Dear friends,

I was born in 1955 and as such grew up in the fifties and sixties.
During those years,Maerklin issued catalogues in which locomotives were shown as paintings,a real artist job,photographs came much later.
These dynamic paintings were also used on the Maerklin boxes.
A specific aspect about these paintings was that they gave the locomotives a 'full speed' image,very attractive for potential buyers,young boys like me at that time.
Even the humble 3029 starterloc was put on a pedestal this way.
See also the frontcover of the 1967 catalogue,with a fantastic P8,brandnew in the M range for that year.

During a recent search on internet for peculiar Maerklin items i found a seller who offered a full collection of reproductions of these paintings in full color,printed on first class paper.
Unfortunately,i have not been able to find them again to date.

The names of the artist(s) of these magnificant artworks have never been made known,so that does not really help.

I think the reproductions are worth collecting as they represent the glory days of Maerklin,before the computer era started,an era where modeltrains were still on top of the wishlist.

I would welcome any hints how to find/purchase these reproductions.

Thank you all.

Paul.

Hi, Marklin made a calendar in the early 90s with the famous station scene with BR01 and the Croc. It
is on my wall in the train room. It is visible on my layout pages. Peter

Hi Paul,

Maybe you have a scanner. Scan what you like, put it on a memory-stick and visit a larger copy and print shop. They can do it, and most time it should be also cheaper than the ebay-offers. You also could use an online poster-service.

Regards

Markus

I stopped bidding,think two guys are helping each other by raising price all the time.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eB...0748691580#ht_500wt_1413

Paul.

Hi Jimmy,
I cannot help with artists names, but I do like the old catalog artwork from the 1930s.
It was inspiring in a school-boyish sort of way.
The 1950s Fleischmann catalog and box lid art were done in equal manner.
And my model train likes are still very much a boyish pastime. My train room should be lined with such framed pictures.
I have some catalog wagons produced by Märklin around 1997.
Yes it would be interesting to give recognition to the artists if possible.
Kimball

A "little" research shows the following artist signatures on catalogue covers:

1957, 1958, 1960, and 1961 are "R. Hannig" .

(1956 does not appear to have a signature)

1951-1955 appear to be "Hans Liska".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Liska

1947, 1949-1950 are "Küch".

(a Jimmy Silly Wild Guess: this may be Karl Opferkuch, who went by the pseudonym "Carlos Kuch" and signed his art "Kuch" with a little scribble above the "u" as in the Märklin catalog art. While I have found no mention of his working for Märklin, his artwork does bear a similarity. "Kuch" also did the Fleischmann 1952 Spur H0 catalog cover.)

1939-1940 are "Schneider", cover and also art work in the body of the catalogue.

1929-1938 are "Josef Danilowatz".

https://de-m-wikipedia-org.trans...r_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

1927-1928 are "B.W." , in all probability, noting the similarity of the signature on his other artwork:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brynolf_Wennerberg

1925-1926 are "Hoffmann Stuttg."

Edited by user 25 August 2025 14:15:25(UTC)  | Reason: add link for Hans Liska, Josef Danilowatz, and Brynolf Wennerberg, and note on Kuch with Fleischmann

And taking this One Step Beyond

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93HVGx9SwUM

"0753 Gleispläne für 00" (1949) cover (possibly) by Klaus Bürgle (signed K. Bürgle), has a bit of a Futuristic swoosh to the image

https://neverwasmag.com/2021/12/the-art-of-klaus-burgle/

https://www.klausbuergle.de/buergle.htm

Plus a document of children's train books from the 1950s with Bürgle as illustrator in several and possibly on one, a Küch scribble as noted above in Post 11 (all in German , but it can be a good reference):

https://www.bahnhof-lette.de/fil...022/Kinderbuecher_02.pdf



The 0321 Planbook (1961) has the art piece on the back inside cover by "Griffel" (Rudolf - main work with NSU) of the dad, with the infant child giving the Starting Order (Zp9)...note the similarities to:

https://nsu-quickly.de/e...dolf-griffel/99296603490

https://www.4legend.com/2018/liv...ossnagel-delius-klasing/

Remaining planbooks are more along the line of "photo-realistic", until 0700 (1982), which has many photos but also the "artist renditions" of the layouts - with no signatures that I could discern, nor mention of the artist's name within, however, I do allow that I may have missed it amongst all the German

Edited by user 10 November 2025 14:10:57(UTC)  | Reason: Update Bürgle and Griffel links