LGB Or Tinplate - Do You Have A Favorite?

Yep.  Tinplate for me.  I had an LGB set around the Christmas tree for 10 years.  It was the first train I owned and for all that time it was my only train.  It was a nice quality train but the smoke was weak and there were no sounds.  While I enjoyed the LGB, the modern tinplate blows it away.  More color, more sounds, more smoke, and command control.

@MikeH posted:

Yep.  Tinplate for me.  I had an LGB set around the Christmas tree for 10 years.  It was the first train I owned and for all that time it was my only train.  It was a nice quality train but the smoke was weak and there were no sounds.  While I enjoyed the LGB, the modern tinplate blows it away.  More color, more sounds, more smoke, and command control.

I definitely missed the sounds on the LGB.  But when I had an actual indoor LGB layout, TMCC had just been introduced, as had the sophisticated sound systems. Command Control and TMCC were both in their infancy.  At the time, the lack of American style LGB locos and consists was both a benefit and a detriment, as I began to miss the more American trains.  Initially, other manufacturers moved in to make "G" sized trains with American locos and cars.  As with most things, some products were of higher quality, and others were more like some of the starter sets in certain product lines.  More affordable, but lower quality as a result.

I have definitely enjoyed visiting some of the very large outdoor LGB layouts, both nearby, and in different parts of the country.  Some have quite sophisticated landscape architecture, including water features, simulated mountains etc.  LGB's apparent ability to survive the elements in different seasons is a quite impressive.

As with you though, I prefer the tinplate trains.  The development of the various tinplate trains before World War II, and the variety of manufacturers is also interesting historically, particularly given its juxtaposition with many important world events over several decades.  The other thing that is interesting is how the end of World War II spelled an almost complete end for the manufacturing of tinplate trains until their reintroduction by MTH decades later.

I have, and enjoy, both. I still have a lot of LGB and hope to make use of at least some of it again some day (in addition to my existing small outdoor whiskey barrel layout), and I have a pretty decent collection of MTH O gauge tinplate. I am building a small (4x8) year-round Christmas layout at the present time and it will be an all-tinplate layout. I love the tinplate MTH produced over the years, but I must admit that I have an even longer-term love affair with LGB, which I have enjoyed since it was introduced into the U.S. a good many years ago.

I love and have both!

My wife has and runs both, but I think her favorite is the LGB tram with the catenary system - she loves seeing the little blue sparks on the pantograph.

My first LGB starter set was acquired in 1978 at a local TCA meet. It had the ubiquitous Stainz loco plus the red/beige and blue/beige clerestory roof coaches, but no power supply, necessitating me to purchase a rudimentary HO power pack. Thus the seed was planted for several decades of LGB acquisitions, including two LGB/Aster live steam "Frank S" locos, several RhB crocs, and the amazing 2085D 0-6-6-0 mallet. ALL great fun!

l have lgb & the american version "HLW", as well as other large scale manufacturers, scratch builds & bashes...

l also have Tin Plate in O & SG.

My Favorite?

a scratch built, large scale Climax 13 tonner with a string of  McCoy SG Tinplate cars fitted with large scale trucks or a few log cars......

@djacobsen posted:

l have lgb & the american version "HLW", as well as other large scale manufacturers, scratch builds & bashes...

l also have Tin Plate in O & SG.

My Favorite?

a scratch built, large scale Climax 13 tonner with a string of  McCoy SG Tinplate cars fitted with large scale trucks or a few log cars......

Very interesting!  I should likely know, but what is "HLW"?  Also, which other large scale manufacturers did you find appealing?  I did buy some of the smaller novelty items for "G", and was particularly attracted to the Aristo- Craft brand, but never pulled the trigger.

I purchased some LGB items, including a loco, made specifically for children.  They had less detail and were more "childproof".  My son had a lot of fun with those because I could allow him to be far more "hands on".  The size made the trains more manageable for the younger children than my O gauge trains, and, it was impossible for them to keep HO on the tracks.

@Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611 posted:

Very interesting!  I should likely know, but what is "HLW"?

Harland Locomotive Works.  They took over the former Kalamzoo line and some of the old Delton products.  HLW has ceased production May 2020.

Rusty

Thanks Rusty!  I have several of the "Kalamazoo" line specialty pieces in my large scale roster.  I believe they were marketed under the Delton brand.  This looks like quite an exhaustive and interesting historical treatment of the various companies (mostly headquartered in Kalamazoo, MI) , with many beautiful, large color photos of the trains themselves.  I didn't realize that these brands had so many common origins!

Hopefully, here's the link to:

              ThePhilJensenStory.pdf

I do very much like LGB. I have Uintah #50 and a Union Pacific Mikado that I converted to ACL. I once had a two LGB RhB electrics plus passenger and freight.

I have absolutely no desire for Tinplate.

Another quality German brand is PIKO. A fine example rivaling LGB is my BR-24 2-6-0:

At 28" long and 1:26 scale, this loco has stainless steel wheel rims on both engine and tender, LED lights front and rear, and a switchable smoke unit. Engine deck plate and engineer figure completes the cab. Powerful Buehler motor provides smooth running.

I recall purchasing a Marklin large scale starter set many years ago.  That was a very nice set, but if I recal correctly it wasn't compatible with LGB.

LGB is great!.........But tinplate is my favorite. I have mostly original Lionel with some MTH reproductions. The quality, colors and historical aspect of tinplate puts it way above LGB for me. Not even close.

"Apples and oranges" as the old adage goes. My four car Tinplate Traditions green state set pulled by an MTH dark green 408E runs right beside my LGB! It's ALL good! :-)

Starting in 1989 with the Lionel Classics line and much later the MTH Tinplate Traditions line, and finally the Lionel Corporation Tinplate line, all three got me back into prewar Lionel standard gauge. Earlier in the seventies, I dabbled in original boxed Lionel standard gauge sets, mainly number 8, 10 and 318 locos. I replaced detail parts and wheels as needed, and ran my sets on  the original track from the set boxes and often with the original "button" style transformers. After tiring of that phase, I purchased my first LGB starter set and quickly got addicted to these colorful large scale trains. Later, in the 1990's, I would get back into Lionel O gauge with the purchase of a gray Lionel TMCC scale UP Challenger. I always jumped around from gauge to gauge, and in 1997, actually ran O, standard and LGB on the same layout!

I was under the impression that LGB had gone out of existence.  But, LGB has a very nice website, and appears to be offering new items.  

@Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611 posted:

I was under the impression that LGB had gone out of existence.  But, LGB has a very nice website, and appears to be offering new items.  

The LGB brand is now owned and made by Marklin.

Marklin now owns the rights to the brand, and the new mostly digital LGB is now made in Gyor, Hungary.

Thanks Allan!  And, thanks to Art for the added information.  

As each of you likely know, the "LGB" website appears to also be a tab in the Marklin website:

       1189

Looks like one of my favorites, the "Crocodile" locomotive is still available in some form.  I do miss seeing the LGB brand at two of the large hobby shops in the area.  In the 1990's, one of the hobby shops had quite the extensive display of LGB in glass display cases.  That display took up some serious real estate.  At that time, the hobby shop's promotional materials advertised that it was the "Largest Hobby Shop in The Midwest", as I recall.  So, the shop had the room for an extensive display of LGB.

As has likely happened to many, my LGB "Starter Set" -- intended by me as a one-off -- became a true "starter set", particularly after I saw how much my train buddy son enjoyed the larger trains that he could more easily handle.

My son really got into LGB during COVID, and expanded from his original starter set.  Had a good time at an LGB auction that kicked it into a nice collection.  He focuses on early, German made items.  Not interested in the new stuff.

He likes the quiet running pre-digital stuff.  I think it’s a rebellion against my smoke puffing, noisemaking O gauge command control trains.

