Williams Electric Trains was a US toy train and model railroad manufacturer, founded in 1971 by Jerry Williams, as a maker of reproductions of vintage Lionel and Ives Standard Gauge trains. Jerry Williams acquired some of the original tooling from the original Lionel Corporation after Lionel sold the rights to their name to General Mills in 1969. In the 1980s Williams acquired tooling that had once belonged to Kusan, a Lionel competitor from the 1950s, and the Williams product line shifted to O scale. Williams eventually discontinued the tinplate range, selling the old Lionel tooling to the company that later became MTH Electric Trains.
Unlike most other O scale manufacturers, Williams never added electronics such as Lionel's Trainmaster Command Control (TMCC) or MTH's Digital Command System (DCS) to its locomotives. This decision gained Williams a dedicated following among those hobbyists who wanted a more traditional train layout reminiscent of the 1950s, but who wanted to buy modern equipment. However, this decision also allowed younger companies such as MTH and K-Line to eclipse Williams, which, in October 2007 was sold to Kader via Kader's Bachmann Industries subsiduary. Williams began trading as Williams by Bachmann that same year.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
page views since 1998