Tonight we held our normal monthly Clubnight, but for our clinic we had something rather special.
Cookee presented his Märklin Wunderrad (Wonder Wheel) which he recently acquired off a seller on NZ's auction site, Trademe.
These wheels were a promotional item (Märklin dealer code BKM7) that Märklin sold to dealers in the late 1950's and are made out of Märklin Metal.
I'll leave it to Cookee to provide more information.
"
https://www.marklin-users.net/fo...M-track-and-BR-89-insidehttps://www.marklin-users.net/fo...-BKM7-on-Trademe-NZ-1800Who's a happy boy then?
Finally after much negotiation I have scored an original Wonder Wheel / Wunderrad - Märklin dealer code BKM7
It needs a reasonable amount of work, initially just a thoroughly good clean is the main thing, then I have to replace all the missing lamps, I have purchased some 12v E10 coloured LED's for now to see how they look. I can get incandescent lamps from Ritter, but they are like 3.00 Euro each, and there's 32 of them!! Plus postage vs 50 LED's from Aliexpress for around $30 NZ - it's a no-brainer for me.
I also have a few missing screws, (and some from the model also lol), plus assorted other 'could-be-better' things to repair or replace.
It's an interesting item in detail. The track is Modeller's track, finely cut through the base every 4 ties to allow the arc-curvature. Most of it is standard Marklin Metall but of necessity there are some apparently unique parts, although a few may still be actual Marklin parts from other obsolete products.
These 'BKM' items (5 in total) were available from 1953 until around 1957 or '58.
Of the Wunderrad, Markus Schild said there are about a dozen known examples. I have confirmed the existence now of 13 including mine, and I am certain of another one which I simply cannot now find any reference for but it is or was in a Restaurant in the USA somewhere. I read about it quite some time ago but every possible search combination I can think of has not thrown up any results. But if I can find it, that would be 14, unless it's been traded and is among the two or three US examples.
About 7 or 8 are in various museums in Europe, Frank Ronneberg of Tischbahn also has one -
https://tischbahn.de/200...is-das-marklin-wunderradThree have been traded in the past 5-6 years and their current ownership is unknown but I can careful scrutinised the photos of all the example I know about and there are enough subtle differences to make me think at this stage that none of them are duplicates of another.
Hopefully later today I'll add some info regarding the ones I have found and documented.
To say I'm excited is probably an under-statement, it has to be among the more unique items one can hope to have but for sure, it's not for everyone.
For one thing, it's MASSIVE - you just get no idea until you are standing n front of it just how imposing a 1.1 mtr diameter wheel made of Marklin Metall really is!!
There has so far only been one example of a catalogue for them from 1954, it was on eBay a while back and while the quality is low, it's better than nothing.
I have approached some others for more information but of course everyone is busy these days so it can be a looong wait.
I also emailed a couple of the museums that have them requesting additional photos and will see what comes of those inquiries.
Edited by moderator 25 May 2018 23:24:39(UTC)
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