HAG

Hugo and Alwin Gahler began making model railway track as a sideline. In 1942 their first 0-gauge rails were taken for sale by the Zurich toy retailer Franz Carl Weber, and the brothers set up a workshop in a joinery cellar in St. Gallen. On 1 April 1944 they established H. & A. Gahler, the source of the HAG name. Early products included robust, fictional play models. In 1945 the firm developed its first 0-gauge locomotive in zinc die-cast metal; in 1948 it made a scale model of the Re 4/4 I.

As demand for large 0-gauge products declined, HAG began building an H0 range in 1954 and ended 0-gauge production in 1957. Its early H0 products included cast-metal goods wagons, followed by Swiss railway models such as the Ae 6/6 from 1956 and the Re 4/4 II, developed in 1965. The BLS Re 4/4 followed in 1969. Werner Gahler joined the firm in 1971, and in 1979 it became a limited company. The Re 4/4 II was built to scale in H0 in 1986; HAG developed its type 88 motor, with ball bearings and a drum collector, in 1988. The Re 460 model family entered production in 1997, and HAG developed a 21-pin decoder interface with ESU in 2003.

In November 2012, the HAG Modellbahnen GmbH company passed into the ownership of Heinz Urech, and production moved from Mörschwil to Stans. From 2014, HAG developed new lighting for several model ranges. In 2017 the company moved to Stansstad and developed its own electrically conducting magnetic couplings; in 2018 it introduced UV digital printing for locomotive bodies. HAG continues to maintain model railway production in Stansstad, with locomotive families and four-axle passenger and freight cars in its product range.