LGB fun in the New Year

Happy New Year to all LGB friends out there. Yours Truly got the flu over the Holidays and your Famous Klaus was busy getting me back on track. Fortunately it hit me after Klaus had finalized the work on your engines in his workshop. So, here we go again refreshed with all the news fit to print....

Klaus' video clip: Klaus has posted a video clip on You Tube so you can get a glimpse of how MUCH he loves the new ESU sound decoders he is utilizing now for LGB locos. Yours Truly was fearing that his workshop walls would suffer serious damage after all the swearing, hissing and fussing about the "other" German decoder(s) from the past that had more and more faults and caused more and more troubles installing them properly according to Klaus' quality expectations. Your Famous Klaus truly believes in keeping the Old German Quality Standard for LGB alive while at the same time providing the very best functioning accessory available to keep your LGB trains running. But as they say- take a look for yourself. A pic is worth a thousand words.
The link is:

http://youtu.be/UxQg1gTbk8U

Or go to You Tube and in the search box put in: F 7 slow op  - then hit enter. Then click on the video. It is a 2 minute video clip and may take a few minutes to load into your computer/ device. For any additional questions email Klaus at klaus@traincraftbyklaus.com or simply call him.

Märklin/LGB sold: Märklin/LGB has been sold again - you have probably heard that already. The new owner is the Simba-Dickie Group in Germany. They manufacture children toys for kids under or around 5 years old. We will wait and see how this will impact the LGB situation for the USA. It is unclear when the new owner will take over Märklin/LGB in 2013. It will probably influence the train stock available this year for the US market. Then again, most of what you want is already only available on eBay or at estate sales. The parts and spare parts situation will also remain scarce - to say the least.

EBay: Upfront one note -  PIKO is NOT (!!!!) LGB ! No matter how often you may read PIKO - LGB, it is PIKO - not made by LGB. And is has NOT the value of an LGB car or loco. Do NOT mix up the Original LGB Shell tank car, valued currently at about US$ 300.00 with the PIKO Shell tank car currently offered for approx US$ 80.00-90.00 Same goes for the Hasseröder beer car. Though it is valued  slightly higher on the European market than on the US market, it is only valuable if and when made by LGB.

EBay LGB offers are -continuously-  priced according to collector's value ( as of Jan 02, 2013). Yours Truly found a slight overpricing in specialty car offers and an under-pricing for Uintahs and F7 A and B units. Surprisingly low is the number of offers for locos (roughly 360) and the variety offered. I have not seen any Mallets, U-series, Ruegen or Harz locos for quite a while. There is one MOB on offer right now and even for a very good price, almost half of its true value. Buyer's tip: when considering an eBay LGB loco purchase try to see if a picture of the power shoes and the wheels is available and take a close look. If they are looking worn or used, that will tell you that the loco had quite some operating use.

ebay and elsewhere

Yours Truly is fascinated. This summer you could hear whispers through the grapevine how much the new deliveries from LGB Europe were guaranteed to arrive " very shortly". There was so much anticipation that the LGB (market) would continue to offer new locos and cars - after all, the new Märklin/LGB catalog was promising quite a lot - that offers on eBay simply halted for a while. Prices stagnated and there was not much movement in selling locos. Then, by end of summer, activity increased. More offers, more sales, and prices were showing interesting shifts. Some were priced according to their market value, some where completely overpriced and some where pure bargains.

Now we are 4 weeks away from Christmas and eBay shows a complete different face. Boy - have prices gone up!!! Somebody listens to the pros. A lot of really vintage LGB locos are offered and the prices are representing their collector's value. Moguls are still a little bit underpriced. But at the same time, the newer Moguls will never catch up as much in price as those made between 1983 and 1990. Plus, a theoretical collector's value does not necessarily coincide with current market demand. Vintage (passenger) cars have suddenly found their true collector's value as have the older F7 units and manufactured-in-small-volume locos ( under 600 ). Estate sales seem to increase which is mirroring the sad truth that longtime LGB fans/collectors have passed away. After all, when you started this hobby in your mid 50's in the 1980's and carried it on, by now more than 30 years have passed---you do the math... And no, there will be no more young people and children to join into the hobby (in big numbers) -- too expensive, too outdated, too sophisticated, too much discipline required in operating these fine trains. Plus the fact that it is becoming harder and harder to continue the hobby when no new merchandise is offered and spare parts can only be found at your "Famous Klaus" or by going on a scavenger hunt.

