You know the old saying, "A penny for your thoughts?"  May I have a few moments to give you my five cents worth concerning Marklin's model trains.  

For many, many years I have been collecting all sorts of model trains from different manufactures to equip my miniature world.  As the collection grew, I noticed that the prices were climbing exponentially while the quality was staying the same.   I realised I was not getting that wonderful feeling of everything being right in collecting model trains.  There was always an issue with something being wrong.  The poor quality was evident in even higher costing models.  It made me cringe that I was spending good money to acquire poor quality model trains.  Spending more didn't give me the results I expected and after awhile I owned the largest boxed model train collection!   

Then one day while surfing the internet I came across a website that was so inspiring, it resulted in the change that I was looking for;

Plastico Ferroviario Buzzaceto - Un plastico ferroviario Marklin.

Plastic Rail Buzzaceto - A Marklin model railway.

Marklin.  Who sells that here in Ontario, Canada, I was wondering? Using Google I did a search and found two stores in Toronto, Ontario.  Seeing Marklin products at the store and then buying a starter set convinced me that this is what I was looking for!  Then and there I decided to do something about my model train collection.  I decided to sell everything lock stock and barrel and start over with Marklin! 

Now everything is right in my miniature World.  I tried many times before but the results were never like this.   Marklin works and the quality is consistant with each item, no matter which item I bought. This is how I  imagined model trains to be!

What I'm trying to say is, now I'm getting the magic of Marklin where everything feels right!

After all these years of collecting model trains and then selling everything last month to start over again with Marklin. I have the feeling that everything is good in my miniature World, just as I imagined it should be!

Michel

Hi Michel,

I still own a large quantity of non-Marklin stuff, and you are correct.

It does not rate near Marklin when it comes to compatabilities, reliability, manufacture quality, and down-right agreeableness when you put it all together and run it.

The other day, I purchased another loco (US brand) because I belong to a club that runs US DCC stuff. It had some issues (other members have the same, so it is not a one-off), so I emailed the manufacturer. I got a very prompt reply, offering to take the returned loco and fix it. All very good. They also suggested that I could take it apart, and they listed 5 separate steps to check, tighten, or clean various things. That is not a hobby, that is a chore.

Enjoy your Marklin, I certainly do.

regards
Kimball

My parents purchased for me & my younger brother a marklin train set (circa 1970).

I loved it (my brother didn't - so I inherited it), and expanded it. By the mid 80's it was a good sized board occupying half my bedroom.

Life moves on, and the engines/carriages got boxed up, board & track stored away in garage (and somewhat rusted)

Now over twenty years later I'm rebuilding that marklin train set, expanding it with extra second hand M track. After over twenty years in boxes; all [12] but one loco [3095] runs out of the box (another [3028] only goes one direction) - but with help here hope to get both those functional again too. Can't comment about new marklin, but the build on my old marlin is excellent. People on this forum are great, and help you get the most from your marklin hobby.

Chris g.

Chris,

Another great story in this posting.
My parents gave me my first loco in 1969, a class 23 loco which is the same as the loco in your profile picture.
And she still runs today just like a charm.
I have done some work on it such as fitting a decoder, but the gears and pistons are in very good working order.

Regards,
John