Minitrix - 16892 - Locomotive, Electric, Class 189, Epoch VI - HUSA - ES 64 F4-996

Specific Item Information: Class 189 multi-system electric locomotive painted and lettered for the Husa Transportation Group (HUSA) in the Netherlands. Builder's designation ES 64 F4. B-B wheel arrangement. Built starting in 2002. Use: Cross-border fast freight trains.

Road Name History: Husa Transportation Group (formerly Husa Capital) is a group of railfreight, logistics and rail services companies founded in 1998, the group's main business arm on foundation was ACTS Nederland BV (ACTS), founded 1989, an open access freight operator in the Netherlands.
In 2014 the company announced it would exit the rail freight operating business, and dispose of the assets of its 'Husa Transportation Rail Services' (HTRS) subsidiaries.

Brand/Importer Information: Trix is a German company that originally made Trix metal construction sets. one of its co-founders was Stephan Bing, the son of the pioneer toy-maker industrialist Ignaz Bing. In 1935 the company began producing the electrically powered model trains that it became famous for, under the Trix Express label. Prior to the outbreak of World War II the Trix company produced a small range of fairly unrealistic AC powered three rail models running at 14 volts.

N gauge models under the Minitrix brand were made from the late 1960s mostly of European prototypes (German and British primarily). North American prototypes were also manufactured and marketed under the Aurora "Postage Stamp" brand; later these items were sold under the American Tortoise, Model Power and Con-Cor brands. Trix sometimes utilized North American consultants to aid in the design of this portion of the product line. The "Hornby Minitrix' brand was used in the 1980s for a short lived range of British outline models using the earlier product tooling.

Trix's owner in the 1980s and 1990s was Mangold, which went bankrupt in the late 1990s and Märklin purchased the assets in January 1997. In part, this purchase was a reflection of Märklin's need for added production capacity; Trix had been manufacturing certain items for Märklin in previous years. The purchase was also in response to the earlier purchase of the Karl Arnold company by the Italian company Rivarossi; Märklin were very keen to take over Trix market share in 2-rail H0 and especially Minitrix, until then Märklin had not marketed N gauge models. In 2003, Märklin introduced its first N gauge models under the well established Minitrix brand. A number Märklin H0 scale three-rail AC locomotives have also been introduced in two-rail DC versions under the Trix logo and many models are shared between the two brands.

From Wikipedia