From the Vault -- Exclusive Antique, Vintage Map

Exceptional Antique 3-D Topographical USA MAP

Raised Relief Topographical Map USA

scale: 1 : 3,000,000 wall map, exclusive, rare, antique, hangs everywhere

precise, to-scale, geo-scientifically correct

 68 " x 53 "

for unbelievably low US$ 225.00

(compare to other prices for smaller products)

plus shipping and handling

map detail, South Eastern USA

This extraordinary and rare 3-D map of the USA was made in (Western) Germany from 1956 to 1997 by vacuum-forming and finalized by hand-coloring. It is true precision German engineering and craftsmanship at its best, absolutely to scale with a super-elevation factor of 40.

Never wears out!

Lifelong Warranty*

The perfect wall decoration for any train enthusiast!

map detail - The Rockies

The map is vinyl, roll-able, hangs on a simple hook on your wall, is washable and can be written on with washable markers. See and feel the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains, the valley of the mighty Mississippi. Draw your favorite railroad line right onto the map!

Klaus' TechDesign USA was certified by the GA Dept of Education for  these maps (Klaus vault holds a small number of these maps) when he was working with the GA Dept of Education developing and later selling his RoboBoard©.


Easy to care for: Wash with soapy water if needed. * Do not cut or use abrasive or acid-containing cleaners.

Extremely Rare - From Klaus Personal Collection - 1991 Christmas Flat Car, Champagne Bottle & Signed Card

Extremely Rare and Extremely Limited

1991 Christmas Gondola/Flat Car 

with Champagne Bottle and 
Wolfgang Richter-Signed LGB Christmas Card

US $ 225.00
plus shipping and handling

This extremely rare low-sided gondola  features a 4-axle truck with switching platform and brake wheel. The car body is all black, even with black painted axles and a dark red gondola box. The printing is "D'&'RGW". This Christmas Car is cataloged.

What makes this Christmas gift so extraordinarily rare is the intact bottle of champagne ( German Riesling sparkling wine).

 The champagne bottle is in original condition, unopened, untouched. It is labeled on front and back. Front with the vintner's label and back with the LGB label custom made for this bottle and occasion. Another label reads "With Compliments. Fa. Ernst Paul Lehmann, Familie Richter" Please note: bottle content is NOT  SUITABLE FOR CONSUMPTION! NOT A TOY!! KEEP OUT OF Children's Reach!!

 The Christmas Card is signed by Wolfgang Richter, Rolf Richter and Johannes Richter

This rare limited edition 1991 Christmas Car  had an edition volume of 100! It is hard to imagine any other complete set would be available out there. Klaus, being the consummate collector kept it complete.  The original LGB box is slightly used.

Background information:

LGB started bestowing Christmas gifts to a very close circle of business friends early on as was tradition especially in Western Germany. This extremely private circle included only those who had  everyday direct access to Wolfgang Richter, Klaus Baumann and Günther Ruhland. Even friends of Rolf Richter or Johannes Richter might have been given different gifts.

Klaus had become a very close ally to LGB working on a number of projects to improve LGB locos and supporting parts. 1991 was the year that Klaus worked on the DUO coupler and tested the knuckle coupler for LGB before it got its stamp of approval to be sold mainly to US customers.

Call Klaus at 770-886-6670 

LGB Christmas Car 1995 -- Very Rare

From Klaus' Personal Collection

 1995 Christmas Gondola # 4021CT

with Very Rare custom gift box

$ 135.00 SOLD

plus shipping and handling

This is the original #4021CT Christmas car with a customized gift box (empty already at Christmas 1995 - no, Klaus did not get a Christmas gift from LGB other than this car, no not even a card...--See, that's what makes it special: the "Naughty Boy List" Christmas Car....) The specialty here is not as much the Christmas car but the gift box: It was made specially for Christmas by LGB for their business friends. It features a painted scene of the Nuremberg castle in winter, snow-covered, and a fairy-tale, Disney-like Christmas train upfront with a cheerful Santa as engineer. Quite pretty and full of atmosphere:

The LGB # 4021CT was first announced in the 1993/94 catalog and also available for Christmas 1994. The store version came with a blue gift box in the gondola car. The original edition volume was 10,000. I kid you not. Maybe someone overestimated the Christmas rage at the dealer stores.

