1985 -- Issue # 2, Part 3

"Spur II Nachrichten" 1985, No 2, pg. 22

Club Activities

As announced in issue No 1 of the "Spur II Nachrichten" the first club field day was a visit to the LGB manufacturing plant in Nuremberg.
The agenda:
Friday, Oct. 25th
Departure at 2.00 a.m.(!) from Much
Arrival at 7.00 a.m. in Nuremberg
Viewing of the plant
Discussion (w/ coffee and pretzels)
Afternoon: visiting the transportation museum in Nuremberg
Strolling the historic district
Dinner and 'Gemuetlichkeit' (good cheer)
Saturday, Oct. 26th
visiting the model train exhibition at the convention center
Departure around 13.00h ( 1.00 p.m.)

Those had to be definitely serious LGB'ers willing to leave from deep sleep in soft feather pillows to go see the cradle of their joint hobby ( trying to be poetic, here).
All in all 9 club members had registered for this trip with 2 members from the southern region meeting us right at the LGB plant.
The bigger group started on time; in a mini bus provided by the local cabinet maker Wolfgang Schurig. Thank you again, Mr. Schurig for your generous donation!
With a little detour to Bonn-Bad Godesberg where we picked up our last travel companion we traveled right on to Nuremberg - pausing only for gas and a smoke. Nuremberg is the seat of Ernst Paul Lehmann patent plant, Industrial Zone 2, Saganer St. 1-5.

Entering the complex was impressing already: several huge buildings to the left and right of Saganer St. connected by a covered bridge.
Mr. Steinl, Senior Export manager, was expecting us already and was our guide through the plant. (We started) at the injection moulding hall where plastic is heated under high pressure and injected into forms/molds. The molds then open and eject the molded part into a vat.
Bigger parts are picked up ghost-like by a robotic arm and stacked on to a pallet-- you couldn't be more precise with a compass and a straight-edged construction.
Here they make the boiler for the "Mallet" , over there the driver's cab for the "Stainz", further on they inject the spokes into the metal wheel for the "Mogul". Oh, how many parts could I use for my hobby tinkering had I just brought a wheel barrel and might do as I wished to...(Then we went on) to the mold design and construction - probably the most important department of the plant.
Even a layman will recognize the precision work done by highly trained professionals here.With reverence we picked up a car box of the new RhB passenger car 3067 ( scheduled delivery in 1986) and examined all sides. That was one terrific piece!. On we went passing a location where Mr. Steinl told us" Don't look"- of course we didn't listen. Since we got to see a new item which was yet to be presented at the next Toy Fair 1986. What it was? I don't tell.Just this much: it will be another highlight!

Next came the warehouse, distribution, administration and finally the conference room where coffee and fresh Nuremberg pretzels were waiting for us already. Mr. Rolf Richter , junior CEO, was there to answer all our questions. It was a great experience to get information first hand. Thank you again, Mr. Rolf Richter, having fulfilled our request for a specialty visit and spending all that time with us. We ended the visit with a group photo. Mr. Steinl is front center,  Dr. Wilkes who took the photo is of course missing in this. On we traveled to  the city center of Nuremberg where we had scheduled a visit to the transportation Museum.

After that we encountered good cheer while strolling through the historic district, visiting the model train store "Schweiger", had a coffee at the "Marktplatz" and bought some fresh gingerbread cookies for our loved ones at home at the Otto E. Schmidt store ( remember, the 'father' of the gingerbread train by LGB) and then had dinner together.

We went to bed pretty early that night since we started noticing getting up very early that same morning. The previously scheduled video about narrow gauge trains was canceled due to the hotel not having a video recorder though they did have a TV set in the breakfast room.

After an extended breakfast the  next morning we traveled on to the Nuremberg Convention Center where they had a model train expo within the "Consumenta" fair. Of course we favored the LGB and Magnus booths but also ventured to see other gauges.

Herr Hoehne, proprietor of the Magnus Co., instantly agreed to give us a tour of his plant and company as well. Maybe we will accept his kind offer thankfully by next year.

