Original LGB Compared to O Gauge

I consider LGB, both original and new, to be high quality plastic trains in the tinplate tradition, meaning they are well-made toy trains. I believe they will be around for many years to come!

Tinplate Art posted:

I consider LGB, both original and new, to be high quality plastic trains in the tinplate tradition, meaning they are well-made toy trains. I believe they will be around for many years to come!

I agree!  I have some early LGB, say 1970 or 1971, and although the motor in the Stainz isn't as quiet as LGB would later be known for, it needs very little maintenance and will run whenever!

My LGB collection is mostly 1980's, with a couple Stainz locos (both in passenger sets), an 0-4-0 tank painted for the DSP&PRR (in a set with 2 coaches), a 2-6-2T, a couple small coaches that were anniversary issues and some Rio Grande freight cars.  All of which are amazing and have held together as they were new!

A few years ago, I got the battery operated set that was issued under the Marklin reign, issued for FAO Schwarz.  For a battery-powered set, it operated as smoothly and reliably as the electric LGB I have!  

Here is a video I love watching now and again, about LGB.  Great to watch!

Purchased some LGB back in the early 80's and the quality was tops engines run like clock work.
Purchased the "Blue Train" set and any other car that was blue, plus a couple of 040 engines.

I also purchased all LGB metal wheels and the interior lighting along with the wheel pick-up and LGB smoking unit for the "Blue Train"
Back then all of the little assessors  were not that expensive compared to today's prices.

Also have a Mamod/modified burner and Ruby live steamers.

Don't run them that much but was planning for a outside railway as I picked up a lot of track and switches since then.

Always on the look out for a good deal.

Eddie:

THANKS for sharing that wonderful and informative video! I once owned an earlier VHS copy of Die Welt der LGB from the mid 1980's.

My 1985 LGB loco and 9 cars have been through 2 generations of little people and are still working and in good shape.

The only vulnerable component on original LGB that I have found are the traction tires. I had to replace the tires on both my new and unused 414 croc and 2085D mallet shortly after their test runs. The replacement tires seem to be made of a more durable material. BTW, easy to change on the mallet, but the croc requires more disassembly. A 6mm hex driver and LGB screwdriver are the two essential tools.

GVDOBLER: SEMPER FI! I did amphibious training with the Marines at Camp Pendleton on two different occasions (1964) as a US Army infantryman. First event was aboard an AKA and the second on an LSD. Both the Marines and Navy had better chow than the Army, or maybe it was better cooks - HA!

You are correct. I grew up in the 80s with both 80s and 70s production Lionel and LGB trains. Even as a child I know the LGB was far superior in every aspect to the Lionel and other O gauge of the times.  In the 90s O caught up with LGB in terms of detail and  features, and motors improved a lot. Modern LGB still runs better and is more durable then any O on the market.  I would also say quality control is better, if not what it used to be.  Note that LGB trains are still not all to scale, unlike most O gauge that is a advertised as scale.  For example, many of their large passenger cars are only around 90 percent scale length so they can navigate narrow diameter curves.  

Ah yes, the famous 1100 rule. When the Richter's (Wolfgang, Rolf and Johannes) were in charge, it was a family concern with great pride in their product, which Wolfgang and brother Eberhard developed. Marklin is doing a good job in trying to maintain the product quality with the Hungarian production. I have a few of the new LGB items and they look and run like the originals, but I prefer the originals, preferably new and unused, and I have been lucky to find several engines and one premium set.

Sometimes the German tendency to "over-engineer" surfaces, especially during repair or servicing. NOTE: I was a self-taught LGB service person for several years here in Nashville, TN, with a mix of commercial and privately owned LGB. I had access to parts through a local toy store, and was able to primarily get motors for the commercial layouts, which saw a lot of use. Replacing a motor on a Stainz is NO small job, and requires much disassembly. The ball thrust bearings on the ends of the motor shafts required a little "trick", involving a dab of LGB grease! Replacing smoke units on most of the original steam loks was an easy screw-in job.

I always preferred the Austrian, German and Swiss narrow gauge models over the US prototypes, and remarkably never owned a Mogul!

