The Second World War brought a new enforced break in toy production. Mercifully the firm's production plant escaped any direct effects of war. Richard Safft died in 1945 and Eugen Märklin in 1947. Herbert Safft took his father's place as managing director. Soon after the war ended model railroad production started up again, at first for export only. While the OO/HO range was extended as fast as possible, O-gauge models saw greatly limited production. In 1950 manufacture of the "wide-tracks" in lacquered tinplate stopped altogether. The tinplate era was at an end. Plastics largely took over in the range of materials used. Now the company dedicated itself almost exclusively to developing and perfecting the HO railroads which established themselves equally as trains to play with ("because the system's so clear" as the German advertising said) and as first-rate models. This dual strategy - seen through largely by the efforts of Fritz Märklin before his death in 1961 -clearly helped towards the world wide success enjoyed by Märklin's HO railroads.