Courtesy Only Trains

Then in 1995 LGB painted the red gondola blue with the same Christmas themed printing on it and advertised it for the USA only as LGB # 42210. This one came with a red gift box which featured wreaths. And an alleged volume of 2,000 just for the US market....

Courtesy WorthPoint

Today you will find either boxes in either cars on the market.

Looking for an adventure with Klaus? 

Go to https://traincraftbyklaus.com/klaus-101 for details

Container Car Rarity

Déjà vu

Looks familiar? Well, here's the story: At the height of Massoth Electronics USA Jeff Schmaltz, who worked for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center was a wholehearted LGB fan. Jeff had also become a fan of Massoth Electronics products through Klaus and his company. Jeff, doing nothing just halfway set of to show his zeal. Together with his wife Sue they took an LGB # 41850 V 8 container car and created a cover/label that would show a Massoth Electronics image, hold well under outdoor operation and look good. They tinkered. They were successful.

Then they sent Klaus pictures of the finished product. Turned out, Jeff only made three containers with that label. Klaus took one of them. Here it is:

                                                                    SOLD

One of three existing

Massoth Electronics USA container car 

w/ metal wheels

US$ 125.00 SOLD

plus shipping and handling

Story update: Jeff retired from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Then he retired from the LGB hobby. He sold his house and bought an RV. Currently, Jeff and his wife Sue are enjoying traveling the USA - calling Arizona and South Dakota their home state- alternating that is. We wish them safe travels! As for the other two Massoth container cars, Jeff told Klaus who has those.

Another PRR Train...

In 1983 LGB offered the  # 20412PV train set including the 2060 Diesel loco and two container cars and more, see picture

Courtesy of trainz.com

The edition volume of this train set was 1,000. At the same time LGB also published and offered the 20401 RZ also known as "The Red Train" with an edition volume of 15,000 (!) It was made from 1983-1985.

Courtesy of Grootspor.com

Please keep this in mind when reading the following article by HJ Neumann from Summer 1986:

"Again we have spotted something special for you in America: Two Pennsylvania Rail Road specialty trains in green and brown. 

This is how they came to be: Out of the so-called "Phillips Trains from 1983 a huge part had obviously been delivered into the USA. Alas, they didn't sell not even with a price of about US$ 150.00. At one dealer these trains were gathering dust on the shelves for more than two years. So last winter he had the idea to repaint and relabel them to better match them to the taste of the American LGB fan.

The results are great. Two trains present themselves in green and reddish

-dark brown color. Thanks to the also very pretty labeling on the locos (even though you could have done numbering here as well) they don't need to hide next to the regular specialty trains.

The paint is without fault - even though we recommend to avoid scratching or rough handling. The container cars are even painted on the inside - somebody made them with great difficulty!

Two beautiful trains which will clearly be of interest for the local LGB fan who operates a layout American style."

Editor's Note: September is Klaus' Birthday month. Get 25% off all items  available on this blog! Please scroll down for details.

The ONLY One of Its Kind -- From Klaus Private Collection LGB 4075 hand model

SOLD

1985 Original Piece of LGB History 

US$ 145.00

plus shipping and handling

Klaus received this truly and genuine One-Of-A-Kind piece from Gunter Ruhland (Head Mold Master LGB) by the end of 1985. 

LGB 4075 Hand Model is based on the LGB 3080 yellow "Denver AND Rio Grande Western" Passenger car, 4 axle truck with brakeman's platform. The # 3080 came out in 1981. By 1985 Wolfgang Richter knew the American business was going only one way: Up! So he tried to produce more rolling stock just for the US market. This one-of-a-kind hand model is the perfect example of this undertaking. After the success of the 3080 series (LGB 3080, 3080 E1, 30800, 30803, 30805, 30808GR, 3081-1, 3081-2 and many many more), Wolfgang was looking into something truly American, the caboose style. 

