Trix evolved from a Nüremburg Germany company named Fortner & Haffner that originally made metal
construction sets, tin figures and metal play goods. The roots of the company can be traced back
to the year 1838. In 1935 it began producing the
electrically powered model trains that it became famous for, under the Trix Express label. These trains
were produced under the guidance of former Bing managing
director Stephan Bing. Bing had left the family business in 1927 and purchased this firm. Initial
production of trains was in 'OO' gauge for three rail track, a scale that the Bing company itself
had also made in the 1920's.
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. Current was fed directly from 110 and 220 volt sources
without the use of a transformer. The operating voltage was reduced by using light bulbs as resistors.
Unlike other manufacturers of the period, Trix allowed two trains to run on the same track simultaneously
under independent control, one collecting current from the left rail and centre, the other from the
right and centre. This system was known as 'Trix Twin'. In the United Kingdom Trix models were distributed
by Bassett-Lowke under the brand name
'Twin Train Table Railway', initially using German outline models painted in British colours, and
from 1937 onwards relatively crude models of British locomotives and rolling stock.
Bing and his management team,
who were all Jewish, were forced to flee Germany after the company was taken over by the Nazi Socialist
regime under Adolph Hitler. They emigrated to England where Bing continued to make Trix product at the
Bassett-Lowke factory, until he was interred into a British War camp at the Isle of Wright in 1940, where
he died before the end of the war. Trix in Germany was acquired by Ernst Voelk in 1938, and he
ran the company until 1962.
In 1939 Trix introduced its line of electrical signals, remote control switches,
remote controlled uncoupling track, and a train control system.
Trix manufacturing plants in Germany had to change over to manufacturing armaments during the war for the
German Army. This included telegraph and field telephone equipment. The plants in Nüremburg became targets for
Allied bombers, and in the spring of 1945 the Nüremberg, Kobergerstrasse 15 plant was destroyed.
Production resumed in 1948 in Germany but began to lag behind the technology used by rivals.
Trix switched from AC to DC (with its simple reversing function) later than rivals like
Tri-ang, and the surviving British Trix company. In 1956
Trix switched to DC and in 1967 to two-rail as used by most
competitors.
The failing Trix brand was taken over several times becoming Trix Twin Railways, Trix Trains,
British Trix and then merging with the Austrian manufacturer Liliput which
is now part of Bachmann. Production of
British Trix trains ceased in the mid 1970's.
'N' gauge models under the Minitrix brand were made from the late 1960's 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 1980's for a short lived range
of British outline models using the earlier product tooling.
Trix's owner in the 1980's and early 1990's was Mangold. Also for a brief period
in 1993 Gama-Schuco combined with Trix. Mangold went bankrupt in the late 1990's and
Märklin purchased the assets in January of 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. But the purchase was also in response to the earlier
purchase of the Karl Arnold company by
the Italian company Rivarossi. In 2003, Märklin
introduced its first 'N' gauge models under the Minitrix brand. Some of the more well known products were
the King Ludwig, the Wilhelm II set and the Adler set; all are now very expensive collectors
items. Several Märklin HO scale three-rail AC
locomotives have also been introduced in two-rail DC versions under the Trix logo.
The Minitrix brand is very popular in the United States of America. In 2009
Walthers became the exclusive North American distributor for Trix products.
Selectrix is the Trix Minitrix proprietary Digital system and is fully compatible with
DCC systems.
Besides the AC Trix Express and Minitrix brands, the Trix company is also well known for its 1:87 scale
DC brands, Trix International and Trix HO, dating back at least to the early 1970's and still being
produced today.
A particular Trix speciality is the reproduction of Bavarian prototype models from Epoch I and their
equivalent Epoch II, DRG versions. Examples such as the B VI (BR 34), D XI (BR 984-5),
D XII (BR 73), G 3/4 H (BR 54), Gt 2x4/4 (BR 96), P 3/5 H (BR 384), PtL 2/2 (BR 983)
and S 3/6 (BR 184) have been produced in the steam locomotive line, along with numerous
passenger and goods wagons.
Trix also produced highly-detailed brass models of steam locomotives in limited quantities under
the "Fine Art" label in the late 1990's.
