N scale was recognised as a NEM standard, and the Rapido coupler later became a European standard for the scale. The firm was acquired by Rivarossi in 1995 and by Hornby in 2004.