Marklin Tinplate: European Caboose?!

From my time of running Marklin, Fleischmann, Trix and Piko trains (albeit the HO or N models), the German and similar trains had that kind of "Guard's Wagon" at the end of a train, or sometimes at other parts of the train.  

I've seen both green and maroon ones over time in HO and N gauge, and have some from different eras of the makes above.

 In Germany these are called  Güterzuggepäckwagen (goods train bagage cars). Normally they ran directly after the locomotive and not at the end of the train (here is one in gauge 0 2-rail:

)

Regards

Fred

Those are beauties! I like the tinplate with a lot of extra detail.

Here's some more info; it makes me cringe to think what happened to them in accidents or derailments. http://www.eisenbahn-und-model.../lesenEMB20S08ff.htm

I have a few Marklin gepäckwagen.  The French called then Wagon Fourgon (roughly, van wagon), and the British refer to them as Luggage Vans.  Generally lighter-duty freight than a box car would handle, as you suggest similar to our baggage car but found as part of a freight (goods) train. Definitely a "head-end" car.

But the gepäckwagen I've seen, like yours in the video, don't have the features of the two I posted above. The baggage vans don't have the crew interior, the visibility cupola, access to the roof, EOT (FRED) lights on the back, and so on.  Like I say, in terms of function, these two Gauge 1 cars that I pictured just seem a lot more caboose-like than anything I've come across; it's hard to explain these features other than as a Caboose-like crew van at the end of the train.

 Firewood, your link certainly seems to verify the "crew's quarters" aspect of this car.

I think they are called "brake vans" from back in the days of mechanical brakes. Only the locomotive and the brake van had any brakes. And yes, these cars did run at the rear of the train like a caboose. 

hojack posted:

But the gepäckwagen I've seen, like yours in the video, don't have the features of the two I posted above. The baggage vans don't have the crew interior, the visibility cupola, access to the roof, EOT (FRED) lights on the back, and so on.  Like I say, in terms of function, these two Gauge 1 cars that I pictured just seem a lot more caboose-like than anything I've come across; it's hard to explain these features other than as a Caboose-like crew van at the end of the train.

 

The green Märklin 4 wheel car really looks like a normal German güterzuggepäckwagen like the one in my video (the picture shows is has crew interior and visibility cupola). However, according to www.historytoy.com both cars are for passenger trains, not goods trains.

See:  http://www.historytoy.com/Maer...n-gruen#.VqDKzSrhDWI 

and: http://www.historytoy.com/Maer...n-braun#.VqDLIirhDWI

Regards

Fred

sncf231e posted:

The green Märklin 4 wheel car really looks like a normal German güterzuggepäckwagen like the one in my video (the picture shows is has crew interior and visibility cupola). However, according to www.historytoy.com both cars are for passenger trains, not goods trains.

 

Okay, thank you.  Interesting stuff.  You're the man when it comes to European tinplate.  That's a lot of the attraction...  it's different!

Do you know anything about Maurice Gautier?  Apparently he did high-quality handmade reproductions of prewar Marklin tinplate.  The maroon gepäckwagen that I pictured above, with the bogies, is apparently one of his.

 

they must have trained capuchin monkeys to do all the detailed hand painting. No way my fat fingers would get inside there unless I used a model brush with a 12-inch handle.

hojack posted:

sncf231e posted:

The green Märklin 4 wheel car really looks like a normal German güterzuggepäckwagen like the one in my video (the picture shows is has crew interior and visibility cupola). However, according to www.historytoy.com both cars are for passenger trains, not goods trains.

 

Okay, thank you.  Interesting stuff.  You're the man when it comes to European tinplate.  That's a lot of the attraction...  it's different!

Do you know anything about Maurice Gautier?  Apparently he did high-quality handmade reproductions of prewar Marklin tinplate.  The maroon gepäckwagen that I pictured above, with the bogies, is apparently one of his.

 

 Jim Kelly over at Tinplate Times has an article on Wolfgang Bauer and his drool-worthy Marklin re-creations and restorations. Herr Bauer's letterhead shows one of your cars at the train's head-end.

  http://tinplatetimes.com/profi...andreproductions.htm 

Check out the billboard reefers and the Marklin hospital train, too.

About Maurice Gauthier, he was a french collector of Marklin trains and when he retired he realized several Marklin reproduction models of very good quality. He builds windcutter engines in O and 1 gauge, the originals are very expensives and hard to find so he reproduced them very well and used a modern motorisation in. He has also done several models of the rarest Marklin passenger cars, post cars and baggages cars, a very nice Metro. Also some buildings and lightings. You can still find some for sale on ebay in France searching in gauge one category, his son as still some of them for sale.

Pictures of some of his models following are from Ebay listings. Your maroon model is from Maurice also.

Daniel

FRANCE

Scan from a Marklin catalog ca. 1912...note the position of the Gepackwagen.

The 1846 double truck Gepackwagen is a beautiful car. I have both an original as well as the MG reproduction in my collection. The video below shows the original as a part of a consist of original Marklin cars pulled by a reproduction Kassel-Hanover locomotive.

Jim Kelly-Evans posted:

Scan from a Marklin catalog ca. 1912...note the position of the Gepackwagen.

 

Oh look, it's a Caboose! 

- david

Daniel, thank you for the information on Maurice Gauthier; I have been emailing with Phillippe, his son; I did indeed get my maroon model from him.  He says his dad made these through the 1990's and up until about 2010.  It's really pretty amazing work.  Wonderful stuff.

david