Brands in the Model Railway world

Marklin is by far one of the oldest model train makers in the world, the company was founded in 1859 in Goppingen.They started off as doll makers and by the early 1900s, Marklin started manufacturing Model trains in the early 1900s and have been continuing to do so, Marklin mainly makes French, German, Dutch and some Czech, Norwegian and some export models too. In 1979 Marklin was the first toy company to release Digital Technology in the model railroading world.

A Diagram of the Marklin Digital Architecture

Walthers

Founded in 1932, this company mainly makes Model Trains as well but they are based in the US, they mainly distribute model trains from other model train manufacturers including Tomix and Kato and Marklin, they also specialize in Layout accessories, DCC (Digital Command Control) and etc

Trix

Trix (owned by Marklin) is a 2-Rail manufacturer (DC) but some of the models that are manufactured by Marklin are very similar to the Marklin models. Trix also has a Fine Arts range which produces model trains but it can be very costly.

Fleischmann

Fleischmann is a model train manufacturer in Germany but the products they manufacture is very different to Marklin. Fleischmann makes DC models while Marklin makes AC models. Sometimes Fleischmann does make AC models but they are very limited in the range.