The Count Colluzi Collection

The Avenue De Rumine in the book's title was the Count's actual address in Lausanne, Switzerland. He also had two outdoor railroads on his property, one of which could actually carry passengers, and the other Gauge I.

His collection was eventually sold at auction for two-million USD.

A gift from Count Giansanti Colluzi, a large gold medal offered in 1974 to a group of friends he received to share his passion of collecting toy trains, scale models and high grade old toys as Marklin boats and similar pieces.  The congress took place in his home in Lausanne, Switzerland.  He was a great man and very generous.

Daniel: That is a very generous and impressive gift! Just being invited to that event must have been a singular experience! THANK YOU for sharing  that special treasure! Words fail me!

Art, that's a beautiful train, but a tiny photo. Do you have a larger photo of it?

Will: SORRY, I do not. That set was regrettably not mine, but one for sale on the bay for $3600!

The majority of models in the Count's collection were understandably European locos and rolling stock.

The Count was very proud of his fine collection and often entertained fellow collectors and enthusiasts at his fine home in Lausanne. Sometimes these events were even operating sessions. He also preferred to be called Antonio by his friends, but in collector circles he was generally known as "The Count".

I carefully enlarged the image a little. However, in digital imagery, you can't make "new" pixels when you add the additional pixels needed to make the image larger.

So while this image is a bit larger, it cannot be made any sharper.

This is a very interesting and enjoyable thread. The Count was an amazing man who had a positive impact on the hobby. Just thought I would add a photo of one of my Fulgurex engines below. Miketg

@Will posted:

Art, that's a beautiful train, but a tiny photo. Do you have a larger photo of it?

Hi @Will that set was local to me, Jack Vansworth of Division Point bought it an estate sale and after repeat attempts to sell them at eBay he sold the set along with other items from the estate that was in Wheatridge, CO and that seller is still trying to sell it on eBay. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/292293884434

hope that helps where his reference photo came from. If you want better images I can post them if you like. 

THANKS, Rich and Erik. I expect Fulgurex models do not have the turnover rate of most other model trains.

Miketg: NICE steeple cab switcher! RhB?

I just went to ebay and found it, enlarged it and did a screen save. ( It looks the same size as Rich's photo but click on it) You can "buy it now" for $3595, so get your checkbooks out!           

Is this 2 rail or 3?

2 rail, Euro O gauge, DC powered.

OOPS! Bad guess! I once owned a nice Marklin digital controlled Gauge I croc with a nice display board. NOT Fulgurex but NOT low cost either! Must have been thinking about my croc! Erik: Thank you for the correction! :-)

This is a great thread, Art. I actually have two copies of the Count's book, one for the city and one for the vacation cottage. For me the book represents the European tinplate trains bible, although it covers much more. The 11" x 13" tome is beautifully bound and contains thousands of superb photographs. In addition to photos showing trains and accessories as they would appear together on a layout, there are many photo pages that are a catalog of tinplate cars by the various manufacturers. The book is a "must have" in the library of any serious tinplate train collector.  

JKE: I agree, and for the life of me wonder why I passed up on this offering back in the 1980's! The only European trains I owned at that time were all LGB and I had a nice indoor floor layout in our dining room. I was in my early thirties and had three young children and lacked the knowledge of the great European heritage of tinplate trains. I remember my local toy store owner offered to get me Aster's first live steam loco, the Southern School's Class, at his cost which was then about $700 USD. His distributor was Polk's in NYC. Regrettably, I had to pass, but did get the brochure to drool over! Closest I came to a Fulgurex/Aster model! LOL!

The paper in this tome is of a very fine, heavy and glossy quality very suitable for the excellent photos! That book must weigh several pounds!

I did, however, once own an Aster/LGB loco (1:22.5 scale) called the "Frank S". It was a fairly user-friendly butane fired live steam loco and great fun to run with LGB rolling stock in the same scale!

Hi Tinplate Art, the loco is an SBB Ee3/3. My understanding is that these were made by Lombardi for Fulgurex in the early 1980s. There is also a very good write up on the history of Fulgurex on the TCA website. Miketg

Yes, I agree! The Western Division did a great job!