1985 -- Issue # 2, Part 2

First published in "Spur II Nachrichten" by HJ Neumann 1985, # 2, pg 14 

Current LGB Specialty Items

Coca-Cola Car

The car # 4072 got manufactured due to an order by American LGB importer Cimarron Ltd. and was shipped to the USA only, in a volume of 2,000 units. Even though the car was manufactured in 1984 it is (still) of interest (to us) since delivery to the United States dealers was delayed due to licensing problems with the Coca Cola labeling; then some time passed until the car found its way back to Germany.
The car box is red with white labeling, the roof including the vents are in silver - just like a coke can! All in all the car is a gem and its coloring makes for a fine standout in every US- freight train.
FYI I like to add that the Coca-Cola car will be just the first in a whole series of advertising cars by big companies. The hint is in the labeling on the box :CIM I/1985" Let's wait and see if there will be a "CIM II/1985"!
(Y.T.: Mr. Neumann was on to something. LGB couldn't wait to manufacture more of the same car and just change the labeling, manufacturing always the same volume of 3,000 units per car thus making it a 'limited edition'. In 1988/89 alone these cars were made and delivered: # 4073-CO3 Denver-Rio Grande Western, #4074-BO2 "Tiffany", # 4074-Z02 "Schlitz" and the extreme specialty # 4074 MD for McDonald's in Buena Park/CA which was shown either in Disney Park or Knott's Berry Farms at the McDonald's restaurant. Only 20(!) cars were manufactured, solely for McDonald's. All those cars were for the US market only. But with re-import they found their way back to Germany and started a US-car craze among German LGB collectors.)

Wuerttenberger Car

"Hobby Eberhardt" Co. in Heilbronn (near Stuttgart) known to collectors through the specialty beer car "Cluss" Brewery, including a beer bottle, came out with a limited low-volume-production of 100 each; the specialty car is dedicated to Wuerttemberger wines. On the silver colored car it reads " Connoisseurs drink Wuerttemberger), Oh well, this wine can use all the help it can get right now, why not even from an LGB specialty car?? 
(Y.T. In 1985 all of Germany and Austria was rocked and shocked by the Glycol wine scandal. Vintners in Austria had adulterated wine by adding glycol to make it sweeter while pretending to serve/sell aged wine. I quote Wikipedia here: " 

Many of these Austrian wines were exported to Germany, some of them in bulk to be bottled at large-scale German bottling facilities. At these facilities, some Austrian wines were illegally blended into German wines by the importers, resulting in diethylene glycol ending up in some bulk-bottled German wines as well.

The scandal was uncovered by German wine laboratories performing quality controls on wines sold in Germany, and immediately made headlines around the world. The affected wines were immediately withdrawn from the market. A number of people involved in the scandal were sentenced to prison or heavy fines in Austria and Germany.

The short-term effect of the scandal was a complete collapse of Austrian wine exports and a total loss of reputation of the entire Austrian wine industry, with significant adverse effects on the reputation of German wines as well. The long-term effect was that the Austrian wine industry focused their production on other wine types than previously, primarily dry white wines instead of sweet wines, and increasingly targeted a higher market segment, but it took the Austrian wine industry over a decade to recover. Much stricter wine laws were also enacted by Austria.)"

Thoughts --- November 2018

(Dear blog reader, please remember that this blog is a translation of the original blog by HJ Neumann at this link


http://www.lgb-much.de/gedanken_11_18.htm)It's a fact-- as a 'journalist" you are always 'on the job'. As, when you want to get a reprieve from work stress and from the volunteer work of editing and writing this blog by vacationing on the beautiful island of Sylt in the (German) North Sea. For ages there is a model train store in Westerland/Sylt which is famous and not just because of its almost permanent whistle smoke: The TVK store of Mr. Mackenthun on Dr.-Nicolas St. # 2. You can find his web page at www.sylt-tobacco.de -- just don't expect a current version.

Current however is the LGB size model of the legendary Borgward LT 4 Sylter Railcar which once came in a metal version by Scheba Co. The "Raab ModellBauStudio" Co is now presenting this (LGB size) model made from plastic in 3-D printing. One could already be admired at the store. Price will be approx. Euro 1900.00 ( roughly US$ 2,100.00, no shipping included) Check Gartenbahn Profi magazine 6/2018, pg 7.