To (short lived)  life came this hand model, the car housing of the LGB 3080 was painted dark red, got a new name : "Denver, South Park & Pacific RR"  and a cupola was added to the roof, as was a handrail and wooden(plastic) planks for the crew to walk on. Desperately needing photo footage for the new catalog they staged this caboose cabin on a 4-axle truck with platforms, photographed it, announced it in the 1985 catalog as "Lighting and workshop caboose", new item for the next year...... and that was it. It NEVER went into production.

Klaus received this truly and genuine One-Of-A-Kind piece from Gunter Ruhland by the end of 1985. Own this Original piece of LGB history for US$ 145.00

Instead in 1988 the LGB 4075 drovers caboose "Denver (and) Rio Grande Western" was manufactured

and sold in pretty good quantities (above 10,000 in varying color schemes). However the row of 9 identical windows was changed. And the dark red was changed into a bright red. The name "Denver, South Park (and) Pacific RR"  was revived a bit later that year with the LGB 3181 passenger car, also in bright red with the same window arrangement as the  LGB 4075 but not sporting a cupola.

Autographed Specialty Parts -- From Klaus' Private Collection

All through the 1980's and 1990' Klaus was a regular at LGB factory in Nuremberg. From redesigning the running characteristics of the Mogul to the designing the Duo-Coupler, from reworking loco chassis with Guenter Ruhland to developing and building the Sound Towers for LGB worldwide exhibitions, Klaus met with Gunter Ruhland, Klaus Baumann and Wolfgang Richter on a regular base.
And whenever he came into Guenter Ruhlands realm Guenter was always waiting to hand Klaus a little something special: a complicated part fresh out of injection molding,molding improvement they had worked on to better the characteristics in operation or assembly. Or just something special to hold on to as a memory for the hard work leading to those well known achievements.

From Klaus' LGB Treasure Trove  - autographed -

F 7 side frames in silver
In 1996 LGB presented the Santa Fe F 7 A unit for the first time in its USA New Items brochure. It turned into a hit with US customers. If operated as a single F 7 A unit, as the F 7 A-B unit or the impressive F 7 A-B-A version, the bullet snout of the loco and the silver side frames for the motor blocks are just familiar standouts on this splendid locomotive. They are exposed to breaking or rough handling to some extent. But it is even more fun to have an extra pair - autographed at that - just for showing off...!!

STILL AVAILABLE

F 7  pair of side frames for the F 7 gearbox unit, autographed 

 2 pairs $ 50.00
also available unsigned

plus shipping and handling

Compressed air tanks
LGB 43580 heavy duty transformer car or any 4058 type transformer car: they all displayed compressed air tanks at both ends of the transformer cars. Kids love to take them from the transformer cars and over time they might get lost...
From Klaus personal collection of injection molding rare parts here are the

STILL AVAILABLE
Compressed air tanks in silver, autographed 

  2 pairs $ 50.00
also available unsigned

plus shipping and handling

Stainz roof for all types LGB 2017, 2020 and 2021 - extremely rare, very hard to find.

STILL AVAILABLE

 Bare roof autographed,  US$ 25.00
also available unsigned

plus shipping and handling

LGB Coca Cola Christmas Gondola # 45730 Gondola Structure Only - Test Print from 2004
380mm x 112mm x 73mm
Another example of Klaus' private collection samples, here a first print sample from the 2004/5 Coca Cola logo Christmas car which became the  # 45730 4-axle truck Coca Cola Bear with Gnomy Stainz car. By the way, this is the last Coca Cola Gondola made by the old LGB Nuremberg since they went into bankruptcy shortly after.

Klaus will sign on request.  US$ 75.00     --  SOLD