The signs are clear: LGB trains ARE collectors items. Let me stress that one more time: LGB trains !!! are collector's items when manufactured before 2006. And NO (!) , my dear friends out there in the G-Scale world, a Hartland loco, no matter how nicely it was made - is NOT an LGB loco. Don't even try that comparison on eBay as a seller.......

Don't quote me literally on " no new merchandise".  LGB did ship some new locos and cars. Focus on "some":  of 67 LGB locos offered by Walthers (the exclusive LGB distributor in the USA) only 21 are in stock. And what did Yours Truly mean by "too outdated"? Children and young people theses days are growing up in a digitalized world with instant everything by I-Phone,I-Pad, PC, Laptop, e-book, note book, Xbox, you name it. To digitalize a hobby whose Original Archetypes became successful due to the invention of the steam machine is an anachronism already. Figures that there are live steam operators in this hobby. But: once you started - go all the way. And it is with still a year to spare until we will see fully "I-Phone/Pad" operated digital systems for your train layouts. It is the future and it will be cheaper than ever before to control your (LGB) locos. Yours truly does not expect Märklin to be the trailblazer for this new digital operating system... there will be others who are already warming up in the starting blocks. Needless to say that only completely modernized decoders will fit those "new" systems. In anticipation of one of the next blogs' contents: Your Famous Klaus has already switched to this new generation of decoders (ESU+ Lenz) and is installing them into LGB locos as we speak. Fine technology already prepared for the (near) future - something  that has been missed (out) by some other German decoder makers.

Back to the growing collector's market for LGB: older and old locos are coming onto the market with price requests that show the growing scarcity of the brand as well as the growing education of the sellers. That said, as of this week the buyers' side has not bowed to these new price levels. In the price range from US$ 4,000.00 to 2,000.00 (representing roughly 25 locos or loco sets) no visible bids were made. And it didn't get much livelier in the category from US$ 2,000.00 to 1,000.00 either.

To all of you dear followers and readers out there: in case you want to know excactly what your LGB train collection is worth, item by item - call Klaus. He does appraisals and valuations (and Yours Truly is helping him a bit) and issues certificates. And when you start to set up your LGB layout for this Holiday Season treat your LGB locos and cars especially nice this year. They might finance your future Christmas(es) to come.... Happy Thanksgiving y'all

Mikado 1, 2 , 3

The Mikado locomotive has been a greatly beloved loco by LGB fans from the start, being created and manufactured in 2001/2 and manufactured and delivered until 2004/6. It is the most challenging design of the LGB locomotives and the loco with the largest wheels and also the heaviest LGB loco. The engine design requires an articulated drive train. This calls for a fully suspended drive with three kardan shafts.

During the very first production series the kardan joints consisted of a star-like brass gear wheel and  a plastic pick-up which would fit this gear wheel. This type of joint was used throughout the whole drive train. The motor carried the brass star wheel connected to a plastic pick-up. At the end of the first axle there was another star-like brass gear wheel being connected to the second axle with a plastic pick-up. At the end of the middle shaft there was yet another plastic pick-up which would connect to the third and last axle that carried the star-like brass gear wheel. Huge worm drives were mounted on the first shaft very close to the motor and on the last shaft driving the first loco axle.

Basically, only the first and last axle of this locomotive were and are actually driven by the motor as the two middle axles are just coasting along, kept in sync only by the side  rods. To manage the mechanical load of the drive train two ball bearings (small = 10mm) were used in close proximity of the worm gears.

During the first series problems arose with the first plastic pick-up that was jointed to the motor: the plastic pick-up was basically pressed on the round axle with no further locking feature. This resulted in the loco to stop moving as the motor kept on running. As a consequence the plastic pick-up was improved to have a square pick-up for the axle. And the axle was altered accordingly to fit the new square pick-up.
Next, the first joint between the motor and the first kardan shaft proved to be the weakest part of the design as the plastic pick-up was not able to handle the torque of the motor and carry the mechanical load. Consequently, the joint between the motor and the first kardan shaft was completely redesigned: the star-like brass wheel on the motor was replaced by a rectangular brass bolt. The kardan shaft got a plastic pick-up shaped to fit the brass bolt.

