<!DOCTYPE html>
<html class="client-nojs vector-feature-night-mode-disabled vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-sticky-header-enabled" lang="en" dir="ltr"><head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Penn Line Manufacturing</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_Line_Manufacturing"> <link href="./mw/skins.vector.icons.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="./mw/skins.vector.search.codex.styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="./mw/skins.vector.styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="./mw/user.styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<meta name="ResourceLoaderDynamicStyles" content="">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./mw/site.styles.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./mw/noscript.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./footer.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./vector-2022.css">
</head>
<body class="skin--responsive skin-vector skin-vector-search-vue mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Penn_Line_Manufacturing rootpage-Penn_Line_Manufacturing skin-vector-2022 action-view">
<div class="mw-page-container">
<div class="mw-page-container-inner">
<div class="mw-content-container">
<main id="content" class="mw-body">
<header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar">
<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading">
<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Penn Line Manufacturing</span></span>
</h1>
</header>
<a id="top"></a>
<div id="bodyContent" class="vector-body ve-init-mw-desktopArticleTarget-targetContainer" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container="">
<div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content mw-content-ltr" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1295905060">
/* start https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme)>div:not(.notheme)[style]{background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme)>div:not(.notheme)[style]{background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media(min-width:640px){body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table{display:table!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>caption{display:table-caption!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>tbody{display:table-row-group}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table th,body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table td{padding-left:inherit;padding-right:inherit}}
/* end https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1242257876">
/* start https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
.mw-parser-output .ib-company .infobox-label{padding-right:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .ib-company .infobox-data,.mw-parser-output .ib-company .infobox-below{line-height:1.35em}.mw-parser-output .ib-company-logo img{background-color:#f8f9fa}.mw-parser-output .ib-company-locality,.mw-parser-output .ib-company-country{display:inline}
/* end https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
</style><table class="infobox ib-company vcard"><caption class="infobox-title fn org" style="font-size: 125%;">Penn Line Manufacturing</caption><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Industry</th><td class="infobox-data category"><a href="Model_railroad" class="mw-redirect" title="Model railroad">Model railroad</a> manufacturing</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Founded</th><td class="infobox-data">1947<span style="display:none"> (<span class="bday dtstart published updated">1947</span>)</span></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Founders</th><td class="infobox-data agent"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1126788409">
/* start https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0}
/* end https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
</style><div class="plainlist"><ul><li>Albert M. Mercer</li><li>K. Linwood Stauffer</li><li>Robert Faust</li></ul></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Defunct</th><td class="infobox-data">1963<span style="display: none;"> (<span class="dtend itvend">1963</span>)</span></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Fate</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Bankruptcy" title="Bankruptcy">Bankruptcy</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Headquarters</th><td class="infobox-data adr"><div class="ib-company-locality locality"><a href="Boyertown" class="mw-redirect" title="Boyertown">Boyertown</a>, Pennsylvania</div>, <div class="ib-company-country country-name">USA</div></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><b>Penn Line Manufacturing</b> was a <a href="United_States" title="United States">United States</a> manufacturer of <a href="Model_railroad" class="mw-redirect" title="Model railroad">model railroad</a> equipment, produced in <a href="Boyertown" class="mw-redirect" title="Boyertown">Boyertown</a>, Pennsylvania.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2></div>
<p>The company was founded in 1947 by Albert M. Mercer, K. Linwood Stauffer and Robert Faust, hobbyists who believed that most of the model railroad equipment produced at that time lacked realism. Japan and Germany produced few due to the recently ended <a href="World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a>, while the main United States train model brands at that time, <a href="Lionel_Corp." class="mw-redirect" title="Lionel Corp.">Lionel Corp.</a> and <a href="American_Flyer" title="American Flyer">American Flyer</a>, did not put as much authentic detail on their trains as their <a href="O_gauge" class="mw-redirect" title="O gauge">O</a> and <a href="S_gauge" class="mw-redirect" title="S gauge">S gauges</a> would have allowed.
</p><p>Penn Line's early contribution to model railroading was the use of printer's lead to cast the locomotives. This allowed very fine detail in the castings, much greater detail than could be achieved from stampings. And while the larger O gauge and S gauge had the potential for more detail, Penn Line's founders chose to use the smaller <a href="HO_gauge" class="mw-redirect" title="HO gauge">HO gauge</a>. Their thinking was that the potential for realism coming from more elaborate layouts made HO the best compromise. This was at a time when HO gauge was far from the standard it is today. Penn Line produced about a half dozen different locomotives based on prototypes from the <a href="Pennsylvania_Railroad" title="Pennsylvania Railroad">Pennsylvania Railroad</a>, hence the choice of the company name Penn Line.
</p><p>In the early 1960s, Penn Line entered the emerging <a href="Slot_car" title="Slot car">slot car</a> market. They attempted to bring the same realism that they had used in model railroading to slot car racing. They produced a nicely detailed, but poorly powered Indianapolis-style set endorsed by <a href="A._J._Foyt" title="A. J. Foyt">A. J. Foyt</a>. Problems with this product caused Penn Line to declare bankruptcy in the fall of 1963.
</p><p>Most of the former Penn Line Pennsylvania Railroad die-cast steam locomotive kits were later produced by <a href="Bowser_Manufacturing" title="Bowser Manufacturing">Bowser Manufacturing</a>, and are still available in 2007.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>
<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.hoseeker.net/pennlineinformation.html">Penn Line History and Catalogs</a>- Penn Line History and Catalogs</li>
<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://hoseeker.net/pennlineinstructions.html">Penn Line Locomotive Assembly Instructions</a>- Penn Line Locomotive Assembly Instructions</li></ul>
<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1271159938">
/* start https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
.mw-parser-output .asbox{position:relative;overflow:hidden}.mw-parser-output .asbox table{background:transparent}.mw-parser-output .asbox p{margin:0}.mw-parser-output .asbox p+p{margin-top:0.25em}.mw-parser-output .asbox-body{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output .asbox-note{font-size:smaller}.mw-parser-output .asbox .navbar{position:absolute;top:-0.75em;right:1em;display:none}.mw-parser-output :not(p):not(.asbox)+style+.asbox,.mw-parser-output :not(p):not(.asbox)+link+.asbox{margin-top:3em}
/* end https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
</style>
</div><!--htdig_noindex--><div><div class="zim-footer">
This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2024-12-06" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Penn_Line_Manufacturing&oldid=1261506943">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.
</div>
</div><!--/htdig_noindex--></div>
</div>
</main>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body></html>