Recall that Wolfgang has an extensive vocational and technical background as a machinist and in engineering and computer aided design. With all the years he has restored items and constructed beautiful replicas of toy trains and accessories; it is not surprising that he also has created new trains that are “in the style of Marklin”. They look like an item Marklin could have produced although they did not.
Public toilets were found in many German cities at the turn of the century on the streets, in parks, in front of the train stations and large public buildings. Wolfgang’s creation is for 1 Gauge and has a detailed interior as well. Frau Bauer hand crafted the figures.
Flat cars and open goods wagons need “loads” to haul on the miniature railroads and many of the flat cars, like the # 1938G and # 1953St had no loads. Or there was not a good way to secure the load to the car, there may not be "stanchions" and chains to tie down the load. Wolfgang solved these issues with his attractive containers. The container has an adjustable magnet in it which secures the container to the metal flat car without modifying the original flat car! One container can fit on a #1953 flat car and two on the 1953 flat car. The 26 different container advertisements, shown below, offer a variety of container loads to be carried.
A locomotive pulling a long string of container wagons looks very prototypical.
Produced only from 1912-1914 in both 0 and 1 Gauge the Marklin #1944 post / baggage car is a rare car. In both gauges it was a simple, two axle car, with no interior. At the request of a customer Wolfgang created a Gauge 1, military version of the car with a full interior of beds, a stove, luggage racks, writing desk, and figures.
A collector friend wanted a “Pullman Train” for his collection. Using the 1 Gauge Marklin #1894 passenger wagon as the basic model passenger wagon, Wolfgang created the six car Pullman set shown here. He modified one of the cars to have the open viewing platform common on US passenger trains.
Trams (or trolley’s), powered by horses and electricity, were an important means of transit in the turn of the century Europe. Marklin produced many clockwork and electric powered models of horse drawn and electric powered trams between 1895 and the early 1900s in Gauges 0/1/and 2.
Wolfgang’s creation is a gauge 2 vehicle and is very similar to the Marklin original but is 15 mm longer. The roof is a sliding roof; the original has an “umbrella” that can be unfolded. There were different destination boards for different German cities as well as boards in French, English for those cities as well. The original Marklin trolley is very difficult to find today.
The two Gauge 1 trolleys below were custom built for a customer.
The Circus Train
The Bauer’s current project is a series of very colorful Gauge 1 circus wagons based on the Marklin circus wagons produced between 1903-1914 in Gauges 0, 1, and 2. The early Marklin circus train consisted of a low sided 4 axle wagon (#1818) l with fold down side walls loaded with three different loads of 2 axle circus wagons :
- # 1879 Menagerie Transportwagen
- # 1878 Circus wagen
- # 1877 Furniture wagen
These three cars are now very rare and highly sought after.
The Bauer’s “Circus Oriental” consists of 12 different circus oriented loads including animal cages a dining car, a music wagon, workshop, moving wagons, and others. The low sided 4 axle wagon is shown with bright blue sides with “Circus Oriental” lettered on the sides but the basic color can be specified by the buyer. All of the cars can be obtained with the label “Cirque Américain”. The wagons are very attractive and would make an attention getting circus train.
Next: The Bauer's Personal Toy Train Collection
© 2015 Tinplate Times - All rights reserved.