Following the visit of their Managing Director Dr Rainer Noch to the UK earlier in the year, part of our sales team were invited to their head office and main manufacturing plant in Germany.
The team included Matt Taylor, Kevin Player, Warren Kerfoot, and yours truly. Before I go into details of our visit, (in the next issue of RIGHT LINES), here is a timeline history of Noch; not the usual "War and Peace" version - although this famous book's title is probably appropriate in this case!
In 2011 NOCH celebrated their 100th birthday. The company was founded 1911 as a plumber's workshop in Saxony. For 75 of those years NOCH has dealt with model railway accessories, initially carrying out the role of a distributor. They quickly realised they could produce better quality products and started to manufacture their own range of scenic accessories. For the last 50 years they have been located at Wangen in the region of Allgau in Southern Germany, just north of the Swiss and Austrian borders.
Wangen's town hall, the town's coat of arms, and the City gate
Oswald Noch, founder of NOCH.
Erich Noch starts the "Engineering Office NOCH" as a subsidiary of his father's workshop
The company moves to 5 Nikolai Street in Glauchau and starts distributing Marklin model railways
NOCH starts selling model buildings manufactured by their resident carpenter
Erich Noch is conscripted, and suspended the company until the end of the war.
After the Second World War, Erich Noch returns and starts the company again. He builds complete model railway layouts for wealthy customers.
The first NOCH Catalogue is published including tunnels and background models. At the end of the year, NOCH produce their first model railway rolling stock
Under pressure from the socialist government of East Germany, NOCH nearly collapses. Private loans keep the company afloat
Erich Noch presents his products at the Nuremburg Toy Fair for the first time
In September he escapes from East Germany, and rebuilds his business in Maisach near Munich, where he continues to build ready-made model railway layouts for private customers.
NOCH relocates to Wangen in the Allgau region. He uses modern vacuum thermoforming technology to build tunnels for the very first time
Noch produce static grass-covered mats for the first time
Peter Noch, the son of Erich Noch, develops highly detailed NOCH injection moulded trees
NOCH extend their factory due to their continuing success, in order to enlarge its production
NOCH develop an innovative hard foam, which means that they can produce extremely realistic walls and tunnel portals
In the late 1970s Peter Noch, Erich's son, joined the company. Together, father and son managed the company until Erich died in 1989
The fourth generation, Dr. Rainer Noch, joins the company. He launches the NOCH model figure range
A new office is built
NOCH first produce the Gras-Master, allows the modeller to electrostatically cover model landscapes with static grass
Laser cut products are introduced, adding these highly details accessories to the NOCH range
The NOCH factory is expanded again, and a facility is opened in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam
NOCH launches the Laser-Cut+ range, which set a new quality benchmark for detail and realism in model buildings
NOCH celebrates their 100th anniversary
The figure range is 20 years old. NOCH are now a leading manufacturer of model figures available in O, H0, TT, N and Z scale
The first UK 'NOCH Shop' installed into Model Railway Solutions in Poole. More are being planned for 2019
That brings us right up to date with the history of Noch - in the next issue of RIGHT LINES we'll take you through our visit!
