All about The Auckland Märklin Club Inc.
Formed in 1987, the Auckland Märklin Club has met in various places and been involved in a number of exhibitions. For many years the clubrooms were based
in the old Papakura Military Camp and in 2003 we moved to a more central site in Onehunga.
Sadly our lease there expired and the building was sold, so at the moment,
whilst looking for a new home, we meet at various members' houses viewing and
discussing their individual layouts.
So whether you want to design and build your own layout, or just meet over a coffee,
watch trains, and discuss the finer points, the Auckland Märklin
Club has something to offer you. Perhaps obviously, our members
mostly (but not exclusively) use Märklin
trains from Germany as the basis for their model train hobby. This usually results in a more European style to our
modeling, although we also have some American
interests. Others of us tend to model anything they like without much regard
to geographic region of the prototype at all, but whatever, we generally enjoy all aspects that the hobby has to offer.
Club meetings are held (at the moment) on the 2nd Monday every month (except January).
Perhaps the greatest benefit from membership of the Auckland Märklin Club comes from meeting and discussing ideas with fellow members. Many of us are currently working on our own layouts at home and in most cases we have struck issues and worked out ways of resolving them. This can save you the time and expense of reinventing the wheel and get you up and running more quickly. There is always someone about who can offer advice on:
- where to buy things
- how to maintain the trains, wagons and track or even . . .
- how easy and not necessarily expensive it is to move into the digital/computer world that the hobby has developed into.
The library can also be a help with past catalogues, Märklin Insider magazines, general railroad books, videos and "How to" books to assist you. Naturally, like all clubs, there is often some second hand goods for sale between members, and locos , even if 50 years old, can still run together with the newest products available.
Please feel free to ask questions, try things out, bring your trains along to run on the club layouts, make suggestions and generally have a good time. If there is anything we can help you with, we are all ears . . .Interested in joining us? Email us at aucklandmarklinclub@gmail.com
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Club Layouts
Modular HO Layout:
Because of the lack of clubrooms, our sole layout
at the moment is the modular layout which can be seen at show times.
The club itself owns several 1220 x 610 (mm) standard modules plus several
corner modules, and at exhibition times members also bring along their
own modules so that we can put together a quite extensive layout for show
purposes. Any member is welcome to build their own module(s) to add to
the display, although adherence to the standard specifications is obviously
necessary to maintain compatibility and ensure proper functionality with the
rest of the modules.
SPECS HERE.