Hi, there is no such thing as Marklin Z gauge prior to the 60's as they did not start making them until the 70's. Ebay is a good place to check current values but if the suitcase is not original the value would be roughly what the individual components are worth. Some people made their own. I had quick browse and I couldn't find yours in my catalogues or just check later in case someone elses spots it and confirm everything is correct, I think it is correct except the age you've said.

At a rough guess the one on Ebay is the same one being asked about on here regarding value etc .

Cheers Tom in Oz .

It is certainly one of the early briefcases, unless someone else have precise documentation I'll place it around 1974 or so. the leaflet for the loco you have shown seem to be more like later 70's to early 80's. It is Z gauge which I think is the smallest working scale ever made but not 100% sure about that, the one in the auction is 403.

Z Scale was launched in 1971/72. Marklin Inc (USA) started operating in the early 1980s. I think it was around 1984. Prior to that, Marklin's distributor in the USA was Walthers and the distributor in Canada was Gordon Book and Company. I started working in a Montreal hobby shop in 1983 and worked there until 1986. The changeover from Walthers (ordering) occurred at some point in 1984. Marklin USA Inc was a joint venture between Maerklin Gmbh and Walthers Inc. During that period, a number of Walthers employees migrated to the new corporate entity and went on to become the core of the new venture.

Regards

Mike C

@Markus. Thanks for the article. It is possible that they set up the company (administration) in 1981, but I was working at the shop (1983-1986) when we received the notification that future orders should be routed to Marklin USA rather than through the regular Walthers chain. That was in late 1983 or early 1984. Prior to that, most of our orders had gone through Gordon Book (Canada). Due to the fact that Gordon Book tended to stock mainly DB and NS items, there were many items (SBB, FS, SNCF) as well as items that were out of stock that we ordered through Walthers.
When Marklin USA fully took over distribution from Walthers and Gordon Book, we were very happy, because it meant that the fill and service improved. Prior to that, Maerklin coming through Walthers was subject to their quarterly deliveries, meaning that it could take up to three to six months to get a single item if it was coming from Germany. We were even happier a few years later when Maerklin decided that North American dealers could order direct from the factory (Goeppingen).
I still remember having to go through the Walthers catalog for each order because they assigned an internal order number that you had to provide when ordering. The first year or so we would send the order to Gordon Book (Toronto), wait for the order confirmation fax and then try to get the out of stock items from Walthers.

Regards

Mike C