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Märklin (or Maerklin) is a German toy company, founded in 1859. Although it originally specialised in doll house accessories, today it is best known for model railways and technical toys. In some parts of Germany, the company's name is almost synonymous with model railroads. From 1919 to 1999, the company produced mechanical construction sets similar to Meccano and Erector, but of better quality.
Märklin released its first wind-up train with cars that ran on expandable track in 1891, noting that railroad toys had the potential to follow the common practice of doll houses, in which the initial purchase would be enhanced and expanded with more accessories for years after the initial purchase. To this end, Märklin offered additional rolling stock and track with which to expand its boxed sets.
Märklin is responsible for the creation of virtually every popular model railroad gauge or scale, with only noteworthy exceptions being N scale and Wide gauge. In 1891, Märklin defined gauges 1-5 as standards for toy trains and presented them at the Leipzig Toy Fair. They soon became international standards. Märklin followed with O gauge (by some accounts as early as 1895 or as late as 1901), H0 scale in 1935, and Z scale in 1972.
Today, Märklin manufactures and markets trains and accessories in Gauge 1, H0, and Z scale. Its older trains are considered highly collectible today, and its current offerings enjoy premium status among hobbyists.
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The Märklin System
The so-called Märklin system is Märklin's technique of using a third rail concealed in the roadbed with only small studs protruding through the ties of the track. The two outer rails are connected electrically. This provides the simplified wiring enjoyed by larger gauges—such as reverse loops—without seriously detracting from the realism of the track because only two of the rails are visible. Because the two outer rails are not electrically isolated from each other, however, some do not consider Märklin's system to be a true three-rail system.
The Märklin system has some incompatibility with other manufacturers' H0 trains. Because the wheels on Märklin's cars are not insulated, it causes shorts if its cars are used on other manufacturers' H0 track without modification. Additionally, for many years Märklin was the only brand that used AC for its H0 scale trains, although recently also Roco has started producing trains for the Märklin system. Some people convert Märklin locomotives to DC for use on DC layouts, and Märklin has begun offering a line of DC locomotives as well under than name of Trix (model trains).
Märklin Digital
Märklin was the first model railroad company to introduce a digital control system. The Märklin Digital system was introduced in 1984? and has since spawned various digital train control systems such as DCC.
Märklin products and collectibles
Over the years, the Märklin marque became valuable to model train collectors, some of the very early models fetching impressive prices on auction. In January 2005, the Märklin museum in Göppingen, Germany was burglarised and more than 100 pieces, with an estimated value of more than 1 million Euros, were stolen. The items, which included one-of-a-kind prototypes along with pieces that dated back to 1891, were recovered in March 2005.[1] (http://www.marklin.com/theft.html)
The range of products is extensive, and collectors also pay attention to the packaging that were used for the products.
The Märklin toy company systematically included a print run (http://marklinguide.servehttp.com/marklinguide.nsf/1/351ba17b351c7074852567ab0008b898) number on almost all their printed material, including the boxes in which their products shipped. These print run numbers indicate the printer and also the month and year of printing. This is very useful for dating an item that is known to be associated with some printed material. The second group of digits indicate the catalogue number. The last set of numeric digits in the print run number indicate the month and year that the item was printed. The last group of letters identify the printer.
Links
- Märklin company web site (http://www.maerklin.com)
de:Märklin nl:Märklin sv:Märklin
- Märklin layouts (http://layout.mixmox.com)
- Märklin Metallbaukasten brief history (http://www.dalefield.com/nzfmm/odds&ends/marklin1.html)