Gebr. Märklin & Cie. GmbH or Märklin (stylized as ma̋rklín) (MÄRKLIN or MAERKLIN in capital letters) is a German toy company. The company was founded in 1859 and is based at Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg. Although it originally specialised in doll house accessories, today it is best known for model railways and technical toys. In some parts of Germany and in Sweden, the company's name is almost synonymous with model railways.

History

thumbnail|left|A carousel made by the company in 1911, from the collection of the [[Children's Museum of Indianapolis]]

thumb|250px|A simple Märklin model

thumb|250px|A coffee-table Märklin layout in Z scale (1:220). The locomotive is about 50 mm long.

250px|thumb|thumbtime=5|Märklin model steam engine in function.

Märklin was founded by in 1859. After his death in 1866, early in the company's life, his wife Caroline Märklin lead the business until 1888.

and took over the company from her, and Märklin released its first wind-up train with carriages that ran on standardised track in 1891, noting that railway toys had the potential to follow the common practice of doll's houses, in which the initial purchase would be enhanced and expanded with more accessories for years after the initial purchase. To this end, Märklin offered additional rolling stock and track with which to expand its boxed sets.

thumb|Märklin O-gauge [[Crocodile (locomotive)|Crocodile locomotive ca. 1920s - 1930s, in the collection of the California State Railroad Museum]]

Märklin is responsible for the creation of several popular model railway gauges or scale, noteworthy exceptions being N scale and Wide gauge. In 1891, Märklin defined gauges 1-5 as standards for toy trains and presented them at the Leipzig Toy Fair. They soon became international standards. Märklin followed with O gauge (by some accounts as early as 1895 or as late as 1901), HO scale in 1935, and the diminutive Z scale, 1:220, in 1972  — smallest in the world for decades  — under the name Mini-Club (the scale of Z was assigned after the product line was introduced). Mini-Club was developed as Märklin's answer to Arnold Rapido's introduction of N gauge.

Today, Märklin manufactures and markets trains and accessories in Gauge 1, HO scale, and Z scale. In 1994 Märklin acquired the Nuremberg based model train manufacturer Trix producing DC-operated HO and N scale. Märklin's older trains are considered highly collectible, and Märklin's current offerings enjoy premium status among hobbyists.

Although Märklin is best known for its trains, from 1914 to 1999, the company produced mechanical construction sets similar to Meccano and Erector. Between 1967 and 1982, the company produced a slotcar system called Märklin Sprint. Märklin also produced numerous other toys over the years, including lithographed tinplate toy automobiles and boats. From 1909 until well into the 1950s they sold a range of alcohol-burning model steam engines. These were very educational toys, and could be linked to dynamos to provide lighting. In the late 1990s, Märklin purchased the assets of Trix in January 1997, thus adding N gauge to their scale lineup.

On 11 May 2006, the company, which had until then been owned by the three families Märklin, Friz and Safft, was sold to the British investment group Kingsbridge Capital, with the support of the employees. The purchase price was approximately $38 million. At the time, Märklin had approximately $70.5 million in debt, as a result of several years of slumping sales.

In 2007, the company expanded its product offering by buying the remaining assets of the bankrupt firm, Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk, who owned the LGB brand and product line of G scale model railways.

On 4 February 2009 Märklin filed for insolvency at the Göppingen municipal court. A year and a day later, on 5 February 2010, Märklin announced a return to profitability.

In 2013 Märklin was acquired by the Simba Dickie Group.

On July 22, 2013 the managing director Stefan Löbich left Märklin.

During the 2020-2021 COVID pandemic, Märklin saw an upswing in sales, leading to shortages of parts such as rails, and even found they had to hire new employees and apprentices to meet the demand.

The third game in the Ticket to Ride board game series, released in 2006, was named Märklin in their honour.

In 2010 Märklin announced the release of its sixth model of the Russian Railways, the Russian Velaro SAPSAN high speed train. The model is based upon the DB ICE 3MF model which began to be sold in 2008. The first SŽD railways Russian HO models was a Transsiberian 100 ЛеТ Транссибирской (100 Let Transsibirskoy) tanker wagon, a rare limited edition from 1991, two locomotives, steam locomotive Series TЭ-5293 (Märklin ref. 34159), a second version of the same Cold War military reserve steam locomotive TЭ-3915 (Märklin ref. 37159) and two SŽD car goods wagon sets (Märklin ref. 47897 and ref. 47899).

Nominal size H0

The largest segment of product range and sales is nominal size H0, with a scale of 1:87 and an H0 track. Märklin introduced it in 1935, about half a year later than Trix, and today it is the most common size worldwide. The company is market leader in H0 in German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), having a market-share of approximately 50 per cent. So, in the area of H0 tracks, there are two categories of similar size - the track system with two conductors, produced by multiple companies on the one side, the middle-conductor track system dominated by Märklin on the other. Also, in this area Märklin is the only company to offer a complete assortment of goods - the range in this track size consists of a huge variety of rolling stock, tracks, analog as well as digital control systems, trolley systems and other accessory parts.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="140">

File:Märklin Herd.jpg|Doll stove, around 1900

File:Züricher Spielzeugmuseum 1000705.jpg|Stationary steam engine, 1930

File:Züricher Spielzeugmuseum 1000754.jpg|1932 O-gauge model of the Schienenzeppelin

File:Maerklin Mobile Vision Messe Sinsheim.JPG|Märklin Mobile Vision (digital camera mounted on a locomotive)

File:Märklin Mobile Station.jpg|Märklin 60657 Mobile Stations. Digital handheld controller.

</gallery>

References

  • International Märklin community and forum
  • Märklin Metallbaukasten brief history
  • Märklin collections and resources at Brighton Toy and Model Museum
  • Compilation of Märklin-related sites