They enjoyed huge success, especially in Germany where the competition was surprised by the top-class constructed models as well as by the favourable prices.Īnd this is how the product range was expanded, step by step. In 1967 Roco launched its first H0 models onto the European market. It sounds like a fairy tale from days gone by when an American business partner wrote: “Send as much as you can.”īut only a few years after starting with the “mini tanks”, ROCO started to produce model railway cars according to American prototypes – at first for H0 and 0 tracks. They were hugely successful - especially on the US market where such models were in demand. With farsightedness he had recognised the sign of the time: a lot more detail could be reproduced with the plastic injection moulding process than with metal injection moulding – and more cheaply, too! After a team of outstanding specialists had been put together, military models were the first to be manufactured – with an abundance of fine detail that had never been seen before. Television was still in its early years a new and bold style of music was breaking new ground people were beginning to conquer space and the relatively new material of plastic was increasingly becoming widespread.Īnd this material was the signal for engineer Heinz Rössler. He started with modest means but with huge dreams.ġ960: The economy was booming and people were confident about the future. In this year, the company founder called the company “Ing. With more than 50 per cent of sales, German is the main customer of Modelleisenbahn GmbH, followed by Austria, its domestic market.Įngineer Heinz Rössler and his wife laid the foundation stone for the Roco company in 1960. More than 80% of the goods produced are exported. The company employs around 560 people at its head office in Bergheim near Salzburg in Austria, as well as in its plants in Gloggnitz in Lower Austria, Banská Bystrica in Slovakia and Arad in Romania. It should offer quite a bit, and will be very easy to set up by virtue of its built in web browser interface - any browser, from a computer, tablet or smartphone can be used to set it up.Modelleisenbahn GmbH, along with the “Roco” brand, is one of the three most important European companies on the market and is also the market leader in the DC system sector. The upcoming YaMoRC YD7100 hardware controller will be around $200 or so when it's released. The Z21 (black box) offers more, but is MUCH more expensive. I found the basic z21start (which I bought from a dealer in Germany for $99) to be "all I needed" for my small layout. The fellow who designed the DR5000 (and other hardware) for them left to start a new company - YaMoRC - but its products aren't yet available here in the USA. However, Digikeijs has now gone out of business. The DR5000 is "a step up" from the z21 systems in that it has wifi built right into "the box" (no router or other hardware needed). It uses the same z21 control app as the actual Roco "boxes". I could NEVER have accomplished with a pushbutton-style controller (NEC, Digitrax) what I was able to do with the z21 and app.Ībout a year ago I found a used Digikeijs DR5000 for a great price, and I'm currently using that to run the layout. The z21 was my first experience with dcc, and I'm convinced that having it made getting things done MUCH easier for a novice. I use the companion TPLink router for wifi, and control it all using a Samsung 9.5" tablet. I used a Roco z21start (white box) for several years on the layout, it's now doing duty on my dcc test track upstairs.
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