Minitrix - 11147 - Freight Train, European, Electric, Epoch VI - Mitsui OSK - Mitsui Rail Capital Europe Starter Set

Specific Item Information: Mitsui Rail Capital Europe (MRCE) class 185.1 electric locomotive, a DB AG type Res 2 flat car, and an ermewa type Rils sliding tarp car. The train looks as it did around 2012.

Prototype History: Epoch of liberalised railway traffic in Germany. New numbering system according to UIC or TSI (12-figure also for railcars), but no uniform design of livery.

Road Name History: MOL (Mitsui O.S.K. Lines) was founded in 1964, following the merger of Osaka Shosen Kaisha (OSK) (大阪商船株式会社 Osaka Shōsen Kabushiki-gaisha) founded in 1878, and Mitsui Steamship Co., Ltd. founded in 1942, formerly Mitsui Line, under the Law Concerning the Reconstruction and Reorganization of the Shipping Industry.

Brand/Importer Information: Trix is a German company that originally made Trix metal construction sets.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