Category Archives: 8615

Holiday Releases Week: Halloween Cars in Z – Marklin

Marklin came up with the idea to release Halloween themed cars as part of two starter sets beginning in 2003; they included track, loco and set 00832 included a couple of ceramic jack-o-lanterns.

Unfortunately the starter sets included the standard class 89 steam locomotive that usually goes in starter sets, but the locos came in black; they would have been better if painted with Halloween theme?

The four cars total for Halloween included 2 per set released 2003 + 2004 respectively. Set 00815 included two cars (type 8600 and 8615) painted with glow-in-the-dark pigment.

“Ghouls” – Type 8600 refrigerator car from starter set 00815 (2003) Note: features glow in the dark paint

“Pumpkins and Ghouls” – Type 8615 car from starter set 00815 (2003) Note: features glow in the dark paint

And set 00832 also included car types 8600 and 8615 (2 cars total in set) with bright orange and black paint scheme.

“Scary Face” – type 8600 refrigerator car from starter set 00832

“Jack-O-Lantern” – type 8615 car from starter set 00832

After writing this post I realized there are any number of interesting Halloween themed trains including haunted houses, dead trees, candy corn loads for custom painted in orange gondola and on and on. A fun project to break up the long term goals of more serious layouts: we all need more projects?

Siding: collectors tend to sell these cars in pairs so keep an eye out, value for Halloween cars range from $25-$50 a piece; they are the most valuable part of the starter sets and the locos are not special so I recommend going for the cars only and saving some dough.

Holiday Releases Week: Christmas Cars in Z – Marklin

Another tradition at the holidays is Marklin Christmas releases in Z. Going on 22 years the Christmas releases comprise many more cars than other categories of holiday special imprints. And the designs are mostly secular with a couple of religious themed cars.

Due to their limited release status Christmas cars tend to sell out fast with a few tending toward rarer status which I will point out in captions. Great series that I have grown to appreciate more and more with time; each car is delivered in a small gift box with clear acrylic themed Christmas ornament. In addition to the ornament releases for Christmas are American and European prototype starter sets not included in this post.

In order to tackle 22 years of Christmas releases I will simply caption each photo with catalog number, year, and note if car is particularly rare, but first a rather unusual car given to Marklin employees: 8661-000? year?

“Weihnachtszeit ist Marklinzeit” (Christmas Time is Marklin TIme)

Marklin 80623 (2013) RARE Note: car features a ‘black’ Santa, it is a particularly difficult car to locate

Marklin 80625 (2015) Note: small decorated Christmas tree is included with car

Marklin 80625 (2015) “FROHE WEIHNACHTEN” (Merry Christmas) imprinted on roof

Marklin 80626 (2016) note: newly tooled type Eaos hopper

Marklin 80627 (2017) note: “XMAS” is laser cut from cardstock

Siding: one Christmas release not reported here is 80609 featuring type O 10 freight car for K.W.St.E with brakeman’s cab and load of paper wrapped chocolate. Also included with the release was a small decorated Christmas tree. Released 1999.

Holiday Releases Week: Easter Cars in Z – Marklin

I have to admit, I did not start collecting Marklin Z based on their holiday releases, they came later after settling in for the long haul collecting Marklin. For collectors, Marklin’s holiday releases are “One Time Series” thereby making them limited and eventually rare. For train collectors who concentrate on prototypical railroading holiday themed cars will probably not cut it.

But collecting trains can have an outlaying interest: making fun and not so serious holiday layouts or novelty layouts which are theme based diverging from serious railroading which is ever present in most railroaders’ mindsets.

Kids and grand kids or those young at heart will respond with joy and amazement at one other version of model train collecting with Marklin’s theme based releases: Halloween, Christmas and Easter. Roughly speaking the first limited holiday releases were for Christmas in 1997. Plus this is an excellent opportunity to have the family creatively contribute to your hobby.

This week I thought I would share some of these cars from my collection which is complete for Christmas, incomplete for Easter and complete for Halloween.

Today is Easter! The first Easter release in my collection is a complete dealer display including wooden bunny which holds silver tray with one Easter egg ornament perched atop. This One Time Series for 2000 was released with 5 color variations of the paper insert including orange, blue, yellow, green and red. The design featured 3 colorful bunnies gracing the sides of a type 8615 box car with brakeman’s cab used mostly on holiday releases. Dealer displays included backlit graphic sign which slide into a custom made Marklin display which could be switched out for future releases.

Marklin 00811 Dealer Display “Bunny with silver tray” . One Time Release 2000 included type 8615 boxcar with acrylic Easter egg. 5 color variations of paper insert including: orange, blue, yellow, green, and red.

