I have noticed lots of alarming posts in US train forums about the Chinese factory closing.

It seems to be affecting Bachman, Atlas, Bowser, Intermountain, Atlas, Fox Valley Models, Tangent.

If it is only one factory, I find it interesting to see how one factory is making stuff for so many brands. I have seen it said that a company called Kader controls them all.

The Japanese manufacturer Shinohara closed in April.

I wonder if any of Märklin production is included....

So breath a sigh of relief that we can still get German and Hungarian made Märklin!

(Try not to mention politics, nobody will be changing their minds about the cause)


Edit: The company is called AFFA and is said to be closing as the leader is ill.

Just hear a rumour that Hornby is moving production to Hungary.

But no word from Hornby so far.

looking at other sites and this is probably fake news.

Bob M.

Yes I seen it in UK forum.

Wow- I'm really sad to hear Shinohara closed! They made excellent quality material...

I have purchased a number of Märklin products over the last few years. Have you?

From my perspective their quality has improved but of course it is not perfect and could be further improved. But I find more to like than not like these days with their products and overall I am satisfied.

Finding a company where no one online finds any fault with what they produce is like finding a unicorn. Maybe you should start collecting them.

Did not Toys "R" Us - the big toy reseller - closed his doors after his insolvency?

I essentially agree with everything that you said Torbjörn and in an ideal world all Märklin products would be made in Germany. But if Märklin designs a loco and someone produces it elsewhere I still consider it a Märklin product. It is interesting that we see this so differently. I am guessing that the "truth" lies somewhere between our points of view.

I obviously do not know what relationship Märklin has with their Chinese production facility. Apple certainly seems to be able to make it work but then they have vast resources, far beyond Märklin's dreams. I do know that I have many Chinese made US freight cars which are perfect and have not degraded like some other Chinese made US freight cars have. I have two Chinese made fall special locos which are beautifully assembled and finished and neither have ever shown a single operational problem, despite their origin. In the last three years I have had far and away more problems with my Hungarian made products than with Chinese made ones.

I have not had any problems with my Göppingen made models and as I said before, in an ideal world all of my Märklin products would be made there. I can appreciate how difficult it is to compete on price though if at least some of your components are not made in Asia. The new management is working in a new world and as far as I can see they are doing a very good job. Not perfect of course, but definitely heading in the right direction from my point of view and not going out of business as they clearly were in the past.

Oh, did they, I hadn't heard that. What was the story behind that? Did they have a line branded Primex?

Marklin will be like most of the big German production factories including Audi, BMW etc in that they have parts made in other countries often in thier own quality controlled factories but it is mostly all designed and assembled in Germany. As long as the quality and service is good what does it matter??

Not truth!
I did bought a BR 64 that there was defaults.
I send it back and after three months( ) Märklin did send a new locomotive while the broken was still left at the factory.
The replacement locomotive was some defaults too.
I fixed by self the second BR 64 locomotive.
I believe the model BR 64 was produced in China.