Originally Posted by: baggio 
Hi baggio,
no, please never confuses. There is absolutely no need to give up the digital MRR. It is fun and offers you so many choices and chances, you never get in a analogue system. And Maerklin helps everybody. Even people, who do not have a Master in Engineering or Computers.
The main problem is only, that in some communities some people, who do neither read the askers questions nor do answer them, but they know everything. Then they lead you down into the deep valley of computer techniques, which has actually nothing to do with the original questions. Nevertheless, I have the impression that also some people are not really reading carefully the questioner matters.
But always I am very delighted, when somebody sets up allegations without any substantiations and/or convincing evidences. Isn't this always very charming?
I agree completely with your statements.
Quote:“The motto should be: the loco/wagon or whatever MUST come out of the box flawless and be able to be used IMMEDIATELY by unsophisticated users.”
My impression for Maerklin is, the engineers develop their articles in this direction very well. But your statement
Quote:“M needs to be more careful of its quality control - this includes making booklets easier to read and with more explanations. Devoting a bit more attention to the English side of its marketing would help - not only users in English-speaking countries but also all the other users world-wide that commonly use English as a replacement for Esperanto.”
is correct in my opinion.
I think exactly the same. M has a tremendous lack in its marketing, but not in its engineering. As a business man I do not understand, why M is unable to translate all its German publications into other languages, because they already provide the desired information. Ok, generally translations were expensive – 35 years ago, when I started into my business life in 1982. But today you get it via Google for free.
You know, it was the time right between the appearance of the first IBM PC at all and the IBM PC XT. 1983 my brother bought an IBM PC XT for 20.000 DM! In the same year I bought a VW GOLF I GTI, also for 20.000 DM. And today?
The listed price by VW in Germany for VW Golf GTI starts 2017 at 29.625 Euro (!!!). But for a computer you only have to pay round about 1.000 Euro in Germany. (yeah, of course it depends on the technical equipment inside, but for a reasonable gaming computer this is a achievable price.)
Quote: “Problem is, what happens if Mike retires?“
Ohlala, a very good question. I got this experience last year, when the toy shop, selling Maerklin in my home town, closed forever. Ok, the next dealer is about 20 km away. But I do not like him. I was there to get some spare parts and information. He neither ordered the spare parts for me nor could he give me advice. Finally I got both through the internet.

– further questions?
Also the translation technology by computers will be much more developed as today. You will (and can) translate all Maerklin publications in German by yourself, if perhaps M has not yet done before. As mentioned in other threads already, Maerklin is publishing plenty of information. But unfortunately it is not good structured and often not translated into other languages.
A very typical example for me is M's book “Einstieg in Märklin Digital”, subtitle: “Die Mehrzugsteuerung”, M-art. # 03081. Get a look here:
http://www.maerklin.de/e...s/details/article/03081/The tragic is, that on the backside of the cover M wrote: “Märklin Digital: Ihr Guide zum Thema digitale Steuerung” (translated: “Maerklin Digital: your guide on the subject of digital controls”). Maerklin is correct. I learned and still learning from this book of M's digital system. But why do they not publish it in English? Absolutely not understandable and I do not have an answer.
Well, today M is owned by a private business man, Mr. Sieber sen. His son, Sieber jr., is still too young to run a company like Maerklin, although he is already playing the general manager – but this is another story. Important is the senior. He controls the capital and built up already his own company, the Simba-Dicky-Group. A German Ltd. and toy factory and dealer. This group does annually sales of about 600 to 700 Mio €.
As the main capital owner of Maerklin too (his son is the other one), he knows the wishes of customers. And as it was told to me, he himself should be seen very often in the Maerklin plants and buildings. It is only a matter of time, that there comes up significant changes in the M policy. But he has time. Although M has declining sales, they do have a profit rate by about 4% of sales, as the last published figures shows. Amazing.