Model railroader Thomas Barthels has built a fantastic nostalgic layout modeled after 1960s layout plans from Marklin. His incredible work combines the simplistic styles of layouts from the 60s and the fantastic realism of a more modern layout.

On the night of January 18, 2005 some unwelcome visitors roamed and ravaged the halls of the Marklin Museum in Goppingen, escaping with priceless treasures. After two months of searching, police and investigative teams recovered the pieces and returned them to their rightful home at the Marklin Museum.

Marklin standardized several track gauges in 1891 and launched the model railway industry into the form we see it today. After this spark of invention, several of the major toy producers in Germany and England piggybacked their way into a flourishing global market and offered tin toys and trains to enthusiasts all over the world.

The Marklin SK 800 streamlined locomotive, from its release in 1939 to its gentle decline in the late 1950s, remains a classic favorite for its streamlined design and survivability in the ever-changing product lines of the 00/HO Gauge system. The many changes in its design, however, might explain why this model number SK 800 locomotive lasted for so long.

Decades before the Sprint slot-car system, Marklin introduced a series of die-cast cars that went well with the 00 Gauge product line and even rode along on some O Gauge wagons. For a short time, they also offered a large slot-car system number model number 13301 complete with track, ramps, race cars with tiny drivers, stoplights, timing tracks and many racing accessories.

When O Gauge and 00/HO Gauge Marklin trains are combined together on the same layout in the same room, the result must be amazing. Here, with Italian collector Paolo Panciroli, he does just that and showcases two of Marklin's most loved gauges in an incredible display of locomotives, rolling stock, accessories, and many feet of track!

As night turns to day in a small station city near Goppingen, the elevated railway zooms ahead as a large steam locomotive pulls into the station. Passengers in the sleeping car awake at the jolt of the train stopping. The shepherd attending to the sheep in the nearby cattle loading ramp prepares for a difficult task ahead.

A printing code stamped on many Marklin boxes helps reveal the production date of the box and thus allows for accurate dating of Marklin articles. Sometimes the prices marked on the boxes and referencing pricelists also approximately dates an item because prices often changed from year to year.

W. Seelig LTD of Great Britain, London's leading sales organisation (according to their company) distributed Marklin toys to hardware stores and toy shops all across the British Isles. To promote their Marklin products, they created the "Marklin Expert Library of Handbooks" which we will review in this episode.

Innovation in 1938 and the introduction of the "Perfect Reverse" system brought many changes to the Marklin product line not to mention the 800-Series line which would last several decades. Unfortunately many of these innovations and even those that were planned but never came to light were halted due to the onset of WWII.