Where Is Marklin In 2013?
When many of us in this hobby think about small trains, Marklin and Z scale really are synonymous. In the past couple of years though, there were financial issues with Marklin including a 2009 insolvency filing in Göppingen, Germany.
Companies (and countries) around the world had major financial issues after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, so a model train company having its own issues wasn’t exactly leading the nightly news.
For the bits of cast metal, plastic, wiring and paint they are, we really do have an emotional attachment to these trains. Given that Marklin dates back to the late 1800s, many of us in Z scale also attach an old-world quality to our Marklin trains, even though Marklin introduced Z scale in 1972.
Model rail enthusiasts see their trains as much more than just simple toys, they’re a symbol and reminder of simpler (and maybe better) times, or maybe that’s just how we choose to view them, that’s ok too. In any case, Marklin was hobbled during this rough financial period and many still question if they’ll be back prominently in Z scale the way they once were and as important, will they really address the US market?
We now have amazing North American trains from companies like Micro-Trains Line and American Z Line, but I have to admit, I miss having Marklin in the mix.
In 2012, Marklin did release their Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electric locomotive in Tuscan red, but there was a real lack of fanfare for this amazing locomotive. Just recently, Marklin has released a NYC & Hudson 4-6-0 loco with an equally surprising lack of promotion. I had heard Marklin was going to focus on their European market first after their financial problems, but as long as they’re releasing these very US-centric locomotives, why not make some noise in the US Z scale market?
I decided to ask this very question to Juergen Faulhaber, Mini-Club Product Manager at Marklin, recently and he was gracious enough to let Ztrains print his response.
Juergen Faulhaber, Marklin Mini-Club Product Manager
Hi John,
Basically I understand your, and the US Z scale customer, point of view. Yes, it must look as Maerklin has almost given up the US market but there are several responsible points for this situation!
During the last 3 years, we’ve had a very hard phase to “find ourselves”. We’ve had several quality problems due to our former supplier problems. Then we started to move the whole Z scale production line to our plant in Hungary with a real long-term learning phase for the people there. This was a real big challenge and now it seems we’ve succeeded. The quality is much better than it was for several months and now we have very good and really satisfying responses from the customer side.
So first of all we had to concentrate on our main market with our new items in order to raise the turnover numbers, and fight us back to our customers here (in Europe). This was much easier on the German / Central European market than in the competitive US market. At the present, we’ve improved a lot, not only the quality as well the outlook of our locos and some minor innovations. Further, I think we’ve created a new standard for steam locos here with our BR 001 (88010). As a result, now the numbers are raising here in Europe and we are really very happy about this.
Nevertheless, you can be sure we are still interested in the growing US marketplace. At the present, we are thinking about various possibilities to place more advertising for our present Z scale product range. As you mentioned we have a rather small American program this year based on existing models and we have to find a way to present at least this to our US customers!
But to be honest, in my opinion at the present it´s too early for us with a complete new developed US model, although I wish to have one. We firstly have to finish our “homework” here in Germany and Europe.
Please give us more time to “come back” to the highly interested US market, we can only do this step by step, since our Z scale unit is not as big as it probably seems to be.
Hope you will understand and best regards.
Juergen Faulhaber
I model Z scale so I suppose by nature I’m an optimist, on this note I sincerely hope Marklin is able to focus on the US market in the not too distant future. Thanks to Juergen Faulhaber for addressing our readers and we hope to hear from him, and Marklin, again soon.
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John, thanks for bringing us this info. Maerklin is definitely on it’s way back. I do hope they will this time focus on model railroaders instead of collectors. We need affordable “bread and butter” locs and trains, no more expensive models of trains that were never built and don’t fit on a regular model railroad :-)
Let’s hope the market is indeed forgiving and allows Maerklin the fairly long time it is taking to get back on its feet.
Matt
Hi John,
Thanks for the email today. I enjoyed reading the articles, especially “Marklin in 2013.” Here you wrote:
“Model rail enthusiasts see their trains as much more than just simple toys, they’re a symbol and reminder of simpler (and maybe better) times…”
So true! I’m from Scotland and came with my parents to the USA. They were both doctors and had job offers in Seattle. We rode the Empire Builder and it was wonderful. We had our own sleeper compartment and Dad and I would spend long hours looking out the window as we passed over the US.
Some years later we took the Great Northern Railway from Seattle to Montana’s Glacier National Park and stayed in the lodge. Those memories stayed with me and my love of model trains comes from there.
Best wishes,
Eileen
John,
Marklin’s US efforts still seems unfocused. I am a huge NYC&HRR fan and was really excited to see their NYC&HRRR 4-6-0 loco and passenger cars but come on, really a NYC&HRRR 4-6-0 train pictured in the US desert?!!! I know Germans are better than that with geography knowledge.
John
Hi John,
I’m afraid I have to agree. This train would have looked a lot more at home in Syracuse, NY than in Monument Valley. I do understand it to a degree, this is an old-time loco, lots of folks outside the US seem to gravitate towards the iconic cowboy images of US history.
On a model like this, I’d really like to see Marklin place it in its proper context in their marketing. Being not at all familiar with European trains, I have no idea how accurately Marklin pitches their European trains to the European market but in some ways I still think they pitch “cute” to the US Z market, that would explain the out of place 4-6-0.
I’d like to think in the future (now too!) Marklin would reach out and consult the US market on releases like this, same goes for the Tuscan GG1. Ask us!
15 years ago we were happy for anything, now we have more sophisticated options for North American locos and I think for the US market, Marklin’s marketing and promotion needs to tap in to this trend. I realize they can’t yet make an array of NA models, but when you have models like the Tuscan GG1 and this NYC&HRRR 4-6-0, promote and present it in context. Appeal to the new Z scale buyers. I believe this would signal a new day and presence for Marklin in the US.
John
Ztrains
Thanks for bringing this Marklin article to us, very much appreciated. I just wish we’d hear and read more from Marklin on a regular basis.
Most of my collection is Marklin and I’m a big fan. They’ve become tough to correspond with though, it didn’t used to be this way and this is a shame.
Hopefully we’ll see more Marklin articles here at Ztrains.
James W.
Maybe they could (re)start with the PA1 & PB1. They’ve got the drawings for the HO-version. Would be a nice addition for the AZL heavyweights…..
As a Swiss outline Z-scale modeller in the UK, I have had concerns with Maerklin’s focus. It has long seemed to be focused on the collector who wanted one of each model. This is not a hobby like modelling! Modellers want to re-create the world in miniature and in the case of railway modelling means scale trains. Some of these consist of long trains with multiple similar coaches and in the case of one type of train which travels the Loetchberg route, about 40 wagons which differ only in their state of weathering.
Lets hope that Maerklin start to cater for us modellers in the future!
Hi Bill,
Good points there, I do hope Marklin is listening!
I’ve always thought Marklin also missed a trick by not looking at the UK market, home of some of the most iconic locos ever produced as well as a wealth of general steam history.
From Wikipedia:
Nigel Gresley (read up on this innovator!) introduced the Class A4 locomotives in 1935. During a visit to Germany in 1933, Gresley had been inspired by the high-speed streamlined “Flying Hamburger” diesel trains. Gresley was sure that steam could do the job equally well.
So there’s an interesting tie-in between German and British rail history. Marklin already had the Pacific chassis in Z, why not create the shells for locos like the Flying Scotsman or the streamlined Mallard?
I really do hope the new Marklin management team is more creative, more bold than they’ve been in recent decades.
John
Ztrains