His current temporary configuration and some of his recent engine acquisitions:

NICE! :-) Like your son, I also prefer the original LGB German made Austrian, German and Swiss prototypes. I once had a Marklin LGB digital RhB croc and it performed so erratically, I sent it back to my dealer.

LGB is beautiful stuff, but unless one has an outdoor layout, the space requirements are substantial.  I've owned a bit of everything and have sold very little over the years - last year I sent my LGB to Stout's, and my tinplate is on my layout, so I guess that answers it for me.

If @jstraw124's son bought anything from Stout's last August, I wonder if he got any of my old stuff.

@jstraw124 posted:

My son really got into LGB during COVID, and expanded from his original starter set.  Had a good time at an LGB auction that kicked it into a nice collection.  He focuses on early, German made items.  Not interested in the new stuff.

He likes the quiet running pre-digital stuff.  I think it’s a rebellion against my smoke puffing, noisemaking O gauge command control trains.

_________

That's a wonderful story, and a fun looking layout!  It'a really great that he has adopted the hobby, and used it in a very creative way to enjoy himself during the pandemic.  Our 3 grandsons love to build various floor layouts at our house when they come over, and your son's floor layout reminded me of those layouts.  They started doing this when the oldest was about 8 years old, and I bought several different non-powered transets, and we had them try each and then pick a favorite.  I then bought more track, buildings and other accessories in that brand (which I would have to look up now!).  Since he's now 12, I told him that we could build a layout together.  I'm now planning to build an LGB layout outside with him in the fall.  We will likely make it temporary, and build a different one each time.

Following along with what Allan, Art, and others have posted, here's an interesting, short history of LGB that I found online:

"LGB

LGB stands for Lehmann Gross Bahn - the “Lehmann Big Railway" in German. Manufactured by Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk in Nuremberg, Germany, since 1968 and by Märklin since 2007, they are the most popular garden railway models in Europe, although there are also many models of U.S. and Canadian prototypes. LGB caused a revival of garden model railroading in the United States when it was introduced. Most of the European prototypes were manufactured in Germany, while much of the North American rolling stock was made in China. Production is now located in Hungary. In 1968, the firm introduced the world to large-scale model trains with its new Lehmann Gross Bahn (Lehmann Big Trains), based on German meter-gauge prototypes. Suitable for use indoors or out, the large size, rugged construction and exacting detail made the line a favorite with modelers, who soon shortened the name to "LGB" and began referring to their models as " G Scale" trains. The firm was then sold to another world-famous German toy maker in 2007, becoming part of Märklin."

[Source: Trainworld]

Good short history! For more detailed info, there are two excellent hardbound Greenberg guides and one Kalmbach hardcover edition with lots of details about the Richter family. The two volume LGB Compendium (German language) is the ULTIMATE source for ALL items produced up to the date of publication, including production numbers. Photos and also prices in Euros included.

Thanks Art!  I have owned one of the Greenberg guides and enjoyed it.  I presume the books that you reference do not deal with the bankruptcy (or other form of corporate restructuring circa 2007), or with the current Marklin era?  On a jocular note, as for the German volume, I have "retained" 5 of the 10 German words that our 5th grade teacher taught the class, so I likely couldn't read the original text.  But, it does make total sense that a text about a German company should be in the native language.  Now, if the book was in Latin, as with many scientific texts, I could easily scale that vocabulary up to 15 words, but that took three full  years of high school Latin class...    A definite downside to being born in the postwar Lionel era, IMHO, since many schools still taught Latin to countless students!

My favorite memorized German sentence from my college class is as follows:        Heute morgan hat ein wenig geregnet. Literal English: This morning, a little, it had rained. Geregnet is a past participle: had rained.

The two volume hardback Kompendium cost $100, but I have referred to it many times.

I admire the various MTH tinplate repros, especially Lionel, as much as my original LGB and have had significant quantities of both over the last several decades.

