Minitrix dinosaur

[Newportnobby]

Access some old catalogues here.............

https://www.trovestar.com/Assets/Collections/4/Catalogs/Minitrix/

Looks like the green Type 2 and MK1 coaches were new to 1969

[KevTheBusDriver]

Which one was supposedly never made?

This is what I owned at one time and it matches with the pamphlet I have somewhere.
Mass produced versions were as follows: All on Mk 1 chassis except where indicated:
D805 Benbow - Green
D815 Druid - Blue
D816 Eclipse - Green, Maroon and Blue
D823 Hermes - Blue (Mk 2 and Mk 3 chassis)
D825 Intrepid - Green (Mk 3 Chassis)
D866 Zebra - Green, Maroon and Blue

Ones that were not produced except accidentally
D815 Druid - Green (I think I had the only one known as of 2012. It was mint, unused. One of those found in an old shop sort of thing)
D838 Rapid - Maroon (very rare but a few were made. If you resprayed yours it will have gone down in collector value )

Some maroon ones appear to have suffered fracturing around the screw securing point so there are not as many going the rounds as blue or green ones. Must have been a paint/plastic reaction of some sort. You sometimes see them on EBay with split bodies around the roof area.

HTH
Bob

Hi - in my stock box here I have:
D805 Benbow Green
D815 Druid Blue (with double arrows in positions like D823)
D816 Eclipse Blue with transfers for names, numbers, double arrows
D816 Eclipse Blue with printed names, etc.
D816 Eclipse Green
D823 Hermes Blue with names, numbers and double arrows as transfers
D823 Hermes Blue as per Hornby Minitrix version
D825 Interpid Green (the Mk III chassis)
D866 Zebra Green
D866 Zebra Maroon

a couple of colleagues have each managed to source a D838 Rapid in Maroon.

another variation to look out for is the colour of the nameplates - some have black background and some have red.

The transfers are waterslide and with care they can be removed with warm water.

The transfer above the nameplate on the green/maroon models is occasionally seen in different sizes, too.

I have seen Warships of all colours with split bodies - I believe it is due to over-tightening of the body retaining screw.

Happy Warships!

[BramptonBranch]

Is the Green Eclipse the horrible shade of green with full yellow ends?

[icairns]

@Jfheath  I have in my possession (somewhere in a box behind my railway I guess) some original history pamphlets for Minitrix, Farish and IIRC Wrenn. They were written in the 1980s for collectors, as to which boxes are the right ones etc.
If I ever find them I will scan them and send you a copy. I paid about £2.50 for each pamphlet.
It had the Minitrix history, including the overlap with Peco (the Mk 1 coaches were once called Wonderful Coaches, and the BP tanker was originally Minitrix too).

Best regards
Bob

Bob:

I believe that you are probably referring to "Montys Amateur Collectors Guide to British Minitrix" by Simon Culverhouse.  I have two versions of these Minitrix booklets; the 2003 edition and an updated version dated June 2017 (and retitled "The Collectors Compact Guide to British Minitrix").
Simon's guides also include the following titles: British Lima N, Graham Farish N 1970-2001, Peco N Gauge, Lone Star Trains, and British Model Railway Magazines.

Just another old Minitrix Type 2 diesel in chromatic blue, small yellow ends and white window surrounds. Minitrix were a bit quick off the mark getting their model out in BR Blue before BR had actually decided what BR blue looked like. But what's that leaflet under it?



Hand-drawn artwork by someone with some skill.  Note the address at the bottom: Courtaulds gave up on British Trix at the end of 1967 and the assets were transferred to a new company, Thernglade Ltd.  I haven't yet established when the Type 2 first appeared on the UK market, but I believe it was towards the end of 1967.  The box for this model is unusual.  It's actually the wrong box, labelled for a Mk1 coach, but has the correct foam insert and I have found one other Type 2 for sale with the same plain green box design.  I'm pretty sure these boxes were only used on Courtaulds models: the Thernglade models (1968 on) all seem to have been in standard German Minitrix packaging, green and yellow window box with a polystyrene tray.  So I suspect this slightly "playworn" Type 2 is one of only a tiny handful sold in 1967, at the very dawn of British N gauge.  If anyone knows anything more about the very early days of Minitrix in the UK I would be very interested to hear.

Richard

I have been corresponding with Simon Culverhouse while researching another N gauge pioneer (G.P. Middleton/Highfield Models) and he provided me the following information about Minitrix leaflets: 

"The German data sheets were very comprehensive with exploded drawings, dismantling instructions and numbered lists of every individual component.  They also have a printing date code. 
However British Trix did not issue these German language sheets for locomotives sold in Britain.  E.L. Rozsa (creator of the Thernglade Company for Trix after Courtalds decided to sell British Trix) made a tracing of the necessary drawings and added British Trix logos and the minimum of spare parts information.
These British Trix sheets have no date and carry the initials "VR" (Vice Rozsa = by Rozsa) in the bottom right-hand corner and were in exactly the same format as the British Trix OO locomotive instructions." 

