I was introduced to the quality of Märklin quality at a very young age by my uncle who lived in Germany and came over to the United States with his Märklin trains.  We would talk at family gatherings about the large Märklin layout that he built with his family in his hometown in Germany.  I was naturally very curious about his Märklin experiences as I had never had to opportunity to talk to a Märklin enthusiast who actually purchased the original trains in the 1950s.  He would talk about an optician who sold Märklin on the side of his business.  I could picture  the optician working in his office as a doctor and then selling quality Märklin trains and toys on the side.  I wondered if this dealer supplied a large area in Germany or just sold to local customers in the German city of Oldenburg.

When my uncle recently passed away, I realized that I had never asked him more about his “local supplier” that allowed him to build his large Märklin layout in his home in Germany in the 1950s.  Now the detective work would be left up to me to figure out more of the history behind the trains and behind the optician supplier.

The collection of my uncle remained fairly “untouched” since it was packed into approximately 10 military crates that contained track, signals, locomotives, passenger cars, and associated materials required to build the entire layout.  In the bottom of one of these crates, I found an old newspaper dated “Oktober 1957.”  I looked through the rest of the trains, examined the locomotives and boxes very carefully and found they were all from the early 1950s period and were all marked with a dealer stamp.  The stamp was barely readable because the font was so distorted, but I noticed a seemingly misplaced pair of sunglasses to the right of the stamp.  The sunglasses puzzled me and so I thought, “The dealer might have been near a beach?.”

I could not figure out why this dealer stamp had sunglasses on it.  It provided no other useful information beside this strange image of sunglasses.  Later when I brought the trains home for servicing and further examination, I noticed another piece of information that brought everything together.  While servicing the trains, I glanced up at my display case and saw on the box of my small TM 800 locomotive a dealer sticker which read “Optiker Schulz.”

I could not believe I hadn’t put it together before, “Optiker” means optician in German and I remembered the story my uncle had told me about the Marklin supplier who was an optician.  Then, the sunglasses!  It all fits together.  In the early 1950s, the Marklin dealer used a dealer sticker that had “Optiker Schulz” and then he later moved to a dealer stamp with the sunglasses on it.

A few Google searches later and I found the original “Optiker Schulz” building and of course, it is located in Oldenburg, Germany.  As almost every firm in Germany, the roots of this building and the family’s history reach far into the 1800s when the company first opened in 1857.  The company is still in operation today so surely their selling of Marklin trains in the 1950s is certainly possible.

Here is the building today:

• The new distant-control reverse.
• The 20-Volt System
• Electric Central Signal Box
• Transformer No. 13474

Enjoy these scans of some 1930s Marklin literature describing the changes in O Gauge technology of the period.

As the global demand for fine toys and trains from the maker Marklin increased, it was up to dealers and importers to maintain the flow of goods into customers’ hands.  In a previous post, we looked at Bruce Hastie, a Marklin dealer in Long Island during the 1930s.  Another post uncovered the history of Richard Marklin of the famous Richard Marklin Toys, an important enterprise for Marklin in America.   Here we will look at some other dealers and importers that were crucial for Marklin’s development in the American market.

1. FAO Schwarz – 1951
2. Richard Maerklin Toys – 1936/1937 (Pre-WWII distributor)
3. REIDPATH – 1936/1937
4. Bruce Hastie – 1934/1935
5. Charles C. Merzbach – 1940s to 1950s (Post-WWII distributor)
6. A.B. Boyd Co – 1960s (Distributor for Western 11 States)

Although Richard Marklin Toys was considered to be the largest USA importer of Marklin during the 1930s, other hobby shops sold Marklin toys and trains during the 1930s, especially in and around the New York area.  One such dealer was “Bruce Hastie” as the dealer stamp on a price-list states.  Located in New York in Long Island City at the Woodside Section, Bruce Hastie sold what seems to be a full range of O and I gauge Marklin trains.  In my collection I have had for many years a price-list that has allowed for much insight to be gained from the early 1930s interaction between US Marklin importers and the Marklin factory in Germany. (price-list below)

From this price-list we can see that it was most likely a store copy from the following observations:

1. A translation “seite = page” is written on the top for employees to know German-English translation.
2. A “15% Discount” is detailed as Freight on Board
3. The owner has written “Prices in US Dollars” when they are actually in RM  – (1934: 1 USD = RM 2.54)
4. At the end of the price-list, a note is written from the Marklin factory explaining the conversion rates.  It seems this price-list is a makeshift version; part German and part American export. (note pictured below)

From the base price (we will use the CCS 66 12921 as an example) of 260 RM which we can convert to $156 USD (40% deduction as noted by Marklin) which includes F.O.B., duty, etc.  The question thus arises, does the note by the dealer on this price-list deduct another 15% or is it a 15% deduction from the original RM prices?  Using the historical RM/USD rate, the 260 RM CCS 66 12921 would have cost around $102 USD.  Either way, if we include another15% deduction or not, the CCS 66 12921 was comparatively much more expensive in the USA than it was to purchase it in Europe, especially Germany.