Mehano - 2223 - Reefer, 40 Foot, Steel - ThermIce - 8903

Specific Item Information: Plastic Box with Mehano Logo. Frame stamped AUSTRIA.

Model Information: Produced by Roco and imported by Atlas starting in 1967. It is distinctly different than Roco's other steel reefer in the door details. In 1977 Atlas made their own tooling of this model and started producing it in their New Jersey Facility.

Road Name History: The ThermIce corporation was part of the Publicker family of businesses. Publicker operated a large lab in Edgemont Pa and a second one on the Publicker site in Philadelphia. The Philly site had a very large dry ice plant called ThermIce that took all the Carbon Dioxide that was a biproduct of their distilling and used it to make dry Ice. They could distill up to 70 million gallons a year.

Brand/Importer Information: In 1952, the company Mehanotehnika was founded in Yugoslavia, which produced and sold metal and plastic products. The name comes from the name of the first puzzle toys the company made. In June 1953 production started in its own factory.
In 1959 production was moved to a new large production hall in Izola (now in Slovenia). In 1962 a new factory was opened in Materija. In 1971, the production of children's toys was moved to the factory in Materija. Besides under their own name, Mehano trains were often sold under the client's brand name such as Atlas, AHM, Life-Like, Tempo, Tibidabo and Model Power.
In 1990 the company changed its name to Mehano. In 2004 it was acquired by LIVE. In 2010 a new product line for children was launched under the name My First Train. Nevertheless, in 2012 Mehano became insolvent and was taken over by Lemke in Germany.

In the world of N Scale, Mehano products were produced under contract and imported by several other brand names for use in the US. However, a few models were imported with either "MT", "Mehano" or "Tempo" branding.

Manufacturer Information: The company was founded in 1960 by Ing. Heinz Rössler and started with a plastic Minitanks series of military vehicles. After export to the USA became successful, the model line was expanded with model trains in HO scale and the smaller N scale. TT scale was also subsequently added to the product line. The model rail product line covers many European countries including Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and also the USA.

On July 15, 2005 ROCO Modellspielwaren GmbH was declared bankrupt. From July 25 the company continues as Modelleisenbahn GmbH, but still uses the Roco brand and associated logo. On October 1, 2007, distribution of the 'Minitank' product series was assigned to the German model car manufacturer Herpa.

Since February 2008 Modelleisenbahn also owns Fleischmann, which like Roco had gone bankrupt. The two companies continue as separate brands under Modelleisenbahn GmbH, while benefiting from economies of scale through joined development projects, marketing and procurement.

From Wikipedia