@Miketg posted:

This is a very interesting and enjoyable thread. The Count was an amazing man who had a positive impact on the hobby. Just thought I would add a photo of one of my Fulgurex engines below. Miketg

     1)  While he may have had a positive impact on the hobby as a whole, especially the collecting side, in my opinion he had a very negative impact on 0 scale model railroading where Europe is concerned, as he was one of the founding fathers in establishing 1/43.5 as an alternative scale to 1/45.  The resulting schism has been a continuing drawback to European 0 scale modelling ever since -- note the differences in scale for the French vs everybody else in MTH's European offerings, for example, while Roco was ready to expand into 0 scale 30+ years ago and ran into this problem. 

   2)  Miketg's photo of the Ee3/3 is another reminder of why Lombardi is -- another opinion ! -- the best builder of 0 scale electric locomotives:  the packing.  The locomotive's frame is secured, off its wheels, by bolts to the block of wood at the base;  the locomotive is then surrounded by a well-constructed plywood frame wider than the model on all four sides.  This assembly then rests in the foam-padded box for shipping -- there is no sense building superb models if they cannot be shipped without damage, externally or internally, as the Lombardis' build locomotives that run as well as they look.

      Incidentally, that Ee3/3 is to 1/45, as demanded by most Swiss operators.

With best regards, SZ

SZ: Thank you for your expert and informed comments!

Back in the mid 1980s I had the opportunity to visit the Count's collection.  I was just beginning to collect Hornby and new virtually nothing about Bassett Lowke, Marklin, Bing etc. etc.  But I could still marvel at his collection and did acquire the Avenue de Rumine book. Little did I know at the time that my collection would expand significantly and that I would emerge someday as the King of Cabo!!!

Lew Schneder

Daniel: Did you acquire that Coluzzi gold metal as the Count's guest or from an offering at a train show? That was 46 years ago and you do not look old enough (from your photo) to have attended. 

Art, this medal has been given to me by a friend who was there at this time. He was a great train collector and he visited Coluzzi many times. I keep it more in memory of my friend who passed near twenty tears ago and have been my mentor in collecting than anything else. The medal is just gold plated and the value for me is more sentimental than being attached to the Count Coluzzi.

Speaking of Fulgurex, the Count Coluzzi was a business man and he associated his passion for trains to his activities. The quality of the first models produced is questionable, they where more display models than running pieces, many collectors keep them in display cases and never run them. If you try to use a French Mikado for example you are going to face a lot of mechanical issues and today's production is really better.  Fulgurex has re introduced scale model trains to the European market at a time where all the main manufacturers have disappeared. Quality of Fulgurex trains depends of who has manufactured them, a piece made by Lombardi is a high end model and may be used easily on  a layout. If you want running trains you have to make the right choice.

The train collection which is presented in the book is really great on some points, Marklin, Bing, Carette, Bassett-Lowke in fact many Euro brands but the American part if you look at Lionel is very small in comparison to many collections I saw in your country. Even small collectors have better pieces than the ones presented.

Daniel

Daniel,

I am always impressed by your comments and the items you show. Both what you and Steinzeit say in different ways is that the count had a major impact on the large scale (0 and Gauge 1) market. If we go back to 1965 there were very few producers of items in these scales, but by 1975 there was quite a bit of growth and diversity. By 1975 in 0 scale, you had Lima and Rivarossi prodoucing for the mass market, while on the other end you of course had Fulgurex, but also smaller makers such as Lemaco, Gebauer, Huebner/Eurotrain, Hermann, Kesselbauer and many others, plus the founding of the German 0 scale group, the Arge Spur 0. (I am a member myself since 1996.)

As far as large scale goes, I believe LGB, and then Maerklin, had a critical role in making this happen, which opened the door for Huebner, KM1 and others.

In short, I believe when we look at the total equation, Fulgurex did play a major role in repopularizing large scale models.

Miketg

Daniel: THANK YOU for your explanation regarding the medallion which understandably has great sentimental value to you! Also, good info about early production Fulgurex locos and their mechanical shortcomings. The quality of a commissioned item depended completely on the ability of the assigned contractor to comply with the material and mechanical specifications of the designer. Obviously, some were better at delivering a quality product that both looked and ran well!

