Lehmann-Groß-Bahn
The Lehmann-Groß-Bahn (also called Lehmann-Garten-Bahn ) ( LGB ) is a weatherproof garden model railway in the nominal size IIm (later also referred to as G by the manufacturer ) with a track width of 45 mm, on a scale of 1: 22.5 (actually 1:16 to 1:29 depending on the specific model). It was manufactured from 1968 to 2006 by the Nuremberg model railway manufacturer Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk OHG ( EPL ) and from the beginning of 2007 for a short time by EP Lehmann GmbH & Co KG until it was taken over by Märklin in the same year.
history
Founded in 1881 and developed until 1950
The Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk company was founded as a factory for tin toys in 1881 by Ernst Paul Lehmann from Berlin and Jean Eichner from Nuremberg in Brandenburg an der Havel . They had their products protected by patents. A separate sales network through agents took care of orders from retailers. Aircraft, zeppelins, cars and motorcycles were produced as toys with sophisticated mechanisms and always in keeping with the spirit of the times.
Small and large customers alike appreciated the surprise effects and humorous design. Toys such as the "climbing monkey Tom", the "stubborn donkey" or a "dancing seaman" found buyers for decades and were produced with constant demand without any major changes. After Lehmann's death in 1934, his cousin Johannes Richter, who joined the company in the 1920s, took over management. In the Third Reich, the company was exposed to material shortages. Exporting their products became difficult for the company. The owner kept away from the production of politically desirable military toys out of his religious convictions. No armaments left the factory, only its range of toys.
A few months after the end of the war, operations in the small-scale factory building in Brandenburg, which had not been destroyed, were resumed with the production of tin abacus calculators for the Soviet occupiers. In 1948 the company property was expropriated without compensation on the official grounds that Johannes Richter was a “Nazi criminal” and a “war profiteer”. His company was integrated into the state planned economy as "VEB Mechanische Spielwaren Brandenburg".
Relocation to Nuremberg in 1950 and development until 2006
The penniless family moved to Nuremberg in 1950 and Johannes Richter was forced to rebuild an existence. His sons drove new developments after the death of their father in 1956. In 1959, a new production facility was built, where the first plastic toys were made. Model trains from the company, Lehmann GroßBahn (LGB), were first presented to the public in 1968 by Eberhard and Wolfgang Richter at the toy fair in Nuremberg . The railway was designed as a weatherproof garden railway, for demonstration purposes the first models turned their rounds in front of the exhibition center in the driving snow. Since 1987 LGB has also had its own agency in the United States. Production was later set up in the United States. In 2006, the Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk company celebrated its 125th anniversary with a large open day on the company premises in Nuremberg.
Bankruptcies in 2006 and 2007
With effect from September 18, 2006, the management of Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk OHG filed for bankruptcy at the Nuremberg Local Court . The history of the company experienced a massive break after 38 years of LGB-Bahn production. A few days earlier it became known that the American subsidiary LGB of America (LGBoA) had been sold to the US company G45 in April 2006 .
At the beginning of 2007, Hermann Schöntag, the owner of the Rügen Kleinbahn at the time, wanted to buy the company. For this purpose, Schöntag founded the company EP Lehmann GmbH & Co KG . The business could not be financed and EP Lehmann GmbH & Co KG also had to file for bankruptcy on April 23, 2007. Further attempts to keep the location and jobs in Nuremberg failed. Some of the creditor banks had previously sold their loan commitments to the investment bank Goldman Sachs and its subsidiaries, which had been commissioned by Märklin to acquire the LGB brand. The role of some of the banks involved in this affair has been severely criticized on various occasions.
Acquisitions in 2007 and 2013
On July 26, 2007, the model railway manufacturer Märklin finally announced the takeover of the LGB brand. Production initially took place in Nuremberg and China and then at Märklin, but not in Germany, but in China and Hungary . Customer service initially remained in Nuremberg, but not at the original location in Altenfurt , but together with that of Trix , the second Nuremberg brand from Märklin. Customer service has been carried out at Märklin in Göppingen since September 2009 . The Nuremberg location was completely given up. Most of the buildings were occupied by various companies.
