Minitrix - 16872 - Locomotive, Electric, FS Class E.464 - Oceanogate - 91 83 2483 018-4

Specific Item Information: Prototype: OCEANOGATE class 483 electric locomotive. Version with 4 pantographs.

Model: The locomotive has a built-in digital decoder DCC, Selectrix, and Selectrix 2. The motor has a flywheel. 4 axles powered. Traction tires. The locomotive has warm white LED dual headlights and marker lights that change over with the direction of travel and that can be switched to triple headlights. The locomotive has a close coupler mechanism. The locomotive's headlights, marker lights, cab lighting, long-distance headlights, and other light functions can be controlled in digital operation. Length over the buffers 118 mm / 4-5/8".

Highlights: Warm white LEDs for lighting. Headlights can be changed and turned off. Cab lighting can be controlled.

Prototype History: The E.464 is a class of Italian railways electric locomotives. They were introduced in the course of the 1990s for hauling light trains, especially for commuter service. They were acquired by FS Trenitalia to replace the old E.424 and E.646, dating from the 1940s and 1950s. The class was originally designed by ABB Trazione, later ADTranz (now part of the Bombardier group), and produced in the Italian plant of Vado Ligure.

Cost per unit is 2.6 million Euro. With 717 locomotives currently in service (as of December 2015) the E.464 is the largest class in use by Trenitalia, and also the most numerous Italian locomotive class ever in service.

Road Name History: Oceanogate is a subsidiary of Contship Italia.

Brand/Importer Information: Trix is a German company that originally made Trix metal construction sets. one of its co-founders was Stephan Bing, the son of the pioneer toy-maker industrialist Ignaz Bing. In 1935 the company began producing the electrically powered model trains that it became famous for, under the Trix Express label. Prior to the outbreak of World War II the Trix company produced a small range of fairly unrealistic AC powered three rail models running at 14 volts.

N gauge models under the Minitrix brand were made from the late 1960s mostly of European prototypes (German and British primarily). North American prototypes were also manufactured and marketed under the Aurora "Postage Stamp" brand; later these items were sold under the American Tortoise, Model Power and Con-Cor brands. Trix sometimes utilized North American consultants to aid in the design of this portion of the product line. The "Hornby Minitrix' brand was used in the 1980s for a short lived range of British outline models using the earlier product tooling.

Trix's owner in the 1980s and 1990s was Mangold, which went bankrupt in the late 1990s and Märklin purchased the assets in January 1997. In part, this purchase was a reflection of Märklin's need for added production capacity; Trix had been manufacturing certain items for Märklin in previous years. The purchase was also in response to the earlier purchase of the Karl Arnold company by the Italian company Rivarossi; Märklin were very keen to take over Trix market share in 2-rail H0 and especially Minitrix, until then Märklin had not marketed N gauge models. In 2003, Märklin introduced its first N gauge models under the well established Minitrix brand. A number Märklin H0 scale three-rail AC locomotives have also been introduced in two-rail DC versions under the Trix logo and many models are shared between the two brands.

From Wikipedia