This new design however had a flaw of its own. As the star like connection provided guidance (in the center line) for the first axle the new design did not. As the first axle tended to wobble this wobbling movement was transported to the other end of the first kardan shaft which was only kept in place by plastic guides within the motor block and its top lid. These plastic guides pretty early on wore out giving the axle more play than designed. Resulting in a  constant rattling noise from the motor block.

The ultimate and last design called for a total rework of the two motor blocks. The first and last kardan shaft were equipped with two ball bearings that now measured 12mm (compared to 10mm, see above). With the first axle being properly guided the rattling noise was completely eliminated giving the whole drive train an exceptionally smooth operation. Production numbers of the first designs vary between 500 and 800. That means that there are a lot of Mikados out there that already do or will produce one of the following failures:

• the engine runs slow or stops while the motor is audibly still working ( the first plastic pick-up turns on the axle)
• the engine simply stops with the motor running with grinding noise ( first plastic pick-up is worn out)
• rattling noise in the drive train ( plastic guides are worn out )

As you know by now: Do Not Fear- Klaus Is Near! In his workshop he reworks Mikado motor blocks, converting axles to the two-ball-bearing design. This is a precision reworking since it requires a computer controlled mill (CNC mill).  Klaus - of course - has and works on a CNC mill in his workshop as well as  (on) a CNC lathe.

A Fall Sampler

Yours Truly is a steady observer of eBay related LGB trains and parts activities. We are also keeping an eye on the German market in Germany and on the English/British market. We have seen quite some interesting changes lately. LGB stock is in "remission" to put it politely. Everything made before 1999 is becoming hard to find. Stock made before 1989 is almost not available anymore neither at auction nor in estate sales here in the United States. Sometimes one wonders were all the LGB stock went  or is kept these days after it was sold all over Europe and the USA for more than 20 years in quite big quantities.

Now, do not turn to wrong conclusions. Locos made after 2000 in China are NOT worthless. A fine example is the Mikado which was created by LGB in 2000-2002 in Germany but then completely manufactured in China. However, some locos were assembled in Germany and stickers on a Mikado loco saying Made in Germany refer to that. All in all some 7000 Mikados were manufactured. Their value has not moved much. They were sold for approx US$ 2,000.00 and they are still worth that much. No new Mikados have been issued since then and it is highly unlikely now that Märklin/LGB will present a "new" Mikado. If getting the collector's bug make sure to take very good care of your box and the Styrofoam cast inside. It makes for 20% of the loco's value. Another good example for rising value is the yellow Capito and the MOB Ge 4/4 III which are increasingly sought after currently.

Your Famous Klaus is doing more and more appraisals and valuations these days and it is a joy to come across stock that is very well kept and dates back to 1979. Cars, long time the foster child of the LGB collector and resale market have become quite valuable if made before 1998. We have also seen some freight cars that went from being sold for US 25.00 a few years ago to an asking price of Euro 250.00 (equals roughly US$ 300.00-330.00). Here, again, it is important to have the matching box and the additional parts like coupler & spring to maintain full value.

One word from Yours Truly right out of the "Master's" workshop: please watch when giving your loco/tender to a mechanic somewhere out there. Obviously a lot of well meaning folks cannot distinguish left from right once cables are removed from their plug/stocko connector. To prevent short circuits, no sound, and other "phenomena" take a photo before you start dismantling any cables. That way the reconnecting will be a safer bet and less expensive.

And on a similar note: contrary to general opinion additional traction tires can cause harm. So can additional weight put into a loco to "improve" traction. With that you change the load on the motor which then sends an "overload signal" to the decoder and will make the loco stop. In addition it will overload the plastic gear wheels mechanically thus leading to their early demise. The motor being run in overload will heat up and will eventually heat up the worm drive which will eat the plastics gear wheel even more effectively. So, to improve traction first, last, and foremost check  for well laid, even, and clean tracks. -  And in case the damage is done call Klaus. He stocks  German made Bühler motors and all kinds of gear wheels to keep your LGB trains running.

