Here I am with my very first product.
The Rix Powerplus Handheld Throttle in 1980.
Rix Products starting in the attic of our first home in 1980 with the Rix PowerPlus Handheld Throttle.
The newer design for the one shown above.
The throttle went through a design change and production quickly moved to the basement.
In 1981 I invented my first injection molded part ” The Rix Rax”
Under layout mounting bracket for twin coil switch machines.
For many years twin coil switch machines were very popular for controlling turnouts with the push of a button. But not many ways were offered to mount the machines to the layout. I designed this mounting bracket which went under the layout so that it couldn’t be seen from above. It had an adjustable fulcrum for creating different amounts of travel and the slight angle corrected a travel issue with the machine. I named it ” The Rix Rax” I made many prototypes from balsawood to get it working the way I wanted and with the help from my dad we found a local mold maker (Henry Wolf of Briton Mold) to build an injection mold from my balsawood model. This was the first time I’d ever seen an injection mold. Henry help me find a local molder to run parts from my new mold and I was up and running.
My first production crew at the dining room table. Two of my sister in-laws, Shirrie (in white) and Lisa (in green) and two of their friends helped fill some of the first orders. I paid them with Kool-Aid and Pizza.
Between 1981 and 1983 I came out with several more plastic products.
Rix Rail-it for HO Scale
Rix Rail-it for N Scale
Our own Twin Coil Switch Machine which required a punch press, winding machine and a 16 cavity mold.
1983 Rix Products in the basement with Twin Coil Winding machine.
My first desk.
The first phase of the winding machine I built to produce our Twin Coil Switch Machine. It could wind 10 coils at a time and evolved many times over the years.
1993-1995 I added more items to the line of products.
Rix Rax Flat
Rix Ajusto Pad (That’s how I spelled it.)