The LGB Diesel switcher -- Conclusion

These (reefer) boxcars

see all 6 above

 were also LGBoA exclusives and ran about US$ 125.00 each.

These colorful, fun boxcars were a child of Rolf Richter's wild imagination. Some fun facts: Ice cream was and is transported from manufacturing plant to grocery store by refrigerated trucks. The so-called cold chain ( frozen product kept frozen from manufacturing to plant storage to truck loading to distribution center/warehouse to truck to grocery store to store-freezer) makes transporting ice cream over long distances possible. Freight trains are way too slow, to far away from distribution centers and too complicated to be added to the truck cold chain to be of serious interest in shipping or transporting ice cream. Fun fact #2: Diesel switchers were used for short distance operations in loco yards, foremost switching locomotives from track to track, hauling heavy loads on extremely short distances. A Diesel switcher in front of a freight train going cross country having an ice cream load.....you get the picture.

Then in 2006 two more Diesel switcher models entered the LGB catalogs. The Morton Salt loco LGB # 24630 and the White Pass and Yukon LGB #26630.
By then, LGB was in dire straits. The bankruptcy was unavoidable though unknown to their customers and most probably to their suppliers as well, definitely unknown to their dealers. Rolf Richter thought it best to make as much"noise" as possible to shy attention away from the home troubles. But money was scarce. So- no advertising but a 'flood' of new products hoping for a last influx of money....
The 2006 catalog, page 150-151 offers no less than 4 different Diesel switchers of which 2 are 3-axle European switchers - # 21628 and # 23620 - and two are  2-axle switchers.

LGB 24630 - Courtesy of Only Trains

LGB 26630 - Courtesy of Only Trains

LGB 21625

And the

LGB 23620

The Morton Salt engine was accompanied by an offer of 3 new cars; the # 40916 boxcar, the # 44040 Morton Salt Hopper and the # 43823 Center Flow Hopper Morton Salt.

LGB 40916 - Courtesy of Only Trains

LGB 44040 - Courtesy of Trainzauctions.com

LGB 43823 - Courtesy of Only Trains

The engines were offered for about US$ 450.00 and the cars ran from $125.00 (boxcar) to $ 150.00. Some of them were already announced the year before and were released to the market anywhere between 2005 and 2006. Another Morton Salt boxcar, the 1993 #4090MS

was no longer available from Nuremberg. But it did make a nice addition to the car set.

The Santa Fe engine, though actually another "Queen Mary" type (namely, made up colors/RR line affiliation) could also be 'matched' with boxcars. LGB suggested the # 40820, #41930 both Santa Fe, and the # 43930 Burlington boxcar.

Prices for the Morton Salt engine range from US$ 325.00 to $ 490.00 currently on the internet. The cars go for under US$ 90.00 per each. Maybe the LGB fan eventually is a stickler for reality. After all who would operate an open salt hopper, especially if the salt were meant for consumption?......