Marklin History

I just received my order of three volumes of Marklin, Technical Toys in the Course of Time. I believe those pictures are from volume 6 - 1919 to 1921. The pictures are actually marked 1910. It's really neat to see how these were made. It is disconcerting to see the child labor. At least you don't see children operating the molding presses. You can make out some boats and building parts and train cars in on the tables in the sheet metal works.

George

George, the Marklin books are wonderful. You can really see the quality when you see these toys in person. There appears to be some children in the sheet works photo as well

I have a good number of Marklin HO and Z trains, and once had a number of Marklin #1 Gauge trains. Quality products, for sure. Marklin now owns and produces LGB trains as well, which remain my favorite Large Scale trains.

ALLAN: The current Marklin LGB production is mostly in Hungary. Judging from the quality and heft of my two new high-end RhB 2nd class coaches with factory lighting and ball bearing wheelsets ($370 each) I would say they are carrying the LGB tradition forward!

Those coaches sound impressive. I have some older ball bearing wheelsets, and they add some weight to the cars.

I do see some children in the sheet metal picture, but they seem a little older than the painters. I started working retail at 16 years old, but I was pushing a lawn mower for cash way before that. The working conditions of the Marklin factory appear to be a little nicer than what I have read about the 19th century English factories.

George

You must remember history. In those years by far the largest part of the population lived on farms. Before WW2 most people never ventured farther than 40 miles from where they were born. Why were families so large in those years? So they all could work on the farm. Kids, parents, everyone. There was no option. If a child could work in a factory all the better but few in numbers did. You can't look at things like old pictures with todays eyes. Very few farmers had real money then. You grew things to eat or trade. Hunting and fishing weren't a sport. They helped the family survive. Don

Lots of children worked from an early age all over the world. I was a small skinny kid and probably looked like I was 11 years old when I started work delivering telegrams on a push bike for the post office in reality I was 15 years old but had worked long before that, this was the 50's in Australia my mother never had any money and my father had passed away. Lot different nowadays it was normal then, never hurt me. Roo.

George S posted:

I just received my order of three volumes of Marklin, Technical Toys in the Course of Time. I believe those pictures are from volume 6 - 1919 to 1921. The pictures are actually marked 1910. It's really neat to see how these were made. It is disconcerting to see the child labor. At least you don't see children operating the molding presses. You can make out some boats and building parts and train cars in on the tables in the sheet metal works.

George

The Märklin, Technical Toys In The Course Of Time books are fantastic, I've got 1 to 14, just need 15 to complete the set.

Mark

I bought volumes 3, 4 and 6. I am interested in the early part of the century. I could not find vol 5. 

George

Lionel used child labor ....one of the reasons they got kicked out of White St  in   1909  

fun factories were not always fun 

CAREY: Is that claim, in fact, documented in Osterhoff's book? Page number?

I think all-in-all, I'm getting a consensus that times were much different then. Nevertheless, no one can dispute the brilliant artistry in old Marklin trains/toys.

No question! Those were very different times.

I can only speak of the UK where I live, but until 1947, the school leaving age was 14, and with poor diet, kids were much smaller at that age than they are today.

Mark