In a message dated 12/19/2004 3:41:36 P.M. Central Standard Time,
rhendrickson@... writes:

If the Germans aren't
embarrassed by this shabby effort, they should be.

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520




I am mostly lurking here... but I need to defend Trix. They have been on the
forfront of high quality scale models in Germany... and then they were taken
over by Maerklin.
And Maerklin does not give a horse's behind about prototype accuracy. Or
better, feedback from outside.... At least that's the experience from the German
side of things... Many many unexplainable errors are made in their models
every year. OTOH many fantasy models are created that never existed. There is a
website - in german - describing the skunk works of Maerklin creating the
prototypes for their models...

I was hoping they'd do better with their new critical US customers, but no...
Their rework of the UP caboose appeared to promise good things, but
apparently not.

A shame. The designers at Trix were first rate. They produced some of the
finest mass produced early Bavarian models (what is called Epoch I in Europe) at
a reasonable price... Only weak point was wheels and couplers, but that is
mostly system related not manufacturer related.

I am going to get one of the NYC caboose models or two since they are the
only game in town outside of brass.

Martin