Marklin 89796 + 89797 “The Plant” – Archistories building kits reconsidered

I decided to include the word ‘reconsidered’ in my title for these two Marklin items because both kits have not been available for many years, but I think it is important to mention them here because of their connection to Archistories. The two building kits comprise sets 1 and 2 of Marklin’s “The Plant”: item #’s 89796 and 89797. Marklin lists them as being in the program from 2010- 2013, they were a departure from previous building kits offered by Marklin which were high quality plastic kits of both modern and historic design. Except for a few small companies no manufacturer was offering alternatives to plastic. Kibri, Vollmer, and Faller produced the only European architecture for z, each of the three manufacturers produced very high quality plastic build kits with excellent detail and even lighting masks, and one could further customize with painting and scale accessories. Painting techniques could further bring out the mortar lines in brick work as well as roof tiles, weathering gave these kits a natural look, but I found certain limitations with plastic, transforming this material to something more akin to the prototype was difficult. Then along came Marklin’s “The Plant” building kits which established a new direction for Marklin z gauge accessories. At the time of this writing Marklin has since released or announced the release of the 89792 Hamburg Dammtor Station, 89793 Dammtor arcades and bridges, two small maintenance facilities: 89805 + 89806, 89982 Turntable with roundhouse and administration building, and 82394 brewery building kit. Essentially all the plastic kits listed by Marklin have been phased out. There will always be nostalgia for the original resin and plastic Marklin kits, they were very good to scale and coupled nicely with z trains, but the new card stock kits will open up new possibilities for capturing the essence of real prototypical architecture. At the forefront of this movement is the manufacturer Archistories who have been mentioned numerous times on this blog, it was Archistories who was commissioned by Marklin to produce the kits for “The Plant”. Keeping these kits affordable while at the same time producing very good buildings was achieved successfully, they inspired me to want more. And they have since produced a very good line up of residential and industrial buildings with the architectural sensitivity I have come to expect from Archistories.

A description of “The Plant” is in order:

#89796 includes 1 production hall, 1 heat generation building with smokestack, and 2 heavy duty flat cars with cast metal trucks each painted blue and orange respectively.

#89797 includes management office building, production hall with ‘mansard roof’, factory workshop with ‘saw tooth’ roof, and 1 guard house.

In order to stay within Marklin’s budget for the project Archistories had to restrict incorporating certain elements they employ with kits under their brand name including detailing and partition walls.

In addition to great detail and depth of color laser cut card stock buildings are opaque so interior lighting is easy, entire buildings don’t glow, the light can be successfully directed within an interior.

“The Plant”: #89796 + #89797 building kits with accessories.