European tinplate train : MERKUR TOYS

NICE and THANKS for the link!

I plan to order the larger Pilsner Urquell reefer!

I have a Merkur locomotive, the same 2-6-2 as shown in the video, and some rolling stock. From the name you are using on YouTube (trainsjouets), plus the style of your layout, I am guessing that you are in Europe, most likely France. Merkur trains are quite uncommon in the U.S., as there is no distributor here.

I acquired most of my Merkur trains, including the locomotive, from a gentleman who had been in discussions with Merkur management to become the U.S. distributor. He told me that the Merkur people were very difficult to deal with and didn't want to make any product or packaging changes for the American market. In fact, the locomotive I have, which was one of the factory samples, came to me wired for direct current. The factory had not bothered to set it up for AC, although 3-rail DC is completely unknown in the United States. I had to install a rectifier and toggle switch to operate the locomotive from a U.S. transformer. A friend of mine who travels to Prague frequently confirmed this. His impression was that Merkur was still being run like a Communist-era business, that you made something and people would buy it because there wasn't anything else to buy. This was in sharp contrast to ETS, a much more modern and better managed company.

My friend once brought his Czech father-in-law over to my house to see my ETS trains. He commented that when he was a boy, he had Merkur trains. He was quite surprised when I reached under the table and came up with a big box of Merkur trains!

My impression of Merkur trains is that they are fun little tinplate trains, but nowhere near as interesting or as high in quality as ETS. In U.S. terms, ETS is more like LIonel; Merkur is comparable to Marx.

Here are a couple of Merkur pictures. The first one is a Chodovar beer car that my friend got for me in Prague. The second is mainly a picture of ETS, but the two small wagons on the upper shelf are post-WWII era Merkur.

Beautiful toy trains. Did you order directly from Merkur? Thanks for sharing.

Question for Southwest Hiawatha....

Are you still purchasing ETS trains and if so, where are you getting them?
To say I'm having difficulties with ETS is an gross understatement.
I know there is a fellow on the forum selling a friends existing stock - but where would you go for the new stuff? Would love some help here because I purchased quite a few pieces from them initially at YORK and then through WEAVER.
Weaver dropped them or vise versa - now I have a collection started and nowhere to turn for growing it.

Thank you!

Hi John,

ETS is always set up in the Orange hall in the corner near MTH.
I am sure you could buy directly from them on their website.

http://www.ets-trains.com/

Roland

Hello Roland:

Understood. That's where I picked up the first few pieces. My issues with ETS are a head scratcher. I know that Weaver had some issues getting product from them at times, so as an individual I don't stand a chance.

I began by trying to phone in an order to their PA Representative Mr. Dusan Neumann in early 2010 after Weaver stopped importing them. Left messages in his voice mail. Then I emailed him. No reply at all. Finally I saw him at YORK again in April 2010 - let him know I left messages which he apparently did not get. So standing there in the booth I took his advice and gave him a list of what I wanted to buy. He said this was great - he'd bring it to the OCTOBER YORK and we'd go from there. Well... October comes and he recognizes me but says he never had a list. Then he remembers the list but says it was never entered into their system and he asked me if I had the list (I'm not making ANY of this up). I explained that I gave him the physical list in April. He's apologetic - hands me a new email address claiming the one I was using goes to SPAM filters. Okay - cool - I send him a NEW list via email and copy the email listed on the ETS website in Czechoslovakia. I was astonished when I got an answer from both ETS Corporate and Dusan Neumann here in the states. They'd get me pricing with delivery charges ASAP. That was a month ago next week... just to get the pricing and availability. I tried a follow-up email - no response after two-weeks.
I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm getting a feeling that there's a solid reason the guys at Weaver aren't dealing with them anymore. Why show up at YORK at all? Why advertise in OGR every month? It's a shame because I gave them several outs by asking if the quantities were too small (10 cars) or if they were dropped from the line etc. Just never got an answer - nothing - nothing at all. And as much as I dislike that type of treatment - I still love their trains which sucks worse. Discouraging.

I met John Hoover who is representing Darstaed in the US in October at YORK. A great guy. Maybe I need to give up on the ETS if I can't find a source.

