Boucher Manufacturing Company

TheBoucher Manufacturing Companywas an Americantoycompany that specialized in toy boats andtoy trains.It is best remembered today as the last manufacturer ofStandard Gauge/Wide gaugetoy trains until the much smallerMcCoy Manufacturingrevived the old standard in the mid-1960s.

Boucher entered the toy train business in 1922 with its purchase of theVoltampline of trains. Voltamp had been a direct competitor toCarlisle & Finch,the inventor of the electric toy train. Boucher modified the Voltamp trains from Carlisle & Finch's 2-inch (51 mm) gauge to matchLionel Corporation's2+1⁄8in(53.975 mm) Standard gauge. The Voltamp/Boucher offerings were highly accurate and detailed and occupied thepremiumend of the market.

For the duration of Boucher's life the market was dominated by the so-called "Big Four" of Lionel,Ives,Dorfan,andAmerican Flyer.Like all of them, Boucher struggled through theGreat Depression,and while it outlived all but Lionel, by 1940 the 2 1/8-inch Standard gauge had become an orphan standard that was priced beyond the means of most consumers. Without a smaller, more affordable product to sell, and withWorld War IIlimiting what it could produce, Boucher went out of business in 1943.