Browsing the shelves of one of the two LHSes I frequent, I discovered a pair of RTR Marklin cars, a NYC reefer and wood caboose for $20 apiece. I grabbed them both. The LHS doesn’t normally stock this brand but the guy at the counter said they were part of a private collection they had acquired some pieces from. Even though they were pre-owned, it doesn’t appear they saw much mileage if any because they were still in the boxes and looked pristine. If he hadn’t told me, I would have guessed they were new. Although I haven’t seen a lot of Marklin HO, it is my understanding this is a premium brand and these cars have some real nice detail not typically seen in cars in the $20 price range. I checked the current Walthers catalog but they weren’t listed. I’m wondering what these would normally sell for.
One thing did puzzle me when I looked in the Walthers catalog. There was a half page listing on page 196 for Marklin freight cars, but these were all beer cars for 3-rail AC which I’m guessing is Lionel O27 gauge. I’m not aware there is any such thing as 3 rail HO so I’m wondering why these would have been listed in Walthers HO catalog.
You’ll be wanting to check the wheels (if metal) to see if there’s electrical continuity from one wheel to the other through the axle. It should be easy enough to install insulated wheelsets.
Good suggestion. I normally replace the wheel sets in both my kit builds and RTR equipment with P2K wheels after reeming the trucks. I do this to improve performance but I hadn’t given thought to the electrical issues.
So if I am understanding you, Marklin is an HO scale version of the Lionel electrical system? If that is the case, I have learned something today.
Even though my first toy train was second hand Lionel train set, I never could get attached to Lionel. Even as a young child, I thought it looked kind of dumb. Real trains have only two rails I thought, unaware of outside third rail electric lines such as the NYC from Harmon to Grand Central Station. I think that’s why I fell in love with HO when I was introduced to it, again through a second hand layout. It had two rails and the ties were spaced like real railroads.
Now all you O27 guys, please don’t take this as a bash. I’m just relating the way I looked at things when I was young. I have seen some outstanding layouts done in O27 and I always did like the cool operating accessories that were available from Lionel.
Märklin is a premium and high quality brand here in Europe, but their H0 3-rail (center stud) AC system is not used by any other manufacturer that I know of. I’ve had Märklin for over 25 years, got my first train set from my grandmother when I was 10 years old, and the small tank engine still worked flawlessly without servicing of any kind when I sold everything and started from scratch with 2-rail DCC a year ago.
As Jeffrey suggests, I would check the wheels and replace them if they are uninsulated. Märklin used to have extra DC wheel sets for all their rolling stock.
This topic came up a couple of months ago. If you contact Marklin’s U.S. distributor they will send you free replacement wheelsets. I think it was mentioned then that no U.S. wheelsets will fit Marklin equipment.
Exactly who is handling Marklin in the U.S. is a cloudy issue right now – Marklin has filed for bankruptcy in Germany and is in the hands of a receiver.
Walthers has been negotiating to be the exclusive Marklin dealer in the U.S. for their G-scale LGB products after LGB went into bankruptcy and was purchased by Marklin; but that was before Marklin themselves also filed for bankruptcy.
There was some information posted on the Garden Railways Magazine forum last week to the effect that Marklin was going to produce their LGB products in Hungary, but that has fallen through because the company in Hungary has also filed for bankruptcy.
Whether anyone is importing Marklin HO is another matter entirely.
After being in the toy business in Germany for over 100 years, Marklin may be going the way of the Dodo bird.