When General Mills decided to cease toy production in Europe, Dapol acquired the stock, intellectual assets and the former Airfix tooling from Palitoy. The tools for Palitoy’s own Mainline Railways belonged to Kader of Hong Kong, their manufacturer.

Godfrey Hayes of Railwayania sold Mainline models and spares and ran a sideline of repaints, transfers and detailing components under the name of Replica Railways. Discovering that the Mainline tools belonged to Kader, Hayes approached them in 1984 with a view to taking over the distribution of models made by them. In May 1985 Hayes was invited to Hong Kong to discuss the project

A production plan was worked out and in the autumn of 1985, the first sample wagons arrived. Advertisements were placed in the model railway press to launch the new range. Dapol, who owned the intellectual assets of the Mainline system were unhappy with the arrangement and a court case followed. Replica, however, weathered the storm, and more wagons and some coaches were available by Christmas. A steady stream of models appeared over the next few years.

Godfrey Hayes set very high quality standards and every item brought in from the Far East was unpacked and inspected. After testing for running qualities and finish the models were repackaged in the green Replica boxes and rejects were returned to Kader.

In 1987, Kader took over the American toy company of Bachmann, for whom they were a primary manufacturer and this effectively signalled the end of the Replica range. In order to expand into Europe, Kader formed Bachmann Industries Europe and the former Mainline range became the core of their products for the British market. Kader could not manufacture for their new European company while at the same time produce models for a rival and so further access to the Mainline tools was denied Replica.

There has been a series of articles by Graham Smith-Thompson, in Model Railway Collector magazine (formerly Model Railway Enthusiast), profiling the Airfix and Mainline ranges and other systems that later used the tools. There were three parts devoted specifically to Replica Railways published in the December 1999 and January and February 2000 issues of the magazine.