As an example, Simon sent me the leaflets below with his hand-written notes.  Note that the German leaflet carries a printing date code and the initials of the original artist (HD).

Ian

[Bob G]

@Jfheath  I have in my possession (somewhere in a box behind my railway I guess) some original history pamphlets for Minitrix, Farish and IIRC Wrenn. They were written in the 1980s for collectors, as to which boxes are the right ones etc.
If I ever find them I will scan them and send you a copy. I paid about £2.50 for each pamphlet.
It had the Minitrix history, including the overlap with Peco (the Mk 1 coaches were once called Wonderful Coaches, and the BP tanker was originally Minitrix too).

Best regards
Bob

Bob:

I believe that you are probably referring to "Montys Amateur Collectors Guide to British Minitrix" by Simon Culverhouse.  I have two versions of these Minitrix booklets; the 2003 edition and an updated version dated June 2017 (and retitled "The Collectors Compact Guide to British Minitrix").
Simon's guides also include the following titles: British Lima N, Graham Farish N 1970-2001, Peco N Gauge, Lone Star Trains, and British Model Railway Magazines.

That's the one.
I have the early version. Were they really as late as the early 2000s? They are in an old fashioned type face.
Best
Bob

[icairns]

That's the one.
I have the early version. Were they really as late as the early 2000s? They are in an old fashioned type face.
Best
Bob

Apart from the updated 2017 British Minitrix guide, all my other guides are dated between 2003 and 2006.  They are all presented in a professional business font (Arial, Helvetica, or similar).

I am not sure if Simon published any collector guides before the early 2000s.  He said that the interest in his collector's guides diminished after the N gauge ranges were incorporated into Ramsay's British Model Trains (to which he contributed), so he only kept the British Minitrix guide up to date.

Ian

[Bob G]

I will have to dig mine out and check.

[Nev S]

Despite their age I have kept all of my Warships dating from the 1970s, and given a few cosmetic tweeks they still have a place on my layout today.

Just swapping the buffers from round to oval makes a huge difference IMHO. Not noticed before but the roof is more suited to a class 43 with the off centre exhaust ports.

[icairns]

Access some old catalogues here.............

https://www.trovestar.com/Assets/Collections/4/Catalogs/Minitrix/

Looks like the green Type 2 and MK1 coaches were new to 1969

It is a little bit confusing but, for some reason, the British rolling stock did not appear in the German Minitrix catalogues until 1969 (as the above link shows) but the Type 2 Bo-Bo was released in the UK in 1967.

Supporting this release date are the following:
(1) Ramsay's British Model Trains Catalogue, 9th Edition.
(2) British Minitrix by Simon Culverhouse (2003 and 2017 editions).
(3) Dudley Dimmock on N Gauge (1967) - model price 121/9d.
(4) Adverts for the Type 2 Bo-Bo started appearing in the Railway Modeller (model price 121/-) and Model Railway News (model price £5-19-6) in January 1967.
(5) Toy fair '67 report contained in the News Special section of the March 1967 Railway Modeller (see below).

Ian

[Jfheath]

That is correct @icairns .  It is confusing, because it is confused.

The Class 27 seems to have had four births.

As I understand it:

Birth 1 - 1967 - British Trix make a plastic body with permission from German Trix (to use their chassis for UK models) and sell the first class 27 in their name.
German Trix buy out British Trix - but continue the British Trix production in Wrexham under the company name Thernglade.

Birth 2 - 1969 German Trix now own the Class 27 and include it in their catalogue for the German Market.  Labelled as being new for 1969.
I assume it was also available in the UK from Thernglade.  I have a 1970 Thernglade catalogue which lists 2 class 27s - a green and a blue and 4 other UK locos. I have yet to find a 1968/69 catalogue from Thernglade - but I assume that it would be in there as well.

Birth 3 - 1973 German Trix move all production and tooling to Germany.  Thernglade no longer exists at the British end.  Mangold takes over German Trix to become Trix - Mangold, who form a collaboration with Rovex to market the British Outline models - previously done by Thernglade.  Hornby Minitrix launch their new range of UK models, including the Class 27.
I don't think there were any modifications from the 1967 version to the 1973.  But I can only go on my 3 examples and pictures.

Birth 4 - 1980 - Hornby re-introduce the Blue version of the class 27 as N212 with a different livery and cab number.