English
EspañolInvicta, 1954 Guipuzcoa Spain, model railway manufacturer trains H0 information
Name: Invicta
Country:
Spain
- Guipuzcoa
Founder: Enrique Keller Fritsch
Founded: 1954
Invicta history
Enrique Keller Fritsch was a German immigrant who manufactured high quality toys of polished and lacquered wood in his factory in Zarautz from 1932.
The boom of electric trains in the 40's and the absence of foreign competitors due to the protectionist policy of the dictatorship in Spain made him venture into this field taking as an example and inspiration the well known German manufacturer Märklin.
That and the undeniable kinship of his models also gave him the title “The Spanish Märklin”, although they were not mere copies, but models of similar physical appearance but manufactured with different construction methods, perhaps simpler, within what was allowed by the scarcity of means and materials in Spain.
Invicta manufactured its trains taking advantage of its know-how in sheet metal and wood, for example the locomotive had a sheet metal body, and wood was used in the freight cars, being of this material the trunks of the telero, the interior body of the telonero wagon, and the tank of the diesel wagon.
All the train material was of excellent quality (perhaps with the exception of the calamine wheels and the ballast of the same material in later models), which is why some models can still be found today in good condition.
