Model Power - Britannia - Passenger Train, Diesel, Europe, Epoch III - British Rail - Passenger Set, 6 Unit

Specific Item Information: Minitrix & Model Power Britannia Set - only 1500 sets were made.

Series Information: Model Power Limited Edition is a series of passenger train sets, comprising a locomotive and 4 to 5 passenger cars, an oval of tracks and a power pack.
European passenger sets are made of Minitrix models, whereas North American sets are made of Model Power models (made by others like Mehano or Lima).
These sets were produced between 1500 and 2000 each. They are all numbered.

Prototype History: After the second world war, the task to build up again a somewhat decent passenger train network with a couple of long-distance routes was very difficult. It was difficult because Germany was occupied in different zones and because very much rolling stock was destroyed or heavily damaged and it was located at many places some even outside the four zones.

Road Name History: British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages between 1994 and 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, it became an independent statutory corporation in 1962 designated as the British Railways Board.

British Rail designed and manufactured rolling stock from 1948 to 1989, at which time its subsidiary British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) was privatised.

1997 marked the end of the privatization effort in which the last assets of British Rail were sold to 31 regional freight and passenger operators as well as Railtrack (which was later brought under public control as Network Rail), which was given the track and infrastructure.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: Founded in the late 1960's by Michael Tager, the 3rd generation business specializes in quality hobby products serving the toy and hobby markets worldwide. During its 50 years of operation, Model Power has developed a full line of model railroading products, die-cast metal aircraft, and die-cast metal cars and trucks.

In early 2014, Model Power ceased its business operations. Its extensive portfolio of intellectual property and physical assets are now exclusively produced, marketed, sold, and distributed by MRC (Model Power, MetalTrain and Mantua) and by Daron (Postage Stamp Airplanes and Airliner Collection).