Operating manual II





Operating manual


In recognition of "25 Years Maerklin Hungary" a boxcar is presented. LGB # 43264 displays a "German" and a "Hungarian" side, fashioned in matching national colors.Visually definitely more exciting than the specialty car "50 Years LGB" from 2018

German side





LGB box & boxcar rear end


Hungarian side

Personally I am still waiting for the LGB Bar Car "Apres-Ski-Bar" No 336611. There were already rumors of sightings at the assembly plant in Hungary in early May (2018)--remarkable that it hasn't been delivered by November. Maybe they were so busy doing Christmas production in July that they didn't find time for such important rolling stock.
By the way I just saw those unspeakable 50-years Anniversary cars offered in a package; 5 for E 375.00 which translates into E 75 per car. No Comment...
(Euro 375 = $ 425.00 ; E 75 = $ 85.00)

Since there have been no other important deliveries made out there, at least not for me I can turn to another subject : that of eBay. I check daily - if only for "general education" purposes. And here are my observations: the great thing is to find real rarities once in a while. Sometimes offered by collectors who lost interest in their earlier hobby or by offspring of departed collectors who like to make some money off their inheritance. One supplier writes that he only offers his stuff on eBay because his wife makes him to but at very high prices. Maybe as an alibi. He tries - but with very little interest for his offers. At least that way he can tell his wife he tried his best.
What they want to achieve when offering quite a lot of empty (LGB) boxes is beyond me. Everybody should know by now that a while later the article on sale without package will sell worse. Also, cataloges, brochures, flyers, operational manuals and other print stuff is offered for horrendous prices. Is anybody buying this? A manual for about Euro 25.00 (= US$ 28.50) or DM 50.00 converted.
(Y.T.: There are some Germans left, mostly 60 and older who still convert every Euro value into DM value. The currency change from DM to Euro happened in 2002 and about half of all Europeans are still pretty unhappy about loosing their national currency to the Euro, often blaming all sorts of today's problems on that incident/ monetary reform. YT could now go on for 536 pages to rant about policies in general and Europe/USA in ......oh-- I think my wife is calling me.....)
"Christmann Collector-Catalogs" which once were a trove of information but have lost their value in today's times of the Kompendium can only be used as door stoppers. But for Euro 60.99( plus shipping) (= US$ 69.55 + shipping) there are cheaper ways to do that.
Also strange and there fora while are sticker offers for cars and loco boxes. Asking price is Euro 2.30 (=$ 2.62) with shipping costs of Euro 4.65 (=$ 5.30). That's about Euro 7.00 just for a sticker. Where are they from? Of course somehow from the old LGB factory in Nuremberg. Well, those aberrations and confusions of the year of bankruptcy made for a lot of things to vanish if not to say "got filched".

Basically I like to think all (stuff) somehow somewhere reappears. The Anniversary Streetcar No 24355 is such a treasure trove: first offered in 2006 at the big LGB anniversary Party (125 years Ernst Paul Lehmann)** It was signed by Wolfgang Richter himself upon the immediate request by the buyer.

**(YT: The Ernst Paul Lehmann Co tin toys fabrication was established in 1881 in Brandenburg/ Prussia close to Berlin. EP Lehmann got his first patent that year being 25 yrs old. It was granted for a tin container with a patent lock.)




Spare parts are abound plenty, too. Often accompanied by shipping costs of Euro 5.90 (= US$ 6.75) and just as often not matching the value of the small item. In general prices are high for LGB items. There is an alignment with new products. But sometimes I would have asked for a higher price.
And of course there is rubbish as well. DIY stuff from the hobby'crypt'. The builder had fun with it -- do you....Nice items by Magnus/Hoehne, Koslowski/Mesumo, Weber, Regner and similar are a reminder of Garden Railway-days-gone-by...

And last some 'news' from the 'old' LGB world: Rolf Grimm from Burgenthann -- former head of production plant and husband of Nelly Grimm - the heart and soul of the repair and spare parts department LGB - celebrated his 80th Birthday on Nov 04 2018. I was there and congratulated him. And we shared a lot of memories of those great days gone by.


Rolf and Nelly Grimm

Again heartfelt congratulations from this site and all the very best for the future, health and contentment...
Heartfelt greetings from Much
H-Juergen Neumann