July 2018 Thoughts

July 2018 --- Thoughts

I can’t recall really how I got the idea to visit the modeltrain store of Dipl.-Ing. Ernst Peyker in Pörtschach am Wörthersee ( Civil engineer Ernst Peyker of Poertschach on Lake Woerth). Maybe it was this combination of LGB and vacation. Bottom line—I did it! During the Passover Holiday I was at the Lake Woerth (Austria)  , booked into the Hotel „Villa Rainer“ and toured the  local attractions, including the  wonderful hotel itself and their cuisine.
Passover Monday I had my GPS show me how to get to „Seeuferstraße 117“ in Pörtschach. I just wanted to have a look, after all it was a Holiday. But Mr. Peyker had already seen me and asked me in. Again, thank you.
What followed was a short meeting ( alas for almost an hour) and agreeing on an appointment a few days later. Imagine a property of about ½ an acre ( which is a lot around Lake Woerth, the average property size is 1/10 of an acre, if at all) with a nice big home on it, with a retail store, workshop and warehouse. And a lot (!) of ‘red boxes’ the type of boxes us “LGB’ers“dream about.... 

 

At the official visit I was granted insight into the huge LGB outdoor layout, looked inside  the house and got to see ‚inside’ this LGB specialist. I can say this: we found a lot of common grounds in our comprehensive talks….. 
Beginning of June the LGB New No 49180 was delivered: two Saxonian DR rolling cars, which surprisingly were announced as “Surprise New Item” at the “IMA” in Goeppingen in Fall of 2017 (IMA is the International Model Railway Convention which is held jointly with the Maerklin-Fair). Why they couldn’t wait until Summer 2018 to deliver this surprise or just incorporated it into the regular New Item program 2018 is beyond me. They have a small extra brochure which you can check out via this link
LGB flyer

I also want to show you some photos to compare this to the similar Magnus rolling car by Christian Hoehne, which was already available years ago.
LGB-rolling car:

 rolling car with narrow gauge tank car: 

  

Two coupled rolling cars with standard gauge box cars: 

 

Rolling cars by LGB and Magnus, size comparison: 
  

It’s quite visible that the LGB rolling cars (in contrast to their huge packaging) are too small. Sad though—because they are actually made quite well.

Newly delivered as well are the gold colored Anniversary Stainz No. 20216, the „Wolfgang Richter“-baggage car No. 32191 and the gondola „Wernesgrüner“ No. 32352.

I’ve put the Stainz next to the also golden colored one by Modell-Land and check this out: LGB became quite frugal: the connecting rods in grey plastic, roof not painted and no shadow lines, no white markings on the front nor rear bumpers. One cheap “frugal-edition’ at a high price and on their Anniversary? I don’t get it....
 

  
The baggage car was labeled in English only, showing„Freight Mail“ and „Railway Post Office“. I do understand that they didn’t want to have 2 different labeled cars in their program, - but they could have labeled both sides differently—as was done in the past on the 4-axle LGB tank car
I do like the gondola quite well -  especially since the lights at the bar can be switched on via the power pickup at the metal wheels. If it would be fitted with some pretty “Preiser” figurines it’ll make quite a statement.

   

 

I’ve told myself not to say anything about the high level of(sales)prices anymore. I think they are way to high , in general, alas nothing will change at Märklin in this regard. It is the literally vicious circle. Prices are increasing regularly which leads to fewer people being able to purchase LGB which leads to decreasing demand for LGB. At the same time the demand for used LGB items increases. That’s the way the cookie crumbles, my dear gentlemen from Goeppingen….

Subject Change:

The  supplemental book to the „LGB-Kompendium“, published by Meliset Kartenhaus-Verlag. A ‚must’ for all LGB-collectors („ 50 Years of LGB“)
  

 

Also interesting is  the special-catalog for  USA „US Models for 2018“, containing some models available only in USA, - even though they are just color and label versions. For instance a „Pink Train Starter Set“ Nr. 72306 (-check my September 2017- Thoughts). 20 years ago collectors might have gone crazy to re-import such a product. But nowadays.....

And then there is one more news: On June 28 , 2018 our web page “LGB Freunde Much” registered the 1 millionth  reader! Crazy! We started out on March 1, 20016 with news to the LGB’er- the year of LGB bankruptcy. We just wanted to to something being frustrated and sad back then. Well, maybe we should have asked for $ 1.00 from each reader 

In this regard – warmest wishes

H.-Jürgen Neumann