Arnold is a toy manufacturing company founded in Nuremberg on October 4, 1906 by Karl Arnold. Specializing in tin toys, it also produced boats and dollhouses until the Second World War, when the factory was completely destroyed.
It is best known for having launched the Arnold Rapido range of 1:160 scale model trains with a 9 mm gauge in 1962: this is the birth of the N scale.
From 1960 to 1962 production consisted of a range of small "Rapido 200" trains, in 1:200 scale, more of a toy train than a model train.
However, from 1962 onwards the company devoted itself to the production of real model trains and became the reference N production from 1970 onwards. In 1964 the N scale was recognized as the NEM standard and subsequently the "Rapido coupler" was adopted as the European standard for the scale.
In 1995 the company was purchased by Rivarossi and in 2004 by Hornby PLC.
