254 - Märklin four passenger coaches gauge 00 (H0), Mitropa and LMS dining cars, two CIWL cars, 1935–1939

Märklin four passenger coaches gauge 00 (H0), Mitropa and LMS dining cars, two CIWL cars, 1935–1939 Four passenger coaches of the Märklin brand in gauge 00 (H0). Included are a Mitropa dining car, a dining car 342 E in the version for the British LMS, red-brown with stamped lettering 'LMS', the Mitropa lettering overpainted at the factory and still faintly visible, as well as two coaches of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, one in cream/green and one in cream/blue. Versions of 1935–1939, all four coaches with claw couplings. Lithographed tinplate construction. Played-with condition, partly stronger paint damage. The absence of smaller, delicate add-on parts cannot be entirely ruled out. The Mitropa operated the dining and sleeping cars in the German-speaking area from 1916, while the Belgian Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits provided the international luxury trains of Europe. Both shaped the image of the classic long-distance trains, which makes these coaches appealing to collectors of the early Märklin tinplate railway. The Mitropa dining car with claw couplings comes from the pre-war production of 1935 to 1939 (Koll's Kompaktkatalog Märklin 00/H0, 1983, no. 342, variant 1 or 2). The dining car 342 E is the version for the British market: red-brown with stamped lettering 'LMS', the side lettering 'MITROPA SPEISEWAGEN' overpainted at the factory, supplied only from 1937 to 1938 (no. 342 E, variant 1). The two Pullman cars 349 represent the first version of 1937 in ivory and dark turquoise and the second of 1938 to 1939 in ivory and ultramarine blue (no. 349, variants 1 and 2). The LMS dining car and the two Pullman cars have been recorded in the consignor's collection index since 1982.