Hi John,

I can understand your frustration. One possible explanation is that they are currently producing several projects for Ace Trains. I met John Hoover at York and found him personable and knowledgeable. I bought some things from him and ordered some future items, and he and I talked about some projects he wants to do in the future, and I for one am fairly excited.

Roland

Hello Roland:

I can't wrap my head around the ETS thing. I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but after awhile it gets too thick for me. If they can't get pricing out to someone within a month - how long are the trains going to take? What would happen if I had a problem with the things when they show up? ETS is a small company, but they can't all be building trains. Someone has to be minding the store so to speak.

I'm in full agreement with you - John Hoover is a really neat guy.He seems to be a genuine train nut - and the world doesn't have enough of those. I'm hoping he brings plenty of stock with him in April 2011.

John

I have not dealt with Mr. Neumann at all. I've thought of contacting him but have not done so, as I am not increasing my collection at the moment. To the best of my recollection, I have only bought one brand-new ETS item, a Pilsner Urquell tank car that a friend of mine picked up for me at the factory shop in Prague.

I acquired my collection of ETS secondhand, off eBay and privately from other collectors. I am not actively adding to my ETS collection at the moment, due to other needs and the fact that I have quite a bit already.

I would suggest following up with the factory in Prague regarding ordering direct from Europe. It appears Mr. Neumann isn't well organized. I have had mixed results getting information out of Prague - sometimes they respond overnight, sometimes the message seems to disappear without a trace. My friend who got the tank car for me said that the people he dealt with were very helpful and seemed to be well organized. He also brought back a whole bunch of parts for me.

The guy you refer to as selling existing stock is most likely Don Thousand in Orange County - he is liquidating the estate of his father, John Thousand, who was the original importer of ETS in the nineties. I have bought a dozen or so items from him. I can get you his phone number if you need it.

If you are interested, I have a couple of ETS passenger cars for sale. They are the U.S. version with American-style trucks and couplers. They are green and lettered for a subsidiary of the Pennsy. E-mail is in my profile.

Southwest

Thank you for the information. I started out with 2-RAIL and traditional ETS couplers. To compound my ETS woes - they (ETS) recently switched to bringing primarily 3-RAIL with conventional knuckle couplers with them to YORK to satisfy the vast majority of folks there which makes perfect sense. But it leaves be hanging so to speak.

I have the list from Don I think. If not, I'll email you off of the forum for his contact information. Thank you. I guess I'll go back to it and see what is there now that the options are diminished.

I'll take your advice and keep up the pursuit with the factory. Thanks very much for getting back to me!

I was in Prague in the spring of 2010 for work. The company I work was testing our new metro and we needed a resistor for one of our power supplies. We found a huge electronics store in Prague and thought we could find what we needed there. Much to my surprise I found that their second floor had a huge stock of O gauge trains. They were all Merkur and I had never heard of that brand. So, I posted something on the OGR forum that night and Southwest Hiawatha gave me a similar description to the one he gave here. So, the next day I went back to the electronics store and bought the Mikado freight set. I have only used the supplied transformer once and that was while the train was setup in my hotel in Prague. Once I got home to the states I ordered a Williams Eunit and that has worked fine. Eventually I want to install and ERR cruise or mini commander. I run mostly tinplate Lionel or American Flyer at Christmas time and this set fit in nicely.

-Ryan

Just a clarification for anyone not familiar with Merkur - what Merkur calls a "Mikado" is in fact a 2-6-2.

I have ordered from Don Thousand in the past and just placed another order with him today. He is top notch and a true gentleman in my experience. I also have some of the Merkur beer cars, very nice.
All the best,
Miketg

While surfing on the net I read your remarks and questions about MERKUR. Since a year I own a small webshop in the Netherlands. I sell MERKUR, ETS and LEHNHARDT (tinplate streetcars gauge 0).

I know that a lot of people are interested in MERKUR but that it isn't so easy to contact them and that their logistic hasn't a hig standard of quality. However I lek the proudcts of MERKUR, ETS and Lehnhardt so I started the shop.

I am not a philantropist but I am able to deliver the tinplate gauge 0 within the price limits of the producers. I don't have to live of the revenues of the webshop, I own a HR consultancy. In the mean time I have some very nice and interesting contacts in the UK and Canada.

