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G scale

LGB™

The financial uncertainty has been resolved, for the time being at least, by the appearance of a new owner. However, as no development could take place during the insolvency period, the new items programme is understandably more modest than in previous years.

Swiss metre gauge remains the most popular element of the range, particularly the Rhätische Bahn. The Ge2/4 electric will be made as No.203 with modified ends representing the second build batch, and illustrated only with a prototype picture. The Ge6/6I ‘Crocodile’ is due in brown as No.411, while ABe4/4 railcar No.30 gets Berninabahn period lined yellow livery. There will be new versions of the long wheelbase four-wheel coach as C 2010, a third with paired windows (above), and B 2081, a second with larger windows and modernised roof (below).

The range of steel coaches will gain a first class vehicle, in red livery; the matching second is still planned as a special edition for LGB Club members. Both are shown only with prototype pictures so far.

Also still awaited is driving trailer AB1701 (shown as a modified model photo only).

First saloon As1256 will be in Arosa blue livery (also represented by a model photo) and EW-IV first A1274 in the modern red & grey.

The panoramic coaches announced last year are presently in production, and a body moulding was shown. The range will be expanded with the dining car, also in the new Glacier Express livery (below).

A new version of the Uah bogie tank car, numbered 8136 and weathered, will only be for LGB Club members.

Other wagons appearing in new versions include the Uce cement silo lettered for ‘HCB’, van Xk9043 in RhB maintenance yellow, and the four-wheel container flat carrying either a ‘Co-op’ refrigerated container (represented with a prototype picture) or a new ‘Post’ container (shown as a plain white mock-up with no graphics).

An interesting new model is being developed, the Rp-w bogie flat with side stakes, widely used for timber transport. It is depicted with a prototype picture only at this stage, as is a new model of the Ge6/6II electric, projected for 2008.

There is only one new item for other Swiss metre gauge, MOB van Gk 522 in orange & white ‘Getaz Romang’ livery (below).

Following the German example of standard gauge models like the DBAG 101, a Swiss example is proposed - the SBB Cargo 481 Bo-Bo electric, though a prototype picture is the only evidence so far.

German narrow gauge

The EPL factory train set of 0-4-0T 99 5606, a former Franzburger Kreisbahn loco which now stands outside the LGB factory, with three four-wheel goods vehicles, two vans and a lidded wagon, based on OEG originals, announced last year, should arrive shortly. There will be a further version of this standard Lenz 0-4-0T, and a development model was shown (below).

The Sachsen IVK Meyer will appear as 99 594, a preserved machine presently being overhauled to run on Rügen. This will not require the brake system air reservoirs over the boiler, a prominent feature of the IVKs historically allocated to the island, as they are being fitted within the outline of the side tanks.

The Rügen 0-8-0T will be issued with Epoch IV markings, and sound (below).

The Spreewald 2-6-0T appears as DB 99 241 (below), built for the Heeresfeldbahn (Jung 2517 of 1917), which came from the Ostdeutschen Kleinbahnen AG after the war and was stationed at Neustadt/Haardt in the Mainz area, used on the Pfalz lines, and withdrawn in August 1957.


The Harz 2-6-2T 99 6001 can be expected in DR Epoch III and IV versions, the latter with sound, while the VT133 four-wheel railcar and trailer will be out-shopped in DR red & cream.

A basic development model was shown of a DR Köf II as regauged to metre for use on the Harz (below); the first version will have Epoch IV markings.

New Harz rolling stock includes four-wheel baggage van 905 151 in red livery, while the bogie coach gets ‘Café’ graphics, and there will another version (livery and markings to be confirmed). It will also be used for a DB Wangerooge ‘Jever Pilsener’ vehicle. Looking ahead to 2008, there will be new variant with the traditional square-cornered wooden framed windows; whether it will be an older vehicle or a modernised or reconstructed type has not yet been decided.

The four-wheel clerestory roof planked side Sachsen coach will be in original red livery, while the matching baggage van gains DR markings and green livery (above), and there are new versions of the planked side bogie coach and the modernised bogie coach also in DR green (below) along with the short clerestory roof bogie coach (below).

New versions of freight vehicles include a short bogie lowside with DR markings carrying wagon wheelsets, a four-wheel tank wagon with brake house decorated for ‘Persil’, and a beer van with ‘Maisel’s Weisse’ graphics.

There will be another run of the delightful Feldbahn 0-4-0T, while the well-known track cleaning diesel will be produced in red livery.

Leaving aside questions of scale, the German standard gauge models have been well received, it appears, and the range has just been augmented with a brand new model of the DB V200 B-B diesel (above).

To accompany it there will be models of the Am203 first in blue (below) and the Bm234 second in green, but there is no mention of the InterCity white versions, and the DBAG 101 Bo-Bo electric is still awaited, represented only by a prototype picture.

However, this hiatus has not prevented announcement of another modern image model, the DBAG BR642 Desiro articulated diesel railcar, inevitably foreshortened.

There will also be an Austrian version as a class 5022.

The Köf will be produced as a DB 323, in red.

As to freight stock, the RhB bogie ballast hopper will be finished in ‘DB Cargo’ red (above), and there will be a bogie tank car (below), a bogie flat with side stakes, an ‘Aral’ tank wagon, and a beer van with ‘Herforder’ branding. These three are listed but not illustrated in the new items leaflet.

Piko

The large scale ‘Taurus’ Bo-Bo electric will be produced as a Siemens ‘Dispolok’ in contemporary yellow & silver.

The next item in this range will be a classic Deutsche Bundesbahn BR218 B-B diesel, with the first planned version in Epoch V traffic red - no doubt the first of many possibles. While the leaflet includes a fabricated image (below), a development model was displayed, but could not be handled.

Kiss

The next model in their special line series will be the Berninabahn small ‘Crocodile’, now Rhätische Bahn Ge4/4 No.182.

This is to be a highly detailed all brass model that will come with an ESU digital decoder sound unit, and fully working lights, including within the cabs. Spring buffers and screw couplings are fitted, and it should cope with 800mm radius curves. Delivery is due in the third quarter.

For each model sold, a donation will be made to Club 1889 to assist with the restoration of the prototype, which it is hoped to have running again in 2008.