Tinplate is wonderful, and, of course, the track has been around for about a century.  One of the exceptional benefits of LGB, by comparison,  is the ease with which the track can be connected.  Connecting standard gauge track, by contrast, can be challenging, and, particularly when new, can require some careful planning -- and some gloves!  I recall receiving some much needed advice from Forum Members on how to more easily "mate" my new 3-rail standard gauge track.

As a consequence of the track design, an LGB layout can be constructed, altered or disassembled quite quickly.

In addition, some might also consider the LGB track to be more realistic in appearance, although the brass rails are obviously not prototypical.

Finally, given the differences in the ease in mating the track, I would be far more likely to allow younger children to help assemble an LGB layout rather than a tinplate layout.

I have an appreciation for both.  I grew up with LGB and other large scale brands owned by my grandfather which is more or less what got me into the hobby.  Our neighbor at the family cottage also had a large LGB collection set up in his garage that we'd visit frequently.  I only just recently acquired an LGB circus set from the 80s that I purchased along with a custom built locomotive modeled after one that I work on.  It brought many memories back instantly as I used to run the same circus set at the previously mentioned neighbor's house.  They're very reliable, smooth and quiet runners also.

I enjoy watching standard gauge tinplate in operation, however it's an expensive road I don't need to go down myself.  I have been dabbling in tinplate O gauge stuff however.  A couple years back I purchased a couple of late 1930s and early 1940s tinplate sets and just recently purchased a couple of Lionel and Ives sets from the early 1920s.  There's definitely something special about them.

While living in Germany, I looked at LGB but became more fascinated with Maerklin's MAXI line of trains:  they were close to the same size as their LGB counterparts, ran on the same track, and -- best of all (for me, anyway) -- were mostly metal.  The locomotives came with a circuit board that allowed one to operate them with DC current (which LGB utilizes).  The lineup was discontinued around 2003 or 2004 I believe.  Great stuff!

I had LGB for 25 years.  I loved it.  I also had multiple Aristocraft  PA diesels including a Christmas set.  These ran around the floor  all year long for about 15 years and then only at Christmas.  Last year during the summer I sold it all.  It held a lot of its value especially my 8 car Aristocraft Christmas set.  I used that money to finance my Lionel layout.  There is a big difference between LGB and Lionel.  The German stuff is phenomenal.  

I had LGB when was younger and I loved it, but since then I sold my collection.  I got back into the hobby a few years ago and now must decide if I want to go back to LGB or start with Lionel as I don't have enough funds for both.

It's all good! :-)

@Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611 posted:

Very interesting!  I should likely know, but what is "HLW"?  Also, which other large scale manufacturers did you find appealing?  I did buy some of the smaller novelty items for "G", and was particularly attracted to the Aristo- Craft brand, but never pulled the trigger.

I purchased some LGB items, including a loco, made specifically for children.  They had less detail and were more "childproof".  My son had a lot of fun with those because I could allow him to be far more "hands on".  The size made the trains more manageable for the younger children than my O gauge trains, and, it was impossible for them to keep HO on the tracks.

Dennis, HLW-Hartland Locomitive Works, LaPorte, Indiana.  Last l heard they still have all the molds for production, but the trains were  secondary product for the plant

My Factory locomotives:  Aristocraft, Bachmann, HLW, Lionel, LGB, PIKO.

Scratch builds & bashes using parts & pieces of Aristo, B-mann, HLW, LGB, Lionel, USAT.

Rolling stock: Aristo, B-mann, Delton, HLW, Kalamazoo, LGB, USAT, modified McCoy tinplate & scratchbuilds.

l love & have some of the lgb novelty cars: Chicken Dance Car, Pustaflix-bubble cars etc.. Aristo - Egg Liner's, HLW - Mack's, Delton - Track inspection Truck...

Have a Bachmann Circus Train & lgb circus train..

love  and have steam logging & mining trains. of course the traditional old west cattle train..

About time to thin the herd, have cars & loco's, naturally weathering that have never seen track & won't until they go to new homes.

In the tinplate division, may I add "ETS". Electric Train Systems.

Good looking product, smooth running, made in the Czech Republic.