The factory doors have been shut for quite some time, and they haven’t shipped products since then. The employees were still on the books until just a few days ago, when reports indicate they were “officially” let go. Up to that point, there had been hope that one of the buyout offers submitted would have been accepted. Now, it’s fairly clear that that’s not going to happen.
I wouldn’t count the LGB products out–the tooling’s just too valuable to cut up for scrap. I’d expect to see the real estate sold, and everything else auctioned off. It’s going to be very interesting to see who the bidders are. End of an era? Yes. End of the product line? Not by a long shot.
I hope you are right. It would not surprise me at all to see the entire line or part their of resurface as “Classic LGB” or some other catchy name. Perhaps someone will seize the opportunity to do some re-tooling and introduce more products. As you said it will be very interesting to see what sharks may be circling in the waters. Later eh…Brian.
While they argueably may have been mechanically superior, I wonder how much can be attributed to the apparent less than fervent adherance to scale when compared to the products of other manufacturers?
I think that is only part of it. I have always found their trains to be somewhat “chubby” looking in appearance. Recently I saw a friend’s new USA GP38-2…now that was nice, and very well detailed! Price wise far better than anything from LGB. Now I don’t want to turn this into bashing LGB, these are only my observations. I did a repaint on LGB’s big red caboose into CP livery, and now it’s size gives it an ominous looking presence. A light weathering and I really like it. The interior lends itself well to being detailed. Pro’s / cons. Let’s see what the future holds. Later eh…Brian.
theres no way theyll cut up the tooling, this will likely go the way of Delton and Kalamazoo with all the molds and tooling getting dispersed to other mfrs.
But who of any repute would want molds of what our friend here on the forum calls Gummi scale? If Aristo or USA were to buy them it would turn me off to them!
I really don’t see USA or Aristo going for the LGB stuff either, though the irony of Aristo buying LGB’s track tooling cannot be overlooked. (Can you say “lose the battle, but win the war?”) Seriously, though, neither company has shown any real interest in expanding their “legacy” product lines. While Aristo-Craft keeps reworking the C-16 mechanism, they aren’t adding any new equipment to their “classics” line-up. USA has their older wood box cars, which are already virtual twins to LGB’s cars. Perhaps they’d think about “expanding” the old line with some of LGB’s other offerings, but I’d hardly wager the farm on it.
I’m thinking along the same lines as TOC–the players in this battle are the parties who submitted bids to buy the company outright. Time will tell. My only hope is that LGB’s rubber scale rules get lost in the shuffle. It’d be nice to see a definite attention to scale and detail to match the historic quality and robustness.
Some people have followed this “Saga” (that’s what my equal half calls it) for some time. As far as “shipping” was concerned, until fairly recently one could still get spare parts from EP Lehmann GmbH & Co KG (that is Schöntag’s company). The layoffs that were announced, concerned the employees of that company. That is a separate insolvency from the one of EPL Patentwerk oHG.
The haggling and the bidding concerns the insolvency mass of EPL Patentwerk oHG. It would appear that the banks hold all the cards; the insolvency trustee negotiates and then reports to the creditors (the banking pool). This could go on for any length of time since the approval of the solution has to be unanimous.
Give it some time and all the facts will eventually bubble to the surface and we’ll have the full picture, but it wont happen till after all the legal stuff is ironed out. No one who really knows the facts will talk till then, its always that way.
Kevin
Dont count on losing the Gummi scale, the only way to do that would be with completely new molds, which I doubt anyone would like to invest in.
As for WHO would bid? Now thats a great question…
If it comes down to that, I see only ONE American bidder being interested, namely LGBoA/G45, they would have a vested interest in it now wouldnt they. Piko would be another interested party, as would Marklin/Kingsbridge of course.
Now given that Marklin/Piko would likely have no interest in the American profile stuf, G45 would be left in a very strong position to obtain the molds and toolings there, while Piko and Marklin would likely fight tooth and nail for the German/Euro profile stuff as they would be tremendous assets in establishing a foothold in that market.
I realize there are other players , particularly in Europe, but I dont see them having the fiscal assets like Marklin and Piko necessary to obtain the molds and tooling if it goes to a bidding war.