Marklin 00811 Easter car with 3 bunnies and chick

The One Time Release for 2001 is the “Frohe Ostern (Happy Easter)” car featuring flower design which also incorporated the type 8615 car.

Marklin 00000 Easter car with dogwood flower design. Note: ‘m’ symbol lower right indicating a limited release car. Note: may have been given to Marklin employees(?).

2003 was the year of the ‘chick’ with Marklin’s Easter release depicting yellow chick: 00813.

Breaking with tradition the type 8615 car was swapped out with a sliding wall boxcar for the 2016 Easter release: 80416.

An adorable “Happy Easter” design followed in 2017 with a design depicting two bunnies against colorful blue background: 80417.

Skipping a year due to hole in my collection we proceed to this year’s release combining a relatively new technology being used at Marklin: laser cut card-stock constructions. In this year’s release bunnies are depicted as cardboard cut-outs: a bit of sculpture as interesting cargo: 80419.

Marklin 80419 Note: car has a slight curl or warp suggesting a defect in manufacturing, if you get hold of this car consider returning it for exchange.

Marklin Easter releases are far more encompassing than simply a freight car in an acrylic Easter ornament, they include a large colorful gift box with Easter basket and grass.

MSI’s: Marklin 8615 car type

The container wagon 8615 has been in the Marklin line-up for many years. Marklin’s earliest 8615 special imprint model was produced in 1979, it was lettered for Germany’s largest malt roaster WEISSHEIMER MALZ with Koll’s #79701 in the stated edition of 100. Lettering on this car is on the roof panel otherwise the car is unmarked and painted yellow. As a note of reference this car was not reproduced by the Koll’s catalogs and this maybe this first photo posted of it online:

*Touch photos to enlarge!

Other cars that followed were Kraft cars that were packed with unique packaging: illustrated cardboard sleeve with an inserted block of styrofoam containing the car and usually some type of track accessory. If you collected all the Kraft editions you would be able to assemble a small oval track with sidings. This includes the Kraft Editions with Marklin type 8615 printed by Marklin.

The order of chronology for the 8615 Kraft cars began with KRAFT Mayonnaise.

KRAFT Mayonnaise, Koll’s #84701, edition: 500, released: 1984
KRAFT Miracoli, Koll’s #84702, edition: 500, released: 1984
FRAPAN, Koll’s #85701, edition: 500, released: 1985
KRAFT – VELVETA, Koll’s #85702, edition: 500, released: 1985
KRAFT Miracel Whip, Koll’s #85703, edition: 500, released: 1985

6. Weissheimer Malz, Koll’s #79701, Miba/Monk #M-028, edition size: 100 7. Kodak, Koll’s #85711, edition size: 500 *sold as part of starter set 8. VIESSMANN, Koll’s #86702, Miba/Monk #M-145, edition size: 100 9. Privatbrauerei Their Dortmund, Koll’s #87001, edition size: 200 10. 150 Jahre Eisenbahn in Osterreich, Koll’s #87502, edition size: 500 11. AL Loulakis, Koll’s #87708, Miba/Monk #M-173, edition size: 300

12. Bison, Koll’s #87709, edition size: 500 13. Karl Bissinger, Koll’s #87710, edition size: 100 14. LANDIS & GYR, Koll’s 87712, edition size: 200 15. Mars, Koll’s #87713, edition size: 800 16. Farymann Diesel, Koll’s #87714, Miba/Monk #M-254, edition size: 200 17. SAROTTI, Koll’s #87715, edition size: 300

18. MAXI MALZ, Koll’s #88001, edition size: 100 19. PEPSI LIGHT, Koll’s #88003, edition size: 100 20. SCHLADERER, Koll’s #88005, edition size: 100 21. Schmucker Bier, Koll’s #88007, edition size: 100 22. Birkel, Koll’s #88711, edition size: 100 23. Hamburg-Mannheimer, Koll’s #88715, Miba/Monk #M-266, edition size: 100

24. Hochtief, Koll’s #88716, edition size: 100 25. Philipp Holzmann, Koll’s #88717, edition size: 100 26. Texas Instruments: TMS320C30 DSP – 33 Mio, rote Aufschr. Signale/Sekunde Electronica 88 (car features black text: “Texas Instruments”), Koll’s #88720, edition size: 300 27. Texas Instruments: TMS320C30 DSP – 33 Mio, rote Aufschr. Signale/Sekunde Electronica 88 (car features red text: “Texas Instruments”), Koll’s #88721, edition size: 300 28. SCHINDLER-CHEMIE, Koll’s #88722, edition size: 100 29. Persil, Koll’s #89701, edition size: 500

