Šebela

Karel Šebela (1912–2002) trained as an electromechanic and first worked for Jelínek in Rousínov, a maker of physical and radio instruments. After the Second World War he became an independent maker in Brno, producing electrical instruments and toys. In 1946 he began making electric tinplate model trains. His first set comprised a 1B1 tank locomotive, a four-axle tender and matching four-axle express coaches based on Czechoslovak State Railways steel cars. The range also included a tank wagon, an open wagon and a crane wagon. The models were shorter and narrower than those of other makers, and their couplings were modelled on Märklin’s Fix type. Šebela also made two-axle wagons and worked with model maker Jaroslav Liška.

His work extended beyond railway models to mechanical toys and models of machines. A boxed model of a small harbour crane survives as evidence of his toy-making. After 1950, Šebela worked at Brno’s Institute of Instrument Technology, collaborating with Armin Delong. The Brno history encyclopedia records that he had been forced to close his firm by then; a specialist railway reference instead dates Šebela train production from 1946 to 1954. The precise end of production is therefore unsettled. Šebela’s broader mechanical work was later shown at exhibitions organized with the Technical Museum in Brno, including exhibitions in 1968, 1991 and 2004.