Continuing the story of Trix : -

· Making cheaper Trix Express Trains for children

· Easy to set up, safe and simple to use led to battery run trains

· Soon Trix Twin in England followed the lead.

At about the same time as Trix introduced DC for the three rail system, Trix Express in Nuremberg started in 1953 to produce a 4.5 - 6 Volt motor for a simple battery train. One of the major aims of Trix, was to reach children and juveniles of the fifties with an easy to handle and low-priced train set, in the hope they would be won as future customers for their main DC system. In cooperation with the toy manufacturer Distler, who had developed the famous Distler Motor, Trix Express produced several variations of battery trains up to 1960 (e.g. the “Dieselzug” TE 7/900 and the “Sandbahn” TE /601).

Battery_train_set_(goods)_1954

Battery_train_set_passenger_1954

These two photos show the 1954 goods and passenger sets

In England Trix Twin Railway took up the idea, to produce a special train for youngsters. Two years latter in 1955 TTR offered the Trix Junior train set, in two variations: the "Junior Goods” set and the "Junior Passenger” set. Both sets included an 0-4-0 as a black-coloured British Railways tank loco, fitted with the German Distler-Motor. The "Junior Passenger" set contained two tin plate Bogie BR Coaches and the "Junior Goods" three tin plate wagons (1 Goods Brake and 2 Open Wagons). Both sets included a circle of track in the bottom of the box.

Junior set 2

This example of the Junior set was recently found unopened at a fair near London. The loco still has the original shrink film wrapping. The coaches are fixed to a cardboard backing by a cord. Underneath there were unopened boxes of track

To reduce expenses still further instead of batteries or mains adaptors, the TTR sets contained a crank-handle driven Dynamo (also made by Distler), to energise the trains. Depending on the direction of rotation of the dynamo, you could change the running direction of the train automatically. But after a short time, ( just one year), this hand operated dynamo procedure became unpopular, hence the dynamo soon disappeared from the market. (See middle of box above)

TTR introduced the Cadet set which did not include the dynamo but a simple controller to connect to the battery and then the track. Cadet sets were produced as passenger and goods sets using the same plastic bodied locos and coaches or goods wagons.

cadet 1

The Cadet goods set produced up to 1960

In Germany the Trix Express train sets were fitted with a small blue-green Distler-Controller, in which you could insert a 4.5 – Volt battery as power unit (see Photo). But the better solution was to buy the suitable mains adaptor, also produced by Distler. After installation the power unit, the controller had to be connected to the terminal rail.

Batteriebahn_Technik_4

Controllers and mains adapter for TE

the_famous_Distler_Motor

The Distler motor used in both TTR and TE engines

__BIG__Die Batteriebahnen von Trix Express_Abb

The Best of the Battery trains from Trix Express

Soon after the introduction of the above train in 1960 , just one year later, the battery trains disappeared completely from the range of Trix products.

Home Page : Trix Twin

Contribution by Michael Linnenbach

Continuing the story of Trix : -

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