Good morning everyone. I apologize in advance for any errors or inaccuracies in presenting this post. I'm a new member and not yet familiar with the forum. I have a question that I can't find the answer to. I have two analogic 3030 locomotives, the first purchased by my father in 1962 and the second purchased some time ago on the internet. looking under the body I noticed that there is the writing "made in Germany" on the older one while on the one that should be more recent, it says "made in west germany". How is this possible? shouldn't it be the other way around? I'm asking you who are certainly more historically prepared. (inside the two locomotives look similar, but the older one has a lighting system with three bulbs in each direction. the one purchased on the internet has one bulb in the direction of travel.) thanks in advance to anyone who can give me some explanation on the matter. Edoardo

Thank you for these informations. However a 1962 model 3030 should be marked "made in west germany" and not "made in Germany". this marked should be correct after the 1990! do you know if the 800 series has the same marked? this could be answer.
Moral, how can I understand, from this wording if a locomotive is actually from the 60s? if I sold the second locomotive as and original model from the 60s (when in reality it Is from the 70s or/and 80s) no one would understand the difference. Only openig them both, I see construction differences regarding the lighting system for example..

You will need more than the wording on the loco to decide what year it was made. I suspect that anything made up to the building of the wall will say made in Germany, and anything after the wall was built will say Made in Western Germany. But the addition of 'Western' may have happened before then, but the year will vary by loco as noted above, as models are updated for other details.

The definitive definitions come from Kolls catalogues, which note the various differences between models and the years in which they were produced. Details include colour - and this can involve subtle shades of the same base colour, differences in pantographs on electric locos, road number of loco, different colour of badges, and so on. Get yourself a copy of Kolls, it need not be the most recent for the model you are looking at, and determine from that just which years your models were produced.

There is the possibility that they were both produced in the same year, although I would doubt that. There is also the possibility that someone has mixed and matched parts between locos to make a good one, so you may find that you cannot find an exact description, or end up being confused by the description and what you have in your hand.

Märklin wrote "Germany" for yers after the country was divided in 1945.

Then it was "West Germany" about 25 years until 1990.

And then back to "Germany"

In german, irs been "BRD" Bundesrepublik Deutschland since 1949.

The marking "Germany was made mandatory fir export in the Versaiilkes treaty after ww1, so people could avoid german products.

Henrik

Can I just ask does it matter because of any differences in the models and the way they work.

If you have several models in your collection with different markings despite the post or pre unification period. you are confirming what I thought: a constructive period with use or reuse of old markings. In practice you have demonstrated this by physically analyzing various locomotives. the solution in the end to understand the details of a 3030 model and trace the year or construction period was given by Kiwialan:
"The definitive definitions come from Kolls catalogues"! I don't see any other solution. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who responded to my question and took the time for. I'll wait a little before marking the post as solved.