Märklin Nostalgia

[Technoid]

Some 20 years ago I had loads of Märklin rails and a few trains, eventually I lost interest (probably because I was forced to make a single permanent track) and after a year or so of neglect my father sold it all off.

Last year I found a complete set that was available at an auction site but I just couldent afford to do any bidding, unfortunately I got really bitten by the Märklin bug

Well, fast forward and I have now managed to win some auctions

complete track and train

Tons of rails

I could probably had bought one of the modern digital starter packs for about the same amount but this is mostly a nostalgia trip and new Märklin stuff is astoundingly expensive.

So now I'm just waiting for the mail

[Tjalfe]

cool stuff.. I too had one of those starter kits when I was younger.. I am not even sure where it ended up

[Nowhere]

Heh, one of the most important points of my journey to distant family in Germany (not sure if East or West Germany) was getting a nice, big Piko set (actually, two sets...one small with "station locomotive" and two transport carriages, one medium one with steam locomotive and two transport carriages...PLUS ENOURMOUS Russian made (but DB colours) diesel locomotive...WITH LIGHTS, two passenger carriages, postal carriage, two cisterns, model of some house and a station).

Ahhh, those were the days

(unfortunatelly transformer was able to drive only one locomotive at a time )

And yep, still have them

[xortam]

I just got my brother and my Märklin set back this last year. I hadn't seen it in 20 years since I lent my share to my brother to set up for his first born. I've yet to fire it up again to make sure everything works but it looks to be in good order. We bought this equipment in the 60's and I have no idea what it's worth these days. I'll have to do some krona/USD conversion to see what you paid to get some idea. My locomotive can run off of the rails or overhead wiring (though I never bought the overhead gear).

P.S. O.K.,

Complete track and train -- $278.67
Tons of rails -- $106.20

I'll have to inventory what I've got. I bet the prices are higher here since they're probably more rare in the states.

[Brian Ellis]

I used to have a Trix Twin setup. Like Maerklin, it was 00 gauge and was made in Germany. I think I got it for my 6th birthday, before anti-German feelings stopped commerce from there. It had the advantage over its competitors that you could run 2 locomotives independently on the same track, as the outer rails were insulated, as well as the centre one (hence the 'Twin' in the name). It ran on 14 V AC with an ingenious switching mechanism in the loco to reverse the field winding phase. The outstanding technological thing was that the motor used printed circuit technology before the printed circuit was invented! The commutator was made from copper foil on a synthetic resin bonded paper stamped out in a disk with the segments separated by radial milling. The graphite brushes were spring loaded onto the segment faces. The weakness of this system was that, after many years of intensive use, heating of the commutator caused the SRBP to slowly delaminate and it expanded until it started rubbing against the motor bearing and eventually seizing.

Of course, during the war, nothing was obtainable, but I expanded my set-up for a short period after the war, when imports re-started from Germany. I eventually sold it to one of my profs for his kid.

[xortam]

Wow, that set must be worth quite a bit these days.

[az]

I've just sold all (?) of my Märklin stuff last year, among them this beauty (Photo not mine):



If anyone is interested, I've still got a half-erected Eiffel Tower made of Märklin Metall that I haven't gotten around to sell yet.

[Technoid]

I bet you made a bundle on that sale?

[az]

Unfortunately I run it against a stone (the tunnell turned out a little too narrow...) when I was younger, so it had a few scratches (was a powerful unit: both locomotives were motorized), and thus I made only ~160 EUR IIRC. Still much better than nothing

[VJ]

My brother's father in law bought quite a collection of Märklin some 15 years ago, but he never got round to using it: everything is still in the original boxes .


Jörg

[Nowhere]

Yup, I definatelly have all of it (yes, there's more just hidden/jammed a bit in the closet)

Damn you MURC! I almost can't stop myself from setting it all up on the floor

(sorry for the quality, atm I have just acces to shitty Nokia 6020 cam)

[az]

VJ: He could try and sell it on eBay. You can fetch quite good prices for some items, especially when still mint and boxed.

[VJ]

VJ: He could try and sell it on eBay. You can fetch quite good prices for some items, especially when still mint and boxed.

Yes, euhm... he passed away last week...


Jörg

[Technoid]

Gott the first batch today

But it's still at work

I walked to and from work today (been doing that all damn summer and still the doctor just gave me sughar pills ), i'll bring it home tommorow when I drive to work.

[az]

Yes, euhm... he passed away last week...

Oh! I am sorry, my condolences!