Going through a Minitrix catalogue of the 90's, I saw Minitrix made quite a few British models. Were they in scale 1:148 or 1:160? Also, I get the impression they don't make any UK models anymore. When did they stop? When Märklin took over?

As far as I know they're 1:148, certainly they don't look out of place scale-wise with other 1:148 British outline models.

Here's a Minitrix Class 47 hauling a modern Farish/Bachmann Mk1:


mintrix-class-47-47170-county-of-norfolk_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

and same with a Mintrix Mk1:


Mintrix Class 47 (47170 "County of Norfolk") by Rail Squid, on Flickr

As they put out some Class 47s in sectorisation liveries (InterCity and Railfreight) I presume they were still active in the British market in the mid/late 1980s, but am not aware of anything newer than that.

I believe the aim was 1:148, but the steam engines used existing Continental chassis, so were often more or less out of scale.

Thanks for that info. With 1:160 and 1:148 both running on the same track, one of them is narrow gauge or broad gauge.

In my 93/94 catalogue, there is still a lot of British material... A4, A3, 2, 7, 9F, 47.

I take them as 1/148 as they don't look out of place with everything else I have, unlike Lima!

They were definitely more 1:148 than 1:160, in fact some of the early ones are a bit overscale even for 1:148, eg. the old class 27 diesel is a bit "plump"    but it was based on an old continental loco chassis from the 60s.

As far as I know production of most of the British models finished in the late 80s (quite some time after the relationship with Hornby ended), though spurweite-n database reckons 1995 for one of the class 47s. 

This site is a great source of info:
http://minitrix.org.uk/

'Scale' is a generalisation when it comes to Minitrix - nominally 1:148, but specifics depend on the exact model - some of the models are frankly awful, some are not bad, and a lot of that is down to compromises to fit the continental chassis units.

So the Warship diesel is not bad, while the 9F is absolutely awful (Britannia body on shorty chassis) and the A3, A4, Britannia are somewhere in between.

Ivatts are ok, and better than many give credit for if cleaned up and fitted with the correct traction tyres.

Some of the best Minitrix stuff are the British outline coaches and wagons - they still stand up well today as they have no compromises trying to use continental parts - the Gresley coaches, BR standard brake vans and 16 ton minerals and MGR hoppers are all still close or very close to the best of todays models.

Lots laud the running, though I think a lot of that praise is historical and comparative to others at the time - compared to today they are strong, but average, and getting spare parts is often down to other scrappers.

Cheers,
Alan