K=track is much simpler or could be simpler

Thank you, Jean! What a find; the assortment of machines and manual processes is impressive even today, but these were all conceived on drafting tables using paper, pencil and pantographs. I wonder how, if at all, they pursued continuous improvement and changed the processing over time as someone said "I think we could do this step faster/more consistently?"

Thanks for all this information. The machinery to make M track loos fascinating, I wonder if it still exists.

One question about C track. Can you stand on it, straighten it out afterwards and use it again and again?!

It all looks to me like standard powered presses that would be used in almost any machine shop. The only "modification" is the jig that is made to suit the parts being assembled.

But I am intrigued that one woman early in the sequence uses a machine press to put the parts on the track bed of a double slip, and then moves the piece to an adjacent purely hand operated press to perform a second operation - which I presume is just pushing the folding tabs down properly because it couldn't be done is the same operation as everything else on the powered press.

The films from that era are fantastic. It often feels like it was a magical era in which almost anything was possible with the technology of the age.

Also what is neat is that the human component with the technology was still there.

We can compare the modern Märklin and in so many ways the detail, control, and a myriad of other things are better. But the artwork of a 1960’s Märklin loco box captured the imagination in a way that nothing produced today seems to do.

Thanks for sharing the film!

Btw, c track does deform if the right person steps on it 😊

No this was true in the past with aging, early C track pieces
With recent C track a "normal or overweight" person can step on it PROVIDED the track is on a FLAT surface and provided the soles are normal (rubber or leather, no nails, etc)
With very old C track (1996) more than 10 years after purchase, a simple 20 cm drop on hard floor was enough to break it but not any more
Jean

Less use of plastics. Environmental benefit?

Hi
I started Märklin by using M track the 1960 version and the 1980 version (quite a significant improvement). Then I switched to C track from 1996.

C Track was great at beginning but then I start wondering what these small plastic bits were on the floor. I found later they were small plastic springs to lock C track in place.
I learned about the C Track plastic aging rapidly and then Märklin changed the plastic used, same look but 2 things:
- they slowed the aging process quite a lot by changing the type of plastic used
- they also start embossing the manufactirng date under each track piece

Well I still have this C track but still also have my M track, I also purchased a box full of "Modelgleis" 3800 and 3900. This is a sort of super M Track, with metal bed, plastic sleepers, 3 individually insulated rails, large radii (1.20m and 1.10m diameters), at the time, twice the price of the new M Gleis (in 1956 when all 3 types were available: the M track, the Modellgleis and the old 3 rail track 3600).

So I can compare anytime all those 4 types of tracks and my conclusions are:
- C track is now very robust and very precise (much more than M track or the 1953 Modellgleis)
- C Track needs painting of the rails sides in rust brown and then are perfect
- now the arrival of the sleek DSS (Double SlipSwitch, 24720 DKW) crowns this C track and I am sure Märklin will work to make it better
- Agreed, C track switch motors are not perfect but when shorting the end-position microswitches they last very very long.
- I cannot see any noticeable aging of the C track (surely there is one but much slower now)

- M track or ModellGleis are not very precise and you can see wagons dancing on the tracks when they cross a switch or a DSS (Double SlipSwitch)
- agreed M track have little motor issues on switches (except internal bending of the core path inside the coils when they heated too much)
- M track is deliciously kitch and associated with high-class toy-trains.
- 3 rail track (3600) was not stable in bed color, in rail types (hollow iron or extruded blackened copper) or in switch motor types (one coil, 2 coils)

Just my opinion
Cheers

Jean

I am surprised that Germany recovered so quickly from the war. It must have been about 16/17 years after the war that Germany was again manufacturing and that the manufacturing was for model trains and not other "non-hobby" manufacturing. Of course, the VW bug came out in 1950, I think. A 1959 Karmann Ghia was my second car followed by a 62 micro bus, two of the nicest cars I have ever owned.

"I am surprised that Germany recovered so quickly from the war. It must have been about 16/17 years after the war that Germany was again manufacturing and that the manufacturing was for model trains and not other "non-hobby" manufacturing."
My first Marklin set was the one my Dad got at the US Army PX while stationed near Heidelberg in 1948. My understanding is that Marklin restarted train production in 1947.