Minitrix - 15222 - Tank Car, Cement Silo, 2-Axle - Westfälische Landes-Eisenbahn - 4-Pack

Specific Item Information: Prototype: Double chamber cars painted and lettered for the Westphalian Provincial Railroad (WLE) similar to the German Federal Railroad (DB) and Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) type Ucs 908. Capacities 27.5 cubic meters / 971.02 or 28.3 cubic meters / 999.27 cubic feet of bulk freight. Era V.

Model: The cars have four different car numbers in the set. They also have close coupler mechanisms. The cars have numerous, separately applied details. Total length over the buffers 162 mm / 6-3/8".

Numbers: 81, 82, 83 & 84

Prototype History: With the introduction of the 12-digit UIC number, the Kds 54 railcars were renumbered in Ucs908. Even while the Ucs909 railcars were still being procured, a number of Kds 54/Ucs908 were converted into Kds 56/Ucs909. For many years, both types formed the backbone of the powder railcar stock of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB). 1965 is said to have seen the largest inventory of Kd/Kds 54, when 1,232 railcars were counted. The first reductions in stock were in 1967 when 86 railcars were sold. Further sales to EVA and VTG followed in later years, and by 1990 there were 953 left in the inventory.

Brand/Importer Information: Trix is a German company that originally made Trix metal construction sets.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