Hi everyone, I have an MS2 which could do with upgrading, I understand that this can be done by someone with an updated CS2, is there anyone in the UK who could help with this? reasonable expenses paid of course, many thanks in advance, cheers Rob

Hi, Rob!
Can also be done with an updated MS2.

Thanks, also looking for a kind owner of an already updated MS2 then, cheers Rob

Well if there was such a thing as a UK Dealer...... Rob

That's the whole point I was trying to make, unless your dealer is half around the world, it should be fairly easy and convenient to get him to quickly update the MS and send it back.

I would use one of the better known dealers in the whole of EU (and the world) as they are very good, speaks english and are easy to contact. I have used them for over 10 years!

www.lokshop.de

Can only call them during certain hours but usually are quick in responding to emails. All info on theor homepage.

The only active Marklin UK dealer I am aware of is Mount Tabor Hobbies (advertises regularly in Continental Modeller).

He may be able to help if there isn't a forum member in a position to help you.

...well, I really do hope M brings out a new MS2 with a USB port - I also had to wait for a friend with an updated MS2 to get mine updated - such a pain in the proverbial. If only Cape Town was a tad nearer I would help you out in a flash :)
Joe

Thanks but nothing has arrived here? cheers Rob

Only just seen this! It looks as though Ian has stepped in to sort it out for you.

I'm always happy to help with this sort of thing, so if you need any other assistance, give me a yell.

Nigel

The lack of UK dealers is shameful. I remember not that long ago there were three dealers in Central London with the full range in stock. Now there is virtually none in the whole country.

There seems to be a fair number of UK Marklin enthusiasts on this forum, so what happened to Marklin's support for the UK Market?

Hi Glenn,

That would be real good of you, saves Rob having to post it up to Scotland.

Hope you're enjoying the holidays.

All the best.

Ian.

Thanks Glenn, a PM has been sent. Now turning to the lack of a Marklin Dealer here in the UK, when I was a youth Marklin in the UK was handled by a company called W&H who were both importer/distributer and a retailer as well, the stocks were vast, as were the prices and it was not unknown for engines to be £200-£300 in an era when the average domestic market loco from the likes of Hornby was maybe £30, ok there was a marked difference in quality but not so great and not many could afford the Marlin stuff.
In time W&H crashed and it was certainly bandied around that vast unsold stocks of Marklin had been a major factor in their bankruptcy as they had so much capitol tied up in slow or basically non moving stock.
Whilst this was going on at a high street level there was also the rise of the "Swapmeet", not sure if this happened in other countries but basically the origin of the Swapmeet was that model railway enthusiasts met up and swapped their unwanted items with others which didn't last long and it very quickly turned into hobby dealers etc looking to make a bit of money to either build their own collection or suppliment their day time job etc etc. There are of course also full time traders now and some high street shops who trade at Swapmeets as well.
So what has this got to do with Marklin I hear you ask? Swampers bought in the culture of everything comes down to price, "I'm not buying that engine from high street shop, i can get it for a pound less at the swapmeet" was and is a commonly heard cry, people grew to know the price of everything but the value of nothing and we are now in a downward spiral of Model Railway Shops disappearing from the High Street on a weekly basis, coupled with the rise of the internet and that other modern way of selling the "Internet Dealer".
Now the Internet Dealer doesn't even need to wait for the Swapmeet to come around, all he needs is a garage/spare bedroom/garden shed and a computer and this is where Marklin seemed to end up in the UK for quite sometime. They were not proper Dealers as such, you couldn't go and buy things face to face, they wouldn't service your engine or indeed upgrade an MS2 but the price boy, look at the price, remember the Swapmeet mentality.
The problem with Swapmeets and Internet Dealers vs the high street is where are the new punters? they will venture into high street shops but not the other places, but there are so few high street shops now and so it becomes a vicious circle.
Now in this day and age we are all our own private internet dealer, we go online, find a Dealer who's price we like and purchase it from anywhere in the world using paypal/bank transfer etc etc. It all goes wrong though when we need a pot of paint, a set of brushes or one piece of track to complete a layout extension etc etc (upgrade an MS2 even).
Good luck to anyone who wants to set up a UK Dealership but it will need support from existing UK enthusiasts and Marklin to actually be interested.
I think I need to lie down now, regards to all, Rob

You can download the upgrades from the Internet - you just need a CS2 to transfer them.
The MS2 would need USB or a LAN connection to make the transfer without CS2.