So if there is any interest in MERKUR products in the USA let me know. Perhaps I can help you out. If you have any questions you can email me info@blik-en-speelgoed.nl .

MERKUR will bring some new models on the market and the CEO of MERKUR told me that there will be also some USA models!

Best regards

 

Rob Giskes

Any relation to Merkur Razor Blades?

No I am sorry no relation with the MERKUR Razor Blades, just the trainmodels. And not only MERKUR but also ETS and LEHNHARDT.

I met a guy at a train show in February.  He owned a hobby shop and had ETS and I was bowled over.  He said send me a list.  I did via e mail.  No response, no nothin'.  ETS needs to get out of the old east European mind set and join the 21st century or something.  Either that or their USA distributors are the ones with the problems.  When you have customers practically begging to buy from you and you don't sell, you have major issues.

Yeah I know the problem with the delivery from the former East European countries. However most the delivery from the Czech Republic. But I have some good contacts with ETS and MERKUR. I visited MERKUR last year and I helped them out at a big fair in Dortmund Germany. If you like I sent you an email with the list and a pdf of the ETS catalogue. But when you like some items ask first. I had to disappoint some people because the item was not in stock, will not be produced anymore or any other problem.

Sure, send an e mail. Addy in profile.  I am only interested in ETS, nor Merkur.

I will be getting in touch with you soon, Rob, related to a magazine project I am exploring.

Hi Allan I am looking forward it. Always a pleasure to talk about tinplate and so on.

Lehnhardt- Hmmm, nice.

http://www.dr-lehnhardt.de/bahn/

Ok I understand there are more poeple who like the tinplate models gauge 0 from the European mainland......

On my website you are ablte to download the catalogues of ETS, MERKUR and Lehnardt and there is still some stuff from Déak!

If you cannot downlaod I will sent you the link.

Like many model railroaders of a certain age I also enjoy building erector set models.  Merkur is the only traditional set available in the US (erector sets in general have been replaced by Legos) that is affordable and of good quality and its what I build with.  Merkur actually has a number of models of mine (no one asked me but Im flattered they chose them) on their web-site (the stripping shovel, excavator, actually a drag-line, the shipyard rail crane, the loading shovel and the bulldozer. If you click on interests and curiosities and then click on the harvester it will take you to these models.  I prefer to free-lance my models instead of copying those in the Merkur manual.  I look at pictures of the prototypes and end up building a generic version.  Most of these models are close to 1/50 scale and would look appropriate on an O gauge layout.  Their largest set the M-8 is about $200 but keep in mind some of the larger models need 2-3 sets to be completed.         bertiejo

John,  I bought quite a bit of ETS during the last York from Bill Alcorn - owner of B&B Hobby Supplies - who was in the Purple Hall.  His number is 412-580-4570.

 

Good luck,

 

That is VERY cool!  Two hobbies that work well together.  I will definitely check out your craftsmanship on the Merkur site.

In one way you can be pleased that your models are so good that even a producer want to copy them. On the other hand I understand that it would be more polite if they asked you about it. I know the board of directors of MERKUR personally. I visited them in CZ last year and I speak the youngest CEO almost every two weeks by phone. Perhaps you can tell me how it was possible that MERKUR copied your ideas? You may email me to info@blik-en-speelgoed.nl Perhaps I can spread your word to the CEO and see what happens.

On the website of MERKUR  http://www.merkurtoys.cz/en/merkur-history You can read about the development of the erector set models in relation to the development of the MERKUR gauge 0 models.

 

Merkur has two, very interesting looking Stationary Steam Engines on their web page.  These look very similar to the old Fleischmann engines which were known to be very high quality devices.

 

It would be interesting to know if it would be possible to purchase these in the U.S. as well.

Hi RAK,

 

I can tell you that at this moment only the standard steam engine is deliverable. I don't know when or if MERKLUR will produce the medium one. If you cannot purchase it in the USA contact me at info@blik-en-speelgoed.nl

I don't know the regulations about the steam engine in the USA. In Holland they need to have a certificate by the authoroty of the steamengine security. The same authority who controls the real steam engines, for example the museum steam railway locomotives.

 

Rob