by Tony Cook/photos by the author
Märklin’s announcement of retro appearance releases, mirroring the look of offerings from six decades ago, sparked an interest for me to add some vintage examples from this famous German model train maker to my collection of HO scale. My literature archive included several vintage Märklin catalogs (though not this 1964 publication shared with you in this feature), but I had no examples of the company’s HO models older than the 2000s.
After obtaining a copy of the 1964, mentioned by the manufacturer in reference to its coming Dutch State Railways Class-1100 electric locomotive and Rheingold passenger car set, I set out to collect a sampling of European and North American prototypes listed in this catalog. I did very well both in locating and paying less than I anticipated I for most of what I share across the following pages.
I found many of the models from Trainz, and recommend them highly. Trainz sells direct from its website and you’ll find items from them listed on eBay. Like many North American collectors, I know little about railroads outside the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and the model train world outside North America with its different operating systems and other attributes is foreign to me. I am happy with my impulsive dabbling into these vintage Märklin items, and will add more in my future collecting…
ABOVE: Märklin’s North American roster of HO in 1964 offered Electro-Motive Division’s F7A diesel locomotive. The F-unit collector must re-member these less common European-made reproductions of this famous locomotive when collecting examples. Two road names were included in the 1964 catalog (Santa Fe and New Haven). These HO F7As came in powered and non-powered versions.
ABOVE: A metal body HO F-unit is a curiosity today as most manufacturers reproduce this ever-popular prototype in injection-molded plastic. F-unit models began in HO as metal body offerings and Märklin has offered a metal rendering for decades. The model follows a later production example of EMD’s F7. The catalog identifies its Santa Fe offering as an F7, though if you look closely you’ll see these New Haven models (shown at left) are labeled as F9s. The diesel spotter would likely disagree and call this an F7. Santa Fe and New Haven model samples obtained share the same F7 body details.
ABOVE: North American rolling stock in 1964 from Märklin included this metal 50-foot boxcar, which came in three road names (shown below at the right in the catalog listing): New Haven, Santa Fe, and Western Pacific.
