Wednesday, October 20, 2010

One of the world's oldest model railway manufacturers


The German firm of Gebr. Märklin, based in the southern German town of Göppingen, goes back to 1859. It rather ignominiously marked its 150th anniversary last year by going into bankruptcy. However, it returned to profit this year.

The model shown above is one of this year's new items, a EMD F7 A+B+A three unit locomotive set of the Pennsylvania Railroad or PRR in the HO (1:87) scale. Its retail price in Germany, however, is a rather expensive EUR 550 (about $NZ 1,000 or $US 750).

Although it is not a particularly cheap hobby, modelling railways has considerable educational value for both children and adults and offers hours of indoor enjoyment. Famous people known to be model railroaders include Rod Stewart, Neil Young and Jools Holland.

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