Image courtesy of Märklin

     After the spectacular introduction of mini-club in 1972, all eyes were on the Märklin booth at the Nürnberg Toy Fair in 1973.  People were not disappointed, but the introduction of 1973’s new items was measured, the first of several years of gradual expansion in this new sized train.

Image courtesy of Märklin

     The Class 24 2-6-0 (no. 8803) and the Railbus (no. 8816) and trailer (no. 8817) both were new tooling. The class 24 is a classic model railroad layout engine since it has a tender and the necessary smoke lifters on the front of the locomotive.  The Class 24 is large enough to be a mainline locomotive and was used in all varieties of service including branchline work.  This engine was equally at home with short passenger trains and light freight service.

     The Railbus was the German Federal Railway’s answer to branchline passenger train costs. These diesel powered units were found everywhere, often operating in trains of three or four such cars, all under the direction of one operator.  Some of these also hauled a single freight car.  Some more information about the railbus is here.

     The new mini-club freight cars were equally interesting.

Image courtesy of Märklin

     The 8620 transformer car illustrates the genius of Z-Scale. This very large car was used to transport large transformers from factory to power company.  While the real car had a centipede-like group of wheels, this mini-club car had two axles at each end of the car.  Once the transformer was removed from the bridge structures of the end cars, it returned to the factory for its next load:

     In addition, a new paint scheme was applied to the previous years base tooling:

Image courtesy of Märklin

     The 8600 Beer car would prove to be the foundation of many different cars.  In addition to regular production by Märklin, there also would be countless special imprints by Bauer and others on a limited production basis.

     There were new track items:

Image courtesy of Märklin

     The special track pieces are discussed here.

     There was a new structure, a scaled down model of the signal tower at Göppingen, Märklin’s home town:

Image courtesy of Märklin

     Bridges and a new crossing gate were also introduced. The bridges are discussed here.

Image courtesy of Märklin

     And, there was the promise of more to come.......

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Page last updated 01/22/2006

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