Company Profile: Faller
History in a Nutshell
In 1946, Gebrüder Faller was founded in Stuttgart, Germany, by brothers Edwin and Hermann Faller to make miniature wooden house kits. The company later relocated to the brothers' home town of Gütenbach, and over time their product line expanded considerably to include model railroad structures, amusement rides, figures and scenery-making supplies in HO, TT, N and Z Scales.
Introduced in 1963, Faller's
Auto Motor Sport (AMS) line grew to become quite
extensive; by the mid-1960s, they were purchasing cars from market-leader Aurora Plastics. Combination roadway/railroad
sets were imported into the United States by Charles C. Merzbach Company Inc. of New York under the brand name Western
Star Road & Rail. In 1968, the N Bus System was added to the AMS line; together with a select
group of N Scale plastic structure kits, they were imported into the US by
Aurora Plastics and sold under their Postage Stamp
Trains brand. The market for AMS began tapering off in the early 1970s, and by 1985 production had ended; they've since become collector items.
Faller is distinguished among their peers as having survived over seventy years intact; they also have an extremely broad product range, selling in excess of a million items each year. They've even published their own modeling magazine for many years. Faller is also known for their Car System in both HO and N Scales. It consists of battery-powered vehicles with magnets attached to the front wheels for steering; the magnets follow steel wires hidden under the road surface. The system is used extensively, and to great effect, by Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg.
In 1997, Faller acquired competitor
Pola; the Pola name was retained for their G Scale structures, while the rest of the product line was integrated into
Faller's own by 2005. Some of these kits, now nearly 50 years old, still sell well.
N Scale Products
As was the case for Pola, many of Faller's older kits have been rebranded for years by many importers, including AHM, Atlas, Aurora, Life-Like, Model Power, Precision Miniatures, Parkway Industries and probably others. Faller was also imported into the US for years by Charles C. Merzbach.
Printed Matter
- 1965/66 AMS Catalog
- 1967 Catalog
- 1968 N Bus Catalog (Dutch language)