Märklin's current upgrade plan: visit the friendly M* dealer twice a year to have your MS2 upgraded. Does not work in the UK.

"They won't accomplish anything if they insist in protecting the German dealers with better financial incentives."

Without getting into politics is this legal under EU laws? Rob

So does your Bank Manager

The closing of model shops is a result of both. What used to be my local model shop closed down as the rental of the premises was crippling. He moved to a pleasant little seaside town where he now is predominantly an internet dealer, run from premises that he owns, so doesn't have the same rental overheads. I had bought some Marklin from him, but it was costing me around 50% more than buying from a german dealer over the internet. Some of this is relative VAT levels (evened up a bit now) and some of it was the profit he had to make on turnover to afford the shop rentals - and that was after Marklin had freed things up so that UK dealers could order direct from the factory without going through a distributor.



My local dealer never had the levels of stock you mention, and my dealer in NZ didn't either (as a requirement). I beleive this requirement died out long ago.



I don't believe they can do that. They can only provide at the same prices as they sell to German dealers. The problems is the relative local costs of doing business. Commercial property rental rates in the UK are crippling a lot of businesses, not just MRR dealers, as landlords seem to want to put rentals up every year despite the economic situation doing a downturn. This is the reason a lot of shops on high streets everywhere are empty - it just isn't economic to rent them. The MRR Club I belong to has a lease on a commercial plot of land (we own the portacabins that form the club rooms) and that had a 3% p.a. escalator clause in it for the rent, although the landlord didn't always choose to invoke it, and in the last renewal they actually reduced the rent - but this is definitely not common practice.

Now I do believe the dealers (everywhere) get a discount the following year based on the previous years purchases from Marklin, but i have it form an inside source that this discount is not huge (as in single digits percentage).

To expand on taliesin's comment on why no Uk dealers, up until the early 2000's Gaugemaster had the UK distributorship for Marklin and Trix (not sure when they first got it) and they actively promoted Marklin, including having seminars bringing Dieter Lorenz over from Marklin for a weekend (it was at one of these weekends I got to know Nigel Packer). They also ran seminars for dealers, actively advertised Marklin (including prices) and had a heap of stock so you could order something and be likely to get it without that item only having been stocked to fill pre-orders. They actively supported dealers as well - although up until a couple of years before they lost the distributorship everything had to be ordered through them which added another 20-30% to the cost. However in that last couple of years dealers could order direct from Marklin, which held prices for a while.

However the distribution contract that Gaugemaster had came up for renewal. By this time Marklin had bought LGB, who had a distributor in the UK who was handling that product well, so Marklin figured this was the company to distribute Marklin and Trix as well. Immediately dealers had to order through the distributor again which hitched the prices up again, and they were hopeless as a distributor. My local dealer said they wouldn't hold stock, wouldn't give a price until they had received a shipment, and generally didn't understand the product line and couldn't support it properly. My dealer got to a point where he gave up handling Marklin because he refused to deal with the distributor, and I had the impression this was the situation with many dealers, so Marklin just disappeared from any dealers still in existence. This other distributor did eventually advertise Marklin in Continental Modeller (and possibly other places I am not aware of) but there was never any prices (not even RRP) so you could never work out a budget for what you might like to buy.

Now the distributorship has come up for renewal again, and back in about the middle of the year it was announced that it is returning to Gaugemaster. It will be interesting to see how they make out with it. At the Warley show in November they had some Z gauge and some of the battery My World sets on their stand, but that was about it. I suspect that they are waiting until the Nurnberg Fair in February to order stock (as many stock lines from the 2015 NI items would be past their order dates) and then push the product line again, but as I say, we'll see.

If your track box does not yet have version 1.39 then you can use your MS2 to upgrade the track box.

Do you mean the box that the MS2 plugs into?

Yes!

I guess we aren't so badly off here in NZ after all. We have our Marklin Club which certainly holds a huge amount of expertise, including the ability to upgrade a MS2. The Club has just celebrated it's 40th anniversary, so must be doing something right. We also have a good dealer in Toottoot who hold a good amount of stock including spare parts, and in Dion we have someone who is able to service and repair items (Dion is an electronics engineer by trade). And we also have a large group of Marklin enthusiasts in the country.