I have always felt that the appeal of LGB over all the other G scale manufacturers is the toy-like, colorful trains that were constructed of high-quality BASF polymers and other quality materials. The 1:22.5 scale was selected to create the correct model proportions for the Austrian, German and Swiss 750mm and 1000mm narrow gauge prototypes. The Stainz 2 is a great example of this and the perfect choice for the company logo! The best examples of LGB products are the European narrow gauge models, whether RhB, OBB, HSB, Lb.M.-St.E., Zillertal Bahn, and some others, and together combine a wealth of detail, sturdiness of construction, and toy-like appeal. My two favorites of the original production are the RhB baby croc and the 2085D and its several iterations. Alough the Aster Frank S was technically not an LGB model, it did incorporate the delightful proportions of a 1:22 5 narrow gauge model, and I owned and operated two over the years!

Although I personally prefer the original Lehmann production LGB, I am grateful Marklin continues to produce quality LGB products in Hungary, and I own a nice Euro starter set and some RhB 2nd class coaches, as well as some of the new track. Oh, and the Wolfgang Richter Railroad commemorative coach! I do believe they should also honor Eberhard, Johannes and Rolf Richter as well with a Richter Family train set, one coach for each member!

Tinplate Art posted:

Sometimes the German tendency to "over-engineer" surfaces, especially during repair or servicing. NOTE: I was a self-taught LGB service person for several years here in Nashville, TN, with a mix of commercial and privately owned LGB. I had access to parts through a local toy store, and was able to primarily get motors for the commercial layouts, which saw a lot of use. Replacing a motor on a Stainz is NO small job, and requires much disassembly. The ball thrust bearings on the ends of the motor shafts required a little "trick", involving a dab of LGB grease! Replacing smoke units on most of the original steam loks was an easy screw-in job.

Yep, having worked as an amateur mechanic on various German makes over the years (friends, family), that is very true, best description was something a friend of mine , a mechanical engineer, said about German engineering, that they took pride that if there was a hard way to design something, they took pride in making it even harder! (said friend was born and trained in Germany, worked for both Benz and Porsche at different times). 

My wife has a Porsche Boxster and judging by routine service bills at the dealership, not to mention those expensive tires, I can agree!

As a kid coming from O gauge, I was bugged by the little "feet" that are used as additional current collectors.  I guess I never noticed that 3rd rail running down the middle of my track!  As an adult, I was more bothered by the lack of a flywheel or any kind of coasting action in the drive.  But especially with an advanced powerpack, they do run very smoothly.  A high quality product that undoubtedly made happy memories for a lot of people!

I have found the earlier MRC Control Master 20 and the recent MRC Power G (22 volts @ 10 amps) to be the best reasonable-cost power supplies for LGB.

The LGB "Jumbo" looked interesting but was an expensive item!

The Jumbo was nice but very high priced.  Bridgewerks makes some super nice analog throttles with massive amp output on some of the bigger ones for guys that like to run multi unit diesel lash ups.  Yes the Germans do like to over engineer stuff.  But that is one reason the little Stainz can run and run and run without any attention.  The little feet.  Us LGB'ers call them track skates, help polish the rails and allow more trouble free running outdoors.  A few engines lacked them and they were more picky about how clean the track was.  Later versions of those engines gained track skates.  One example is the 2080D Harz railway 2-6-2T.  It lacked those skates, but the later redesign got them along with more realistic valve gear and other upgrades to the detail of the shell.  I have a very old 2073d, a green 0-6-2t, that has onboard batteries in the side tanks and lots of hours of run time.  Not a single problem, not even a burnt out bulb.  How many other brands can claim this type of trouble free use.  Some of the older postwar Lionel yes, newer stuff, not so much.   I love my LGB and my postwar Lionel, both darn near bulletproof and boatloads of fun to run!    Mike the Aspie

I love my LGB trains.  The European outline fits a garden setting beautifully, in my opinion.  Particularly the smaller locos like the Stainz and the Shoema diesel.  I could never understand why some owners of LGB did not like the look of the skates.  First, they are hardly noticeable, especially using the ten foot rule.  Second, if they are that objectionable, why not simply paint them black.  

Let me add that every LGB locomotive and piece of rolling stock was engineered to abide by LGB's R1 rule.  That is that every pice they made had to be able to run on LGB's tightest radius, R1 curved track, which forms a circle about 51" in diameter.  Even the GG1 is able to negotiate the tight curves, although it looks a bit silly doing so.