Ibertren - 359 - Tank Car, Two Dome - ELF Aquitaine

Road Name History: Elf Aquitaine was a French oil company which merged with TotalFina to form TotalFinaElf. The new company changed its name to Total in 2003. Elf has been maintained as a major brand of Total.

Elf Aquitaine's heritage is rooted among three French oil companies: Régie Autonome des Pétroles (RAP), Société Nationale des Pétroles d'Aquitaine (SNPA), and Bureau de Recherches de Pétroles (BRP). These companies were formed to exploit the discovery of a gas field in Saint-Marcet in the Aquitaine region of south-western France. In December 1965 RAP and BRP were merged to form Entreprise de Recherches et d'Activités Pétrolières (ERAP). ERAP had SNPA, Union Générale des Pétroles (UGP), and Union Industrielle des Pétroles (UIP) as subsidiaries. The resulting company achieved vertical integration, owning assets in all phases of the petrol business from exploration and production to the filling station.

In 1976 Elf-ERAP merged with Antar Pétroles de l'Atlantique and became Société Nationale Elf Aquitaine (SNEA), later Elf Aquitaine. Elf Aquitaine was listed on the NYSE in 1991. In 1993 Elf was awarded the exclusive contract to the Iraqi oil fields by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. In 1996 the French government sold its stake, retaining a golden share. In 2000 Elf Aquitaine merged with Total Fina to form TotalFinaElf, which changed its name to Total in 2003.

Brand/Importer Information: Ibertrén is a model train manufacturer based in Barcelona, Spain. Ibertren started its business in 1973, as a subsidiary of Model-Iber. Its objective was the manufacture of toy trains to scale. It was intended to offer a quality toy that at the same time created public for rail modeling. In 1992, Model-Iber ceased its activity due to financial problems. The manufacture of Ibertren was stopped in that year, ending its first period. In 2004 the activity of the brand was resumed, dedicated to rail modeling directed to adults in scale H0 and abandoning completely the sector for youngsters. In 2008 the production of elements in scale 2N re-emerged. The company full name after relaunch is "Ibertrén Modelismo S.L.".

Ibertrén started producing N (1: 160) scale models, which they called 3N, with a dedicated 3rd-rail power pick-up. The system was not performing well and was also incompatible with the system commonly used by other manufacturers. It was finally abandoned in favor of the conventional N 2-rail power pick-up that Ibertrén called 2N that was introduced in the early 1980's.

Documentation including all catalogs and price lists from 1973 to 1992 can be found on www.TrenMiniatura.es shared space.