Spike, like Vic said, the story isn’t finished yet. We, as a magazine, as posting the news as soon as we receive it, which unfortunately, hasn’t been for while. Rest assured, as soon as we hear something, we’ll post it!
Although I appreciate LGB for all they have done to create and promote garden railways, I feel the time may have come to reinvest in the scales used in this country. After all, LGB scale represents European narrow gauge, a gauge not used here. I would prefer the 1:20.3 scale for 3’ narrow gauge. Most American modelers model standard gauge prototypes, something that LGB doesn’t practice. Don’t get me wrong. LGB produces some of the best quality trains in the world, but their audience is mainly European. For the record, LGB was formed, not as a garden railway provider, but as a toy train manufacturer(similar to Lionel). Their robust construction was to make them child-proof. You can run over their track with a car and not damage it. I don’t know of any child in this country that plays with LGB trains. I’m sorry to see them go, but maybe now we can work in our own scales. The NMRA never recognized LGB as a scale , but as a tinplate toy, until recently.
You need to be very careful how you phrase things.
You have done a fine job in this post.
But, some may take statements out of context and accuse you of wishing the company to go away, which nobody has ever done in print that I’ve been able to find.
I miss Varney, Megow, Mantua, English, Red Ball, all of those, but when they went away the hobby did not “die”.
And note, I did not mention which company, which people, or any specifics.
I don’t think the Fat Lady has even arrived on scene yet, much less engaged her vocal cords…
TOC I can agree with your overall point about the hobby not going away because of the demise of one manufacturer. What may be different about this episode as compared to the demise of the brands you listed and some others, is that (at least in my opinion) none of them were as singularly responsible for the dramatic rise and success of a completely new gauge / “scale” of model RR line and the following aftermarket as was EPL/LGB…at least as far as I know. I dabbled quite a bit in HO in the mid-1960s and the late 1980s after graduating from 8 years of Lionel in the 1950s. I can remember seeing LGB for the first time in the early 1980s at a York, PA. TCA Show, and heard the enthusiasm but also saw the raised eyebrows over the prices. I admittedly don’t know beans about the evolution of the European large scale market but even with all of the other brands out there, it seems (based on what I can read in English) that the brand also became very popular over there.
So today there are very credible model mfrs out there making eqpt more to scale than for rough-handling by children, but until we get to Aristo, USAT, and Bachman, it is mostly pretty pricey even compared to the “red box” eqpt. I hope that whatever entity picks up the line will continue the Euro narrow gauge eqpt for those enthusiasts who want it, but also will respond positively to the advice and requests of serious modelers to make reliable scale eqpt as well.
And IMHO it can be sold under any brand name…the LS community will quickly voice sentiment as to its quality and value. One thing that large scale has today that did not exist during the rise of LGB is the internet hobby forums like this one. Branding today is still important but quality and pure market appeal are more apt to be driven by objective analysis and subjective opinions as expressed in these forums.
TOC is correct, this can be a volitale issue, however none of us “wanted” to see LGB go up like the Hindenburg over Lakehurst NJ, but it happened anyway.
LGB had at least 10 locos in NG and SG that were American profile so one cannot say they didnt attempt to address the US market. I’m sad to see LGB go but the longer the case goes on, the more its apparent that most of the wounds could best be described as “self inflicted” IMHO.
The main reasons LGB went boom will eventually be known one day, but it will take a while before they can come to light as public knowledge, lawyers and courts are that way. Even in the worst case, liquidation, LGB models will live on in much the same way that Delton and Kalamazoo continue to live on in the guise of HLW and Aristo products well after the parent companies sank.
Well, Maerklin developed Gauge One…ex-LGB put meter-gauge trains on that track…but, like I said, look at the H0 innovators who got us shoved into H0 versus 00.
All those innovators are gone.
Yet, the hobby survives.
There is a finite limit on repaints of boxcars, and when the marketplace seems to be screaming for accurately scaled models (and even with a scale/gauge discrepancy, the scale needs to be right) to develop new items that aren’t, as the earlier posted (and now missing) measurements have shown.
Seems if they had come out with a more generic locomotive that could be Amtrak or any number of other roads, might have been a better seller to a more broad market that this specific unit discussed earlier, but, hey, ain’t my problem.