Miketg: YOUR knowledge of the European manufacturers is very impressive! You and Daniel are well versed in these obscure (at least to me!) European makers of O and gauge I trains over the several decades of the last century and the present. Fascinating!

@Miketg posted:

........ If we go back to 1965 there were very few producers of items in these scales, but by 1975 there was quite a bit of growth and diversity. By 1975 in 0 scale, you had Lima and Rivarossi prodoucing for the mass market, while on the other end you of course had Fulgurex, but also smaller makers such as Lemaco, Gebauer, Huebner/Eurotrain, Hermann, Kesselbauer and many others..........

In short, I believe when we look at the total equation, Fulgurex did play a major role in repopularizing large scale models.

Miketg

Mike,

I would, respectfully, disagree with you that Fulgurex played a major role in the expansion of 0 scale during the time frames mentioned, for these reasons:

   I propose we take 1970 as the first year for Fulgurex 0 scale, based on the appearance in their catalogue of 2501/2/3, the first 0 gauge locomotives.  By the time of the '71 Toy Fair, according to their 2.71 price lists, only the 241P had appeared, the others still shown as "New Items" without even the pricing being set.  What was then available were the SNCF postal car [ mfg by Hübner ], a CIWL baggage [ by ? ], and the short tinplate version, 2550K, of their very first 0 scale item, the sheet metal MU sleeping car, a classic doorstop.

   Contrast this with what else was shown in 1970 at Nürnberg:

   -  Pola Maxi had started their second generation with the postwar freight cars and the V20

   -  Rivarossi's V160 was running on display layouts, and the bogie freight cars appeared

  -  Hermann [ whom Fulgurex  represented outside CH, D, A ] introduced their Re 4/4 II.

All three of the above were 1/45, of course, as was Märklin's 0e debut.  I would suggest any of those manufactures did more to popularize 0 scale than Fulgurex did.  What Fulgurex DID do at that time, to their credit, was to popularize HO in more fine-scale [ NMRA instead of NEM ] standards, not only with their own models, about two dozen of which were listed in 1970, but also with Tenshodo, Gem, LMB, United, Westside usw locomotives, and, even more importantly, nickle silver track in Code 100 and 70.   In my opinion Fulgurex did not become a significant factor in the 0 scale market until 1980 or so -- and that was because the market had been created by others.  [ As an aside, it is interesting that the Lombardis first started producing for Fulgurex in 1981;  from 1971 to that time they had produced  models for Metropolitan.]

Of course, your and others' interpretations of these historical matters can always differ.

With best regards,

SZ

Hi Steinzeit, thanks for your reply. What I also think we saw after 1970 was two different approaches to the market. On the low end you had Lima, Pola Maxi and Rivarossi. On the high end you had Fulgurex, Hermann, Lombardi, Gebauer Huebner and others. Sadly the low end pretty much sputttered out by the mid 1980's while the high end still survives to this day. Now the 1/43.5 versus 1/45 division could be the topic of a whole other thread, or the impact of Lenz, Brawa etc. could also be another discussion. Another major factor is the growth and creation of the Gauge 0 Guild in the UK, the Cerc de Zero in France and the Arge Spur 0 in Germany.

Miketg 

Hi gang

Went digging through my files and found these two photos from my visit to the Count in 1986.  Should have taken more!!!

Lew Schneider

Great thread, Art. I think I have Linn Westcott's MR article around here, on his visit to Avenue de Rumine. He mentioned a British model by Beeson (?) in the Count's collection, a LMS Royal Scot maybe? The model had oil-holes in the cranks, just like the prototype, and you could slide a pin into them. Maybe that locomotive is in the book - not sure.

Firewood: There is a very complete index of all the models pictured in the book. I will check my copy when I have time and report back.

Have the book great collection

I ordered the book after seeing this post and I received it just yesterday.  Very nice book, worth looking for.  I bought a used copy from Amazon for about $35, it was well worth it. 

@John Clifford posted:

I ordered the book after seeing this post and I received it just yesterday.  Very nice book, worth looking for.  I bought a used copy from Amazon for about $35, it was well worth it. 

The seller is going to wonder why this book is suddenly so popular.