[cmanvell]

Hello Everyone.

A while back I bought an Minitrix coach as part of an auction lot. I would like a bit more info on it. Can anyone help?

Coach is an unmarked model, Minitrix 7866 (the number on the box), manufactured, I believe, in the 1960s but the year could be wrong. You can see a photograph of it (not on my normal website) at
http://manvell.org.uk/personal/trains/coac...R7866-NK-NK.jpg and you will note the very early trix couplings.

Any help gratefully received. Thank you.

With best wishes to all,
Chris

 

[poliss]

A quick google says it's made in 1960, scale 1/180, body is zinc, underframe sheet metal and wheels nickel alloy without flanges. Coach seems to be known as Donnerbüchsen "Thunderbox"?

 

[cmanvell]

poliss wrote
"A quick google says it's made in 1960, scale 1/180, body is zinc, underframe sheet metal and wheels nickel alloy without flanges. Coach seems to be known as Donnerbüchsen "Thunderbox"?"

Thank you.

Strange that - I queried Google and only got references to a long expired eBay auction. Must have put in the wrong words. What did you enter into the search box? Certainly it resembles the 2nd class Thunderbox with 3 windows on each side of the smaller frosted glass one. I presume it would have been a 'pullalong' toy for a child - certainly would be no use to a railway modeller.

Once again, thanks for responding. (Teaches me a lesson - stop criticising people who have apparently too lazy to look up something on Google! Thay might have.) )

All the best,
Chris

 

[poliss]

I just put "Minitrix 7866" into Google, looked at the cached page of the old Ebay auction, (cached because it highlights the words I'm looking for) and then Bablefished the results.

 

[cmanvell]

Thanks. I'd forgotten about the cache. (In fact, I don't think I have ever used it. Hmmm.)

All the best,
Chris

 

[Gary]

I am curious. Please tell us more about this "Google" cache thing. I did a similar Google search and came up with similar useless info with the old eBay listings. What does Babblefish do?

I very often have to do a search on some obscure model that I have found and a bit more info on this may help everybody in a similar position.

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[cmanvell]

Google stores nearly every Webpage it finds in a cache, just as do Firefox and Internet Explorer, so that if you see the word 'cached' at the bottom of a result you can download that page. Be aware, though, that if you follow any links from that page you will access an up to date page.

Babelfish is a translation service offered by several of the search engines, e.g. Alta Vista at http://babelfish.altavista.com/). It only gives you a rough (or, sometimes, useless) translation but it is usually good enough to get an idea of what was being said. I prefer http://www.freetranslation.com/ but they only give you a number of translation in any one day. Babelfish is named after the small leach-like fish first mentioned in Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy, which feeds on brainwaves and then excretes, again as brainwaves, the same words in your native language.

Hope that helps,
Chris

 

[poliss]

In this instance, if you just click the Google result, the webpage has changed. The cache shows you the page as it was when Google trawled the net. Clicking on the cached page also highlights the words you searched for, which on long pages saves loads of time.
Bablefish is just a translation site from AltaVista. I use it a lot on Ebay auctions.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

 

[Gary]

Fantastic! I have had a go and can see how it all works. This will save me a lot of search time!

Happy modelling
Gary