Minitrix - 2086 - Locomotive, Steam, 0-6-0 USRA - Apache - 8

DCC Information: This engine is not DCC-Compatible.

Prototype History: The USRA 0-6-0 was a USRA standard class of steam locomotive designed under the control of the United States Railroad Administration, the nationalized railroad system in the United States during World War I. This was the standard light switcher of the USRA types, and was of 0-6-0 wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, or "C" in UIC classification.

A total of 255 locomotives were built under USRA control; these were sent to various railroads. After the dissolution of the USRA, the Atlantic Coast Line, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway, Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad and Texas and Pacific Railway ordered additional copies of the USRA 0-6-0 design, while the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway ordered only copies.

From Wikipedia

Road Name History: The Apache Railway was built in 1917 from a connection with the Santa Fe’s transcon mainline in Holbrook, Arizona to the forests to the south. Before 1984, the line ran about 80 miles south of Holbrook to McNary. The line was built to haul timber from the McNary area to an on line sawmill and a large paper mill in Snowflake (about 38 miles from Holbrook.) The APA was best known for it’s all-Alco diesel fleet. By 1984, the timber within reach of the railroad had been cut and the line south of Snowflake was abandoned. The paper mill closed in 2012 and the future looked a little grim for this line. It has since been sold twice but saved from abandonment. Much of the current traffic consists of animal feed.

Brand/Importer Information: Trix is a German company that originally made Trix metal construction sets.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