Maker record
Resal
Resal was a Swiss maker of 0-gauge electric toy trains and railway accessories, developed in Lucerne by Rudolf Emil Sanchioni. Its range included locomotives with die-cast zinc or sheet-metal bodies, passenger, dining and postal cars, freight wagons, track, switches, transformers and motors for construction sets. The trains used robust, toy-like designs, including a 1B1 locomotive without a specific railway prototype. Resal’s products first appeared in the mid-1940s; after Sanchioni’s production stopped, the range was revived in a small series in the 1990s.
- Founded
- 1944
- Final year
- 1952
- Countries
- Switzerland
- Locations
- Luzern, Switzerland · 1944
- Founders
- Rudolf Emil Sanchioni
The story of Resal
Rudolf Emil Sanchioni operated an electromechanical workshop in Lucerne from 1941. Toward the end of the Second World War, shortages of imported toys encouraged him to make motors for construction sets. He also offered a motor construction set modelled on Märklin’s ELEX system. Resal’s 0-gauge electric railway followed, encouraged by the Swiss toy retailer Franz Carl Weber. Its first locomotive, a 1B1 with a die-cast zinc body made by Injecta, appeared for Christmas 1945. The design had no real railway prototype. Sanchioni later added a less expensive sheet-metal locomotive using the same drive. He also built a small Ae 4/6 series using zinc bodies originally made for Spiewa’s Re 4/4 production.
Resal expanded into a system railway with long passenger, dining and postal cars, followed by shorter versions for layouts with tighter curves. Its two freight cars were a timber wagon and an open wagon with a brake van. Sanchioni first bought track from Buco, then made compatible track and his own switches, transformers and accessories. The line remained a relatively small range compared with Swiss competitors. The Verein für historisches technisches Spielzeug dates the end of Sanchioni’s production to 1950 and records that parts and unfinished stock remained. In the early 1990s, Walter Burger of Zug worked with Sanchioni to revive the Resal railway in small series; this later production continued for about ten years.