What it's Worth - evaluating an Original LGB loco

Klaus had a clinic at the St. Charles NGRC 2012 about evaluating your LGB loco. Unfortunately, not a lot of LGB'lers could come or did know about it. So- for all of you who are  interested in this subject, please find a "rerun" of the clinic contents below starting with a little historical review:
LGB started as Lehmann Patentwerk in Berlin Germany in 1881.They manufactured tin toys. If you click on the link below, you can see some of the toys they made

 www.antique-tintoys.com

The original price of a toy was around 1.00 REM, which equals US$ 20.00 in present spending power. Today's auction prices range from EUR 900 to 1,200 (US $ 1,200 to US $ 1,500).

 

After WWII, the Lehmann family was dispossessed in the Russian sector of Berlin, fled and found a new home in Nuremberg. In 1950 a cousin of the Lehmann family opened a tin toy factory in Nuremberg. His sons, Eberhard and Wolfgang Richter, took over  in 1958. Then in 1968 the first LGB train was presented at the Nuremberg Toy Fair: loco #2 of the Austrian STLB railroad nicknamed “Stainz” (2010). Click on the link below for a nice look at the Original Loco

www.salzwiesenbahn.de/html/dampflok__nummer_zwei_.html

 

After the Stainz loco proved to be a huge success these locos were, in historical order for LGB manufactured next: the  "2060" Schoema Diesel, in 1971 the "2030" series, in 1974 the "2080" Harz, in 1977 the "2090" Diesel Köf and in 1983 work started on the "2018/ 2019" Mogul. That same year, your "Famous Klaus" joined the LGB team. Starting in 1968 all locomotives were numbered under the basic system:   2 0 x x
“2” for engines
“0” for series 0 – 9
“xx” last two digits define the loco type.---A "2019" equals a “Mogul” coal fired
4-digit numbers were used until 1992 being extended by a letter in the 1980s. 5-digit numbers were introduced 1993. Unfortunately, LGB left their own numbering system quite often.

Klaus and Yours Truly have spent the last years - thanks to the wonderful and time consuming work and help by Klaus Baumann - to complete year-by-year listings for LGB American locos. Now we can actually tell by the loco number (best from the original LGB box) when she was made, where she was made, how many were manufactured and when and taking into account the condition of the loco, what is the loco's worth and value. To evaluate the condition we look at these characteristics:

•Year of manufacturing: Before 1999; manufactured in Germany. 2000 until 2006: manufactured in China and 2009 until today; New Märklin/LGB. Next we look at these conditions:

•Marks of wear: dirt, smear, color fading

•Marks of tear: scratches, aged surface, broken decorative parts, missing decorative parts,

•Worn operational parts: power shoes + carbon brushes, wheels, axles, motor block housing (bearings), gear wheels, motors, cables, couplers, sound boards

•Broken operational parts: motors, body parts, smokers, sound board

•Original packaging and additional parts: condition --

To summarize we evaluate the loco according to

•Year manufactured

•Country of Origin

•Volume manufactured

•Demand and popularity today --- see example below

•Restorability

•Willingness to respect the value --- see also example below

•eBay… --- should not be used to evaluate the true value of your loco

•Insurance and Certification --- may be needed in places were natural disasters happen more often

Following are two examples of evaluating a Forney. One is an old German made type, quite valuable actually but you would not see that mirrored on eBay. The other Forney is a beloved Wild West type with values asked for on eBay that range way above its actual value for insurance and replacement.

Example: mint condition 20252 Forney LG&B (Lake George & Boulder) #25
Manufactured 1995
In Germany
Assembled in Germany
Volume produced 1,991, very low volume (!)
Sales price in 1995: DM 765.00 to 850.00  (approx.$ 950)

Value today: (adjusted for inflation and cost of living)
Insurance value: US$1,200.00
Achievable market value : US$ 650.00 to 800.00
Consolidated (future) collector’s market: US$ 1,400.00+ incr.

 

2nd Example: mint condition 24251 Forney Wild West
Manufactured 2005
In China
Assembled in China
Volume produced 650, extreme low volume (!)
Sales price in 2005: US$ 475.00 – 525.00

Value today: (adjusted for inflation and cost of living)
Insurance value: US$ 500.00
Achievable market value : US$ 475.00 
Consolidated (future) collector’s market: US$ 475.00 + incr.

(note: asking price on eBay in mid August was 650.00 for a little less than mint condition with 2 days to go and 8 bids already posted.)

Contact us for any further information you would like to see here or valuations you'd like to receive on your LGB train collection.

