Dorfan identification? Sask Tinplater?

[pbjwilson]

Just received these today. Purchased off ebay. Can anybody help with when these were made, approximate years? Sask tinplater you've been helpful in the past, do you know about these? Thanks guys, I'm always grateful for your knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Your passenger cars would have come from one of Dorfan's cheapest train sets made for the low end of the market. They would have originally been included in a clockwork set. They could have either had a matching bright red or black diecast steam engine and tender or matching bright red tinplate electric boxcab engine (electric in style only, not electrically powered). Both engines are hard to find. As you probably know, Dorfan engines were made out of a zinc alloy that crumbles over time. Both engines are rare, but because the steam engines are diecast, they are much harder to find in decent shape. As for years, Dorfan only made trains from 1924-34, so that narrows it down.

Below are two pages from Dorfan catalogues showing the sets your cars might have come from. Here is the set with the electric engine in the 1925 catalogue.


Here's the steam set in the 1931 ctalogue at the top of the left page.

[1688torpedo]

Hello all ! My Cousin has three of the Dorfan 400 series Passenger cars from 1928.They belonged to my Father and Uncle when they were young and unfortunately the Engine is long gone on account of the zinc decay so common among Dorfan Engines.The color of the passenger Cars were Peacock Green.and now that they are restored.they look much better with red roofs and green bodies. A # 51 or 53 Electric Style Engine is probably the original engine that pulled the 400 series cars.Hang on to yours.They are a good find!

[pbjwilson]

Thanks for the info guys. I kind of figured they were the low end of the line.
The litho on them is really nice and the bright red color is great.
I'm using an American Flyer cast iron wind-up to pull them. It came with the Dorfan cars, sort of a mismatched set but it works and looks great.

[Dave Farquhar]

Both Dorfan and Ives made really, really nice stuff. Looking at both companies' stuff makes me wonder what might have been.

[pbjwilson]

Dave,
I agree with you.
I still think the Ives couplers on their O gauge cars are the best pre-war designed couplers.
I'd really like to get some Dorfan passenger cars with the passenger silhouettes in the windows. They come up on e-bay now and then ussually in fair or poor condition.
I enjoy anything I can get in Ives, Dorphan, Hafner even a Bing or Kraus.
It's all great stuff.

[lionelsoni]

Is a dorphan a parentless train?..;-)

More seriously, does everyone know the interesting story of the "Dorfan" name? Joseph Kraus founded a company in Nuremburg making American-style trains, with his cousins, Milton and Julius Forcheimer. They named it "Fandor", after their mothers, Fanny and Dora. the Forcheimer brothers then emigrated to America and started their own company, named (what else?) "Dorfan".

[Anonymous]

What better way to honour Mom and show how much you love her than naming your toy train company after her?