What Marklin beast is this? Saw it on the Lankes Auktion page and thought, "There's a tinplate booster unit." Our Euro-collectors' thoughts appreciated. Piece is Gauge 1.
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
This was made by Märklin in 1909 to be added in the middle of a long train to assist in running; it is clockwork motor on wheels. It could be called a booster. I think careful running was necessary with this in the middle of a train but that might have added to the fun.
Regards
Fred
To add to this:
The Märklin designers had many smart ideas. They also made in 1906 a so called Heizwagen (heating car) in gauge one which just was a boiler on wheels. It included some tubing with leaking connections such that you could heat your passenger cars and showing steam coming from the connections. https://www.historytoy.com/mar...ng-car-gr3en-gauge-1
It was based on a real steam heating car used in one of the first train running in winter with an electric locomotive in Germany.
Regards
Fred
Fascinating innovations!
Well, that's very interesting... never knew that existed. Here I thought I was being innovative by hiding an additional clockwork motor in the occasional Marx tender:
...and I do run the occasional long trains on my windup layout using distributed power, usually with one locomotive on the front and the other at the rear as a pusher. It actually works well; the trains aren't too particular about how they are made up or where the 2nd loco is situated. The tough thing to do is start both locomotives at the same time when they are more than an arm's length apart!
Attachments
Images (2)
Windupguy - those are very neat! Great job! 
Reading a book on the Midland Railway in England I noticed that many of their trains were double headed with 2 4-4-0 locomotives. I tried to do that with two clockwork locomotives, a Bassett Lowke and a Bing.
Regards
Fred
