Arnold - HN4299 - Passenger Car, DB, Epoch III - Deutsche Bahn

Specific Item Information: 4-unit set of coaches "TEE Rheinpfeil", beige/red livery, including 1 x coach Avümh, 1 x coach Apümh, 1 x coach Adümh and 1 x coach Wrüm, period III-IV

Model Information: The Rivarossi passenger car sets typically came with an assortment of three cars. In many cases each of the three cars were a different body style, but in some cases, the same car might appear multiple times but with different road numbers. The duplicates were typically with coaches where this would be desirable. All three cars would be from the Rivarossi smoothside series and all three carry the same road name and paint scheme.

Prototype History: Epoch III is characterized by the rebuilding of the railways after the second world war. Many pre-war steam engines and coaches, construction of the last new built steam engines, new generations of diesel locomotives and new innovative electric locomotives. The first mainlines which were electrified, the construction of a whole new generation of express train coaches which we now still see in Germany.

The first new express train coaches appeared in the beginning of the fifties. The new designs of coaches were completely fresh. Until then it was only possible to built coaches with a length of 21 meter. But now they were succeeded to built a coach of 26,4 meter length. The first coach of this new construction was a middle entrance coach meant for passenger trains, this coach was of type "yl". Westwaggon in Cologne built in 1952 the first express train coach of this type. This coach, indicated as type "m" was also 26,4 meter long and was provided with compartments with a sidewalk. It had no middle entrance doors. This was the first prototype of the successful coaches type "m".

Road Name History: Deutsche Bahn AG (abbreviated as DB, DB AG or DBAG) is a German railway company. Headquartered in Berlin, it is a private joint-stock company (AG), with the Federal Republic of Germany being its single shareholder. Deutsche Bahn describes itself as the second-largest transport company in the world, after the German postal and logistics company Deutsche Post / DHL, and is the largest railway operator and infrastructure owner in Europe. It carries about two billion passengers each year.

Deutsche Bahn (literally "German Railway" in German) came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn ("German Federal Railway") of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn ("German Empire Railway") of East Germany. It also gained ownership of former railway assets in West Berlin held by the Verwaltung des ehemaligen Reichsbahnvermögens (Administration of the Former Reichsbahn Assets).

Brand/Importer Information: Founded in 1906 by Karl Arnold in Nuernberg, K. Arnold & Co. began its life producing tin toys and related items. They produced an extensive line of model ships, doll house items and other toys. In 1935, K. Arnold & Co. hired Max Ernst as their managing director. Ernst, not to be confused with the German realist artist of the same name, was a significant factor in the future of Arnold.

There are several distinct phases of Arnold's model train production. In the period of 1960 - 1962, Arnold marketed the Arnold Rapido 200 product line; this line was very crude yet it also was a sensation because of its much smaller size than TT.

The next phase was from 1963-1967, when the rapido product line begins to swing toward scale representations of the trains. It is during this period that the "Rapido Coupler" comes into production, beginning its widespread use by all model train manufacturers in N-Scale. It was in 1964 that the term "N-Scale" came into use. Between 1968 and 1970, rapido line of trains reached maturity, notably with its turntable and roundhouse. Arnold entered into a business relationship with the U.S. company Revell around 1968, beginning the marketing of Revell Rapido model trains. This relationship was marked by the beginning of production of more accurate North American prototype models by Arnold. This relationship continued for several years, ending in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Arnold continued their expanded production, with new models until the early 1990s.

On Max Ernst's 1976 retirement, Arnold employed perhaps 200 to 250 people, using three facilities in the Nurnberg area. The Company continued under family control until 1995, when Arnold went into bankruptcy and was sold to Rivarossi of Italy. Rivarossi, in turn, also went bankrupt, leading to the sale of all assets to Hornby of the United Kingdom. Production is carried out in China.