In conversation with a modeler here in South Africa recently, discussing various HO brands, he came up with the following comment:
"Marklin is the Rolls Royce of model trains and Lilliput is the Bentley, if I can put it like that!"
....I like that...
Joe....still from a waterless Cape Town!

😆😆🚂

I would have thought that the eye watering depreciation on some Rolls Royces makes Marklin seem like a sound investment! See below:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i...c3dec:g:3mEAAOSwgsxaaouR

I'd say ESU is the Rolls, Brawa the Bentley, Märklin the Mercedes, Roco the Audi, Fleischmann the BMW and Piko the VW.

Lol. You guess wrong! :-) (Although I didnt actually DRIVE one...)
-And it lives completely up to the experience I´ve had with Liliput train models...

Well, I have my own thoughts about what "German 3M" quality products are - Mercedes, Miele and Märklin...

Just missing the Mercedes here at home...

My grandfather was a motor mechanic trained at Rolls Royce, Coventry England in the period 1900-1910.
He subsequently moved to Australia, where he continued work on cars from Buick (USA) to Triumph (UK) until 1943.

He told my father many times, that Mercedes Benz were the best cars in the world.
He would know.

Kimball

Yes this looks like a Trabant. But the car was always a stinkhorn or stinker, because it had a 2-cycle engine. Its nickname was "Plastic" because it was made in plastic. Even at Märklin they know meanwhile the differences between plastic and metal.

The communists used plastic because they did not have enough steel for its car production. Although after the bankrupt of the DDR they built the car for a very short time with an 4-cycle engine from VW. But nobody bought the car. This car had a disastrous crash and safety behaviour. Not so important during the communists time. There was no much car traffic there. But nowadays it even would not get an operational license. Too low security standards. So to compare it with a MRR today, for me it is an insult for a model railway.

Hi,

When the TRABANT was developed, the use of plastic for the bodywork was really high technology and was also seen as the future by western manufacturers. Think of the CHEVROLET CORVETTE which also comes from the 1950s and had a plastic-body.
Without doubt the TRABANT was outdated from the 1970s. But up to that time it was on an equal level with other European small cars like the 2CV, the BEETLE or the small FIATs. It ran 120 km/h at good weather and had space for four adults.
Also the two-stroke engine was a solution which was also used in western Europe. The grandfather of the AUDI A6, the DKW F102 came new with a 2-stroke engine in the mid-1960s. Also SAAB used those motors. The "environment" was not invented yet.
It was a reliable, simple car. I owned some from 1990, when also nearly new cars were sold for a few hundred Marks. It was one of the very few cars with enough head-space for a 1.97 m man like me. No, it was not fast. I needed seven hours for a drive from Berlin to my home-village. Today, on new built motorways and with 163hp I need six hours.

Comparing it to model-trains I would equal it to GDR - made - TT - trains. A little bit small, but cheap and well - engineered.

Regards

Markus

Hi Malin,

I don't remember to have seen one. But I have seen folded TRABANTs. The TRABANT never was known for it's safety. But it was not unsafer than the other small cars of that era. Also in a VW Beetle people died at 30 km/h crashes. The accidents looked spectacular but also at modern cars the outer bodywork is less important for the crash-safety. The structure of the TRABANT is made of steel. That can rust and it did. The first thing owners of a new TRABANT did, was the anti-rust protection which was not done in the factory. My parents often sent materials like TEROSON-wax-spray to our relatives, which lived in the GDR.

Regards

Markus

I seen my fair share of all types of automotive accidents and I would say that Corvettes are safer than similar type cars from the same production years. The difference being that fiberglass cracks where as sheet metal crumples. They have to meet the safety standards or they wouldn't be allowed on the road.

Let's forget the Trabant and get back to model quality!

Chuck

Königsegg

Exquisite and made in small numbers, and many don't know about the brand...


Too expensive and totally unusable for us "common" product users...

Well, did not have seen a locomotive from Koenigsegg yet. Or did one of the admins change this forum to a car user's ones?

Regarding the oil I blame global warming