Jouef is a French brand and former manufacturing company specialized in scale model railroads. The brand name is currently owned by Hornby. Apart from model railroads, the company also produced model cars and slot cars. History 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 Lima shut down in January 2004, the Jouef brand was acquired a few months later by Hornby Railways. Trains The company's first offering was a rather toy-like tinplate 'Trans Saharan Express - Algiers to Tombouctou'. 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'. 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'. Cars 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 basic one-piece mouldings with simple plastic wheels. Jouef made electric slot cars for many years with production starting in their Champagnole factory in 1963. The system was called "Record 64" in France. Between 1964 and 1968 these sets were marketed in England by Mettoy / Playcraft, the makers of Corgi Toys. The range was also made under license in Germany and 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