Back from Chicago NGRC

Yours Truly and your Famous Klaus have just returned from the 2012 NGRC in St. Charles near Chicago. We had the pleasure to stay with a friend and enjoy his beautiful layout. He was on the Open House Tour List as well and had 2 Open Houses to accommodate all the interest in his layout. The weather was great and everybody had a lot of fun. Contact us if you want to know more about it or want some pictures. Shown above is the water feature  layout part, displaying 3 water features alltogether. Below is "bridges and mountainous terrain".The layout streches alongside the terrace of the house and alongside the added garage, approx 30 yards (rough estimate).

The convention itself drew little interest. In case you remember Denver in 2009, cut the Vendor's Hall attendance by 60 % - for vendors and for attendants/visitors- and you can see the picture. The booth for Märklin/LGB was small and they showed no merchandise to purchase from the booth. Piko's booth was mostly unattended so no information was available anyway. Train-Li with Axel Tillman had a great big booth/showplace but had only track material displayed. A bit sad since he usually has a great variety of spare parts and stuff to offer. USA Trains did not attend. Bachmann's booth was a corner/head-on booth with a focus on kids' toy train (?????). Yours Truly didn't get their concept and obviously others didn't either- but that is just a very personal opinion. Kidman Tree Farm had a great booth/stand showing all his merchandise, was well representing his spare parts and his wonderful bonsai plants for layout gardening in addition to the best loco offerings on the show. And that was it for most of the part. Overall LGB locos and cars were sparsely offered.  Even though it is Yours Truly innerst conviction that the whole LGB market will turn into a collector's market in a very few or couple of years from now - it seems that has already started. And with that said, our future blogs will focus more and more on valuation and value development of LGB locos.

Meanwhile on the spare parts side we learned that Märklin/LGB will not furnish (as in after market spare parts provider) all new locos and mostly none of the old locos with all required spare parts. They will choose at will what will be offered. Also, Bühler has decided to manufacture their motors in China. In addition a new provider does offer similar motors made in China for LGB locos. In case you like to run Original German made motors in your LGB locos, contact Klaus. We have plenty in stock due to the fact that we could lay our hands on a truly big stock of German made Bühler motors last year.


Also NEW: Klaus will start in September to buy/purchase from you damaged/broken/half-burned/flooded or otherwise completely "kaput" LGB locos. We will have more information on that right here as well as on our web site.

Mix Multiple Manufacturers in Your LGB Engine

The problem: a pulsed smoker and a sound decoder only work in unison pulse if the sound decoder was made by the same manufacturer as the pulsed smoker.

The Task: to combine different manufacturers in pulsed smoker and sound decoder – so you can choose from different manufacturers for the best fitting sound for your loco and for the best working smoker – no matter who makes which one.

The Solution: Klaus has created a board that makes the pulsed smoker from ANY manufacturer compatible with ANY soundboard/decoder on the market. With Klaus Mix-Multi Board any pulsed smoker will work in perfect unison pulse with any sound decoder. No more nerve-racking steam sound whereas the smoker delivers ½ a minute later. No more “Arrrgh--- I bought this smoker a year ago and forgot who made it, now I have this fine, fine sound from a completely different company.” All done with-- Now you can combine any sound decoder with any pulsed smoker out there. Buy the product that best fits your needs, your purse and your LGB loco – no matter who makes them. Stop worrying to be forced to stay with one manufacturer for all times just so the products are compatible in your LGB engine. Now you call Klaus or send him your loco and the Mix-Multi Board will take care of it.

What it takes: each board is a custom made board by Klaus for your individual decoder-smoker manufacturer situation. Board price is approx. US$ 50.00. Klaus likes to install the board himself into your loco to ensure absolute proper function of sound and chuffs. After all- you want to improve the value of your LGB loco, especially if your LGB engine was made before 1999 (becoming a collector’s item …!).

What to do next: Look at your pulsed smoker unit and jot down the manufacturer name, the item name and the Voltage, then look at your sound decoder and get the manufacturer and version # from that sound decoder. Then look at your LGB engine and jot down the LGB number from your LGB original box in case you still have that. Then call Klaus at 770-886-6670 and provide the data you jotted down. This gives Klaus a very good idea of the work scope involved. Klaus will then give you advice for the next steps.