Marklin has brought to life American railroading prototypes in small measure if one compares the total entries of European ones: lot’s of F7’s, Mikado’s and GG1’s along with respective rolling stock. The eras portrayed are mid century primarily with a few earlier exceptions. Micro Trains is stronger in the field of American prototypes with their exhaustive survey of various rolling stock each boxed with a well researched and charted description. American prototypes are not a strong category for Marklin Z, but when they release something new like the GG1 it is a superlative example. And the F7 sets or individual ‘A’ units are widely collected in their infinite variety. But one type of a rolling stock example in each category makes life a bit challenging if you collect exclusively Marklin, and you are serious about railroading. Some collectors have opted for trading out couplers so MicroTrains rolling stock and locos can be used with Marklin and vice versa. It is a good trade off, but those of us lucky enough to own the Commodore Vanderbilt are still stuck without a coach set. Other manufacturers are on the scene producing high quality models including but not limited to AZL, and their current collaboration with Marklin in the production of three variations of the E8 maybe the first of more collaborations, who knows?
If you are a tried and true collector of Marklin Z American models like me you may already know about the small batch special imprint rolling stock. In coming months I will be including examples of these rare offerings that little information has thus far been known. Hopefully with the help of others in this field of collecting I can shed more light on this topic until then stay tuned and happy railroading!