Manufacturers of inexpensive and lightweight, lithographed pressed steel mechanical toys based on the patents held by the founder and owner, Frank R. Labin. His spiral rod design was used in the design of various aeronautical and carousel type toys as well as automobiles. the 21/8” gauge 4-4-4-4 New York Central R. R. electric type locomotive and cars, made by the Buffalo Model Co., subsequently the Buffalo Model and Supply Co., in Buffalo NY, around 1926 and 1927. According to the literature, the locomotive, known as the “Simplex Electric Locomotive,” was 193/4″ long, powered by two motors, and a later circular (ad) features a working air whistle on the locomotive. The cars are specified as being 253/4″ long, and fitted with four lights and real glass in the windows. Although some collectors have inclined to doubt that these models ever actually were manufactured, a photo of the train has been seen, and according to R. Donald Barr, the man behind the Buffalo Model Co., a few locomotives and cars actually were produced.”

Pratt & Letchworth marketed their toys as Buffalo Toys (Buffalo Indestructible Malleable Iron & Steel Toys), to differentiate them from the Buffalo Toy and Tool Works. Their trade mark was of a charging buffalo, not to be confused with the more sedate trade mark of Buffalo Toy and Tool Works or the Buffalo Head used by the Buffalo Pitts Company.With all this manufacturing, energy, design, and business entrepreneurial spirit, it’s not surprising that Buffalo also had a number of toy manufacturers. As might be expected for a community that in the 1870s had around 100 foundries and factories involved in iron and iron products, many of the toys were made of cast iron and other metals. There were at least a dozen, but few of them were devoted strictly to toys. To add to the confusion, Pratt & Letchworth were proprietors of a number of related companies. Their 1892 toy catalogue (reprinted in 1970 by the ATCA) was titled “The Buffalo Indestructible Malleable Iron & Steel Toys Children’s Delight” and listed the names of seven companies on the cover, none of them Pratt & Letchworth.

Buffalo boasted 30 automobile manufacturers in the early 1900s; Pierce-Arrow was one of them. The city was also home to Curtis-Wright Aeroplane Co., the world’s largest plane producing company during WWI. Founded by brothers Samuel Fletcher Pratt and Pascal Paoli Pratt, and William Pryor Letchworth as the Buffalo Malleable Iron Works. Originally producers of saddlery hardware, Pratt & Letchworth took over in 1860, and by 1872 were the largest manufacturers of saddlery hardware in the U. S. Toy production followed the hiring in 1889 of George S. Crosby (toy designer for Welker & Crosby Company, Brooklyn NY, 1880-1898). The following year, 1890, Pratt and Letchworth acquired the patent rights and inventory of Francis W. Carpenter (F. W. Carpenter Company, Harrison NY, 1894-1925).

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