Won't You Be My Valentine ?

What would a real love affair be without a Mogul involved, am I right or am I right... So on this special date hug your beloved one and read on...

It was the year 1983 or so and the old LGB Germany had delivered the first Mogul series. It is unclear today who actually was the creator technically of the LGB scale Mogul model. It might have been Dr. Bismarck who ran  LGB as a sort of Technical Manager. He was well known as the father of N-Gauge, being very proficient with mechanics as well as with running a company. Unfortunately he passed away in 1983 or 1984, Klaus is not quite sure about the correct date.

The leading role in manufacturing the first Moguls had Guenter Ruhland who started his lifetime working career at LGB, worked to become a Master of mold making (Meister in Formenbau) and stayed on until his retirement in 2000. But it turned out that the first series of Moguls did not run very well. The pilot axle derailed at any opportunity which then ended with the derailment of the locomotive itself. Sometimes the smokestack would break, too. Gunter Ruhland tried to improve the Mogul when Klaus came into the picture.

In 1983 Klaus himself bought a Mogul, put it on his layout tracks and sure enough: it derailed after 5 feet of running. It took him a few weeks of endless testing and redesigning until he came up with a "tuning-kit" for the Mogul. It contained an improved pilot axle pick-up and lead weights for the motorblock. Klaus handed this kit to Klaus Baumann during a railroad show in Frankfurt/Germany. Klaus' short range flying duty brought him to Nuremberg numerous times and during one of those stays he met with Klaus Baumann and Guenter Ruhland to demonstrate the changes for the Mogul and... you guessed it, from then on he had a second job (in addition to flying Lufthansa being a Captain). These improvements in addition with the invention of the flexible middle axle (by Mr. Massoth Sr.) made the Mogul to one of the best running locomotives of LGB.

This revised and greatly improved pilot axle delivered safe guidance of the Mogul locomotive on track and performed with such a betterment that the even Mogul could force open the points. And the lowered center of gravity with the additional weight prevented further mishaps with the smoke stacks.
In the years to come Klaus created the firebox light - a world novelty. A story to be read in one of our next blog editions - Happy Valentine Everyone!