We are all familiar with the Märklin Mailing List and its successor, the Märklin Bar & Grill (Thank you Kevin B.) and some of the "noisy" discussions that are part and parcel of both. We argue about what locomotives are allowed to pull what cars. We discuss whether or not an Era 1 Lok has a place on an Era 3 layout. We get into minutiae about all sorts of things. Well, here’s my take on some of these issue, if you can even call them issues.

    To begin with let’s keep in mind that we are all grown ups and our interest in the wonderful hobby of model railroading, be it 3-rail AC or 2-rail DC, is that this is a hobby, leisure time enjoyment. The reality is that we are playing with model trains. We enjoy the hobby, each in our own way. My thinking is…

    I’m a Märkliner through and through, having returned to the fold a little over 40 years after being introduced to these wonderful trains as a little boy. Now that I have the luxury of being picky about how I enjoy these trains, I will say that I don’t care one bit about Era (Epochen) correctness (the model railroad equivalent of political correctness; see below); I don’t care one bit about matching up each of my Loks with the appropriate cars. I can show anyone that where the DRG, DB, DR and DB AG is concerned, freight locomotives hauled passenger cars, passenger engine pulled freight cars. I can show you photographs of Donnerbüchsen mixed together with Prussian compartment coaches. I can show you passenger cars and freight cars in the same train. The point is anything goes. The only train enthusiast you have to please is yourself.

Epochen Korrektheit or Era Correctness

As some of you may know, I am not particularly Epochen Korrekt or, in English, Era Correct. It’s sort of the train equivalent of political correctness. One day while searching for something in a back issue of Eisenbahn Magazin, I came across what some may find not exactly Epochen Korrekt. Well, one thing leads to another and I made a deliberate effort to find more examples of what I favor greatly, namely Era Incorrectness. I practice the later on my Wilhelmshorst-Michendorf Eisenbahn Gesellschaft. After all, if I did not, I could not run my Belgian Type 26 (ex BR 50 or 52), my Glaskasten, my SBB Crocodiles and so much more. Here are some examples I found in Eisenbahn Magazin and Eisenbahn Journal special issues..

• BR 50 running tender first and pulling a consist of express coaches.
• Another BR 50 pulling Prussian compartment coaches.
• DB BR 50 pulling a Belgian military train.
• BR 194 with a string of Umbauwagen
• Double heading of an E 94 and an E 50
• E 18 pulling a mixed train of freight and Prussian compartment coaches
• E 18 heading up a unit train of coal hoppers
• BR 86 pulling everything from Thunderboxes, Umbauwagen, ancient Länderbahn cars, freight and passenger mixed consists.
• BR 42 running tender first and pulling a string of compartment coaches.
• BR 44 with a Wannentender (tub tender)

These are just a few examples I found in about 30 minutes of browsing through EM and EJ special issues.

When I did my article on the BR 41, I learned that these engines were also used for passenger service. 

Then, I don’t know why some modelers have an aversion to steam tender Loks running tender first or tank loks running coal bunker first. It was done all the time with BR 42/50/52 engines as well as the BR 86, BR 65 and even the BR 23. Keep in mind the BR 42/50/52 were meant to run at speeds up to 50 mph (80 km/h) forward and backward.

Care to enter the discussion? Send me an e-mal at khmiska@umich.edu.