Minitrix - 2010 - Locomotive, Diesel, GE U30C - Amtrak - 702

Specific Item Information: Made in Western Germany and first sold in the US under the Postage Stamp Trains brand, the Minitrix EMD F9A/B, FM H12-44, GE U28C, and GE U30CG, diesels and the 0-6-0, 4-6-2, and 2-10-0 steam locomotives were initially imported by the Aurora Plastics Corp. in the late 1960s. Following Aurora's demise, American Tortoise, Con-Cor, and finally the now defunct Model Power resumed the importation and sales of these models. Sold by Model Power, the engine depicted here is now discontinued.

Prototype History: Introduced by GE as a competitor to the EMD SD40 and SD40-2, the U23C and U30C locomotive chassis' were one of GE's earliest locomotive successes. Nicknamed "U-Boats", these units were used in multiple services, pulling coal trains, general freight, and even as a test-power unit for the Department of Transportation's subway car experiments in Colorado.
The 3000 horsepower GE U30C was one of the earliest successes from General Electric in the diesel locomotive market. The U30C has eight tall hood doors per side, a function of the V16 GE FDL diesel motor within. With 600 units sold, the U30C proved to be a viable alternative for customers who were unable to purchase SD40s or SD40-2s from Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) due to production backlog.
Other than six tall hood doors matching six power assemblies per side, there are very few features which distinguish the U23C from the U30C.

Full GE U30C data sheet on The Diesel Workshop.

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Road Name History: The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak, is a passenger railroad service that provides medium- and long-distance intercity service in the contiguous United States. Founded in 1971 through the government-sponsored consolidation of most of the remaining U.S. passenger rail companies, it is partially government-funded yet operated and managed as a for-profit corporation.

Amtrak operates more than 300 trains each day on 21,300 miles (34,000 km) of track with select segments having civil operating speeds of 150 mph (240 km/h) and connecting more than 500 destinations in 46 states in addition to three Canadian provinces. In fiscal year 2015, Amtrak served 30.8 million passengers and had $2.185 billion in revenue, while employing more than 20,000 people. Nearly two-thirds of passengers come from the 10 largest metropolitan areas; 83% of passengers travel on routes shorter than 400 miles. Its headquarters is at Union Station in Washington, D.C.

The name "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "trak", the latter itself a sensational spelling of "track".

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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.

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