Jouef
| Industry | Hobbies |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1944 |
| Headquarters | United Kingdom |
| Products | Model Railways |
| Parent | Hornby plc |
| Website | Was jouef |
Jouef was a French manufacturer that specialized in model trains and other vehicles.
Manufacturer Georges Huard founded Jouef in 1944 toward the end of World War II. The traditional home of the company was in Champagnole, France. In the early 1950s, as with many manufacturers, the company abandoned the use of lithographed tinplate for trains in favour of plastic injection moulding.
In 1979, Jouef opened a factory in Limerick, Ireland, but the ill-fated venture closed in 1981. In 2001, Jouef was subsumed by the Italian Lima. After shutting down in January 2004, Jouef was acquired a few months later by Hornby Railways (Tran 2004).
The company's first offering was a rather toy-like tinplate 'Trans Saharan Express - Algiers to Tombouctou' (Gurney 2003, 28). Other notable offerings were the French BB9200 which hauled the famous 'Le capitole' express. The locomotive had features like the overhead, diamond-shaped, pantograph completely detailed on the model (Gurney 2003, 322). Even today, as a part of Hornby, a main offering has been the French TGV high-speed express. Also during the 1960s, Jouef marketed a limited range of British outline model railways under the brand name 'Playcraft'.
Around 1960, Jouef made a series of plastic 1:87 (HO) scale cars, trucks and buses mainly for display with its train kits. These were mainly French vehicles including a Peugeot 203 and 403, Simca Chambord, Citroen DS 19, and a few Renaults including the 16 hatchback. These were simple one-piece mouldings with simple plastic wheels.
Jouef made electric slot cars for many years, production commenced in their Champagnole factory during 1963. Their system was called the "Record 64" in France. Between 1964 and 1968 the system was marketed in England by the makers of Corgi Toys-Mettoy/Playcraft. At the same time the range was made under license in Germany and was known as Egger Silberpfeil. Jouef slot cars were also manufactured in Spain during the 1960s. Early releases were the E Type Jag sports and hardtop, Mercedes-Benz 300 SL sports and hardtop, BRM F1, BRM F1 chrome, Ferrari F1, Ferrari F1 gold, Lotus F1, Ferrari 250 GTO, Porsche 904 and Ford GT40. A 'Formulae Bleue' car was illustrated in the 1964 French catalogue, but was never released. After Jouefs' partnership with Playcraft and Egger ended in 1968, they continued to produce some very nice cars. Toward the end of production, however, cost saving measures became apparent.
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