16 October 2010

This morning Alessandro Rossi, the founder of Rivarossi has left us.

I personally and on behalf of employees and friends of this web site, extend to Teresa his wife our most sincere and profound condolences.

Alessandro Rossi in his office in 1957

A few words about the Founder (and Rivarossi)

Alessandro Rossi was the founder of Rivarossi, this creation of his, to which he devoted much of his life. Separating his biography from the history of this company is a difficult task for me.

Alessandro Rossi, class of 1921 descended from an ancient Venetian family of industrialists, the Rossi of Schio (near Vicenza), whose origins are lost in way back into the late Middle Ages, they have always been linked  with the trade and processing of wool. The great-grandfather holding the same name, in the mid-nineteenth century ran the Rossi Wool-Mill in Schio, which was founded by his father Francis who was one of the biggest industrialists of the  Austrian Empire firstly , then in the newly founded kingdom of Italy, and in 1866 incorporated into the Veneto region of Italy.

Our Alessandro Rossi moved from Schio to Como, where his mother owned  land and a beautiful eighteenth century mansion, Villa Monte Baragiola Olimpino  on the outskirts of Como.

These early years were important in the maturing of Alessandro towards his  passion for technology and to the model train in particular. He subscribed to the Meccano publications, the British company that at that time produced miniature trains. He recalled: "My father made out a subscription to the Meccano magazine which was both English and French, thus giving me the opportunity to learn the different technical terms mentioned in the magazines"

In 1942 Alessandro "was drafted", and enlisted as a sapper, and due to his credited university degree, was commissioned as an Officer,  a Lieutenant of the Army Engineers.

In 1943 he contracted  measles and was sent convalescent back to Como. "I caught the measles, I was lucky because  if this has not happened I was due to  depart for Yugoslavia, instead I went back convalescent to Como. With Teresa, we had planned to get married when I finished my studies, but with the war raging, my parents would  not allow us to get married. "

Engaged to Teresa Dubini, who came from a wealthy industrial family from Milan, that operating in the field of construction machinery for the drying of silk cocoons. I took advantage of this period of convalescence to ask her family's permission for marriage.

The events of the war in Italy were precipitating and on the 8^th of September 1943. "I went to the military HQ to determine what was best to do. I had  envisage three possibilities: wait for the arrival of the Germans forces if I liked that, go to the mountains-but no one knew what that exactly meant, one did not have the slightest idea what this would imply "going to the mountains" - or go to Switzerland and there be interned. Our house was five hundred meters from Swiss border. "

In September 1943, I went to Switzerland with my brother in law, who had just returned from the Russian front. He also being military was sent also to internment camp in Murren where his wife subsequently re joined him.

The war ended in August 1945 and Rossi and his wife returned to Como, to Villa Baragiola.

With the windfall left by an uncle who was a priest, on the 31/10/1945 Alessandro acquired shares of a company called ASA in which Antonio Riva was already a partner and changed the company name to RIVAROSSI Ltd (limited), with the intention of building electric model trains.

The following year, his partner Riva left the company, and at the same time the company moved from Albese Cassano in 1947 to the new location in  Sagnino.

By the mid-fifties, the company had already established itself at a national level, doubling employment quotas in a short period of time. The '60s were perhaps the golden era with some history-making models, above all the amazing Big-Boy, the model of the largest steam locomotive ever built, which was of course running on American railroads.  Rivarossi was the first company to produce this famous locomotive on an industrial scale thus obtaining resounding success in the U.S. market.

In the '70s the United States accounted for 80% of the company sales, but at the same time this period also marked the beginning of the decline of the model electric train as the most desired toy by children. They were now being lured away, attracted at first by electric racing cars, and then the final blow with the arrival on the toy market of electronic games, right up to todays playstation and similar video games.

(Translation by Angelo S. Giusti)