30. STP, Koll’s #89703, edition size: 200 31. SWG, Koll’s #89704, edition size: 200 32. TIEK MASCHINEBAU, Koll’s #89707, Miba/Monk #M-382, edition size: 100 33. HEIM, Koll’s #89712, edition size: 100 34. PALMERS, Koll’s #89712, edition size: 500 35. Vierzig Jahre Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Koll’s #90709, edition size: 200

36. dallah, Koll’s #90710, edition size: 100 37. H. Bahlsen Hannover, Koll’s #90714, edition size: 500 38. Herder, Koll’s #91704, edition size: 100 *The following cars were sold in a three car set: The Automobile Companies of France. Marklin #88126, Koll’s #92706, edition size: 1000. Released 1992. Distributed to Marklin dealers in the United States, Canada and France. Individual cars are numbered with Miba/Monk reference numbers 39. RENAULT, Miba/Monk #M-736 40. CITROEN, Miba/Monk #M-734 41. PEUGEOT, Miba/Monk #M-735

42. TIEK, Koll’s #92707, Miba/Monk #M-669, edition size: 100 43. MITSUBISHI PAJERO, Koll’s #92710, edition size: 100 44. EUROPA ’92, Koll’s #92711, edition size: 200 45. 90 Jahre Harley-Davidson: 1903-1993, Koll’s #93706, edition size: 1000 46. HERMA, Koll’s #94723, edition size: 100 47. IBM (spelled using pictogram: ‘eye’ ‘bee’ ‘M’), originally sold as part of starter set which included ‘IBM’ pin and tag along with loco and track. Marklin #8180 S, Koll’s #95701, edition size: 300. *Featured on cover of “Koll’s Spezial Katalog 1997.”

48. 150 Jahre Eisenbahnen in Wurttemberg, Koll’s #95713, edition size: 1000 49. Rolls Royce 90 Jahre, Koll’s #95714, edition size: 600 50. Maybach Motonenbau…150 Geburtstag von Wilhelm Maybach, Koll’s #96711, edition size: 1000 51. ALNO die Welt der Kuche, Koll’s #96712, edition size: 100 52. Carl Zeiss, 150 Jahre, Marklin #8615.008, Miba/Monk #M-999 53. Carl Zeiss, Partnerschaft auf lange Sicht, Marklin #8615.016, Koll’s #96715, Miba/Monk #M-1007, edition size: 100

54. B&O Chartered 1827, Miba/Monk #M-1085, released 1997 55. Miele, Miba/Monk #M-1188, released 1998 56. digital, Marklin #8617.068, Miba/Monk #M-1279, released 1999, lettered with Digital Equipment Corporation’s 1993 logo 57. W 02-02-02 M, Marklin #8617.103, Miba/Monk #M-1490, released 2002, car celebrates the 2002 wedding of Prince Alexander and Princess Maxima of Holland

Kraft Marken-Express cars 1984-1986

In 1984-1986 Marklin released in cooperation with Kraft 11 special imprint cars in Z scale. Nine of the cars were included in printed cardboard sleeves comprising car or cars respectfully along with track or accessories comprising a complete train and layout if you collected them all. The illustrations on the sleeves are fun, they depict the car included hooked up to the other cars in the train in their progression of release. It has taken me many years to collect all of these cars, each features the little printed ‘m’ for Marklin notating a special release car. Two cars that were printed at the same time as the “Marken-Express” cars were ‘Frapan’ and ‘Knack & Back’, these cars differed from the “Marken-Express” releases, they included illustrated Kraft product sleeves. The Marklin style 8615 and 8600 freight cars were used for these two editions.

Here is the list of Marklin Z Kraft cars in order of release with Koll’s numbers:

1. NUR GUTES VERDIENT DEN NAMEN KRAFT + Tomaten-Ketchup: two car set that included a BR 89 loco. Koll’s #84710 (1984). Marken-Express release.

2. Scheibletten Koll’s #84711. Marken-Express release.

3. Mayonnaise Koll’s #84701. Marken-Express release.

4. Miracoli Koll’s #84702. Marken-Express release.

5. KRAFT-VELVETA Koll’s #85702. Marken-Express release.

6. Miracel Whip Koll’s #85703. Marken-Express release.

7. PHILADELPHIA Koll’s #85701. Marken-Express release.

8. FRAPAN Koll’s #85701.

9. Knack & Back Koll’s #85702.

10. jocca Koll’s #86701 Marken-Express release.