After the parent company Märklin had left its own bankruptcy on February 17, 2011, the new managing director Stefan Löbich announced at the toy fair in Nuremberg that the LGB brand would be strengthened, especially for the American market, and that production would be relocated to its own plants.
On March 21, 2013 the Simba-Dickie-Group announced the takeover of the LGB parent company Märklin . This means that LGB will finally have a new owner. At the press conference, Michael Sieber (Simba-Dickie) announced that the “LGB Toytrain” brand would once again focus more on the target group of children and young people.
Models
Narrow gauge
The size and gauge are measured for models of narrow-gauge railways, the models of which have been used in Germany , Austria , Switzerland and the United States and some are still running. This includes the gauges for light railways (500 mm, 600 mm) as well as the gauges of 750 mm, 760 mm (Bosnian gauge), 914 mm (3-feet USA narrow gauge) and 1000 mm. The model of the 2015D steam locomotive was used as a light rail locomotive on the Mecklenburg narrow-gauge railways. The prototypes of the diesel locomotive 251 (2051 and 2051S) ran on different gauges: 750 mm, 1000 mm (and 1435 mm after gauge change), whereas the diesel locomotive of the ÖBB (2095 and 2096S) (the one at LGB in livery and locomotive number was a never built prototype follows), the well-known E1 electric locomotive (2030–2035, with 2033 and 2035 later being assigned to a different model), the well-known “ Stainz ” (2010, 2010D, 2020, 2020D and 2040, with 2040 later being the model of the crocodile of the Rhaetian Railway was allocated) and the models of the U series (2070D – 2073D) were on the move on 760 mm and some still are. The steam locomotives of the HSB , the "Kleine Dicke", the 99 5001 (2075 and 2076D), the Mallet locomotive (2085D) and the prototypes for the models of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) run on 1000 mm gauge. The Wismar rail bus (nicknamed Anteater and Pig's Snout) (2066) was also manufactured for various gauges up to standard gauge, but now runs at DEV on the Bruchhausen-Vilsen-Asendorf route on 1000 mm. The range also includes locomotives that run on the 1435 mm standard gauge, such as the V 200 of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . The trams in the LGB program and the tramway steam locomotive (2050) also run on different gauges (up to standard gauge).
Standard gauge
In the 1970s and 1980s, very expensive hand-made metal models of large steam locomotives (standard gauge and cape gauge) were produced in cooperation with the Höhne company in small series and in an edition of usually only 100 pieces. A new model came out every year.
The company only produced the models on an approximate scale (initially 1: 22.5) in nominal size IIm (LGB calls this size "G", since the "m" in IIm stands for meter gauge). Due to the scale variations of the model 2015d acts as compared to the original a little too big, especially the Tender does not match the original. The model of the DR 99 6001 (2080D and 2080S) also looks a bit disproportionate, and the central lock on the smoke chamber door only existed on the original until the 1960s. The version with EDP number and central locking never existed like this. Only the original version by Lehmann from the 1970s is correctly implemented. Even the straightened apron does not match the original. Other errors are that the water tank is on the wrong side and the coal bunker behind the locomotive was changed shortly after delivery, so that the LGB model still reflects the coal bunker in the delivery state. There is also a bug in the cab. Other models also show deviations which, for sales reasons, were adapted so that models of different trains for the toy railroader matched each other optically.
Like all suppliers of this size, LGB often handles the scale flexibly, so that both vehicles based on prototypes with 750 mm gauge and those with 1435 mm (standard gauge) can be found as models in the range. The focus is on Swiss railways ( Rhaetian Railway , Furka-Oberalp-Bahn and Brig-Visp-Zermatt-Bahn ), German and Austrian narrow-gauge railways ( Harz narrow-gauge railways, etc.) and vehicles on North American routes (narrow-gauge and standard-gauge).
The standard range extends from the Rhaetian crocodile RhB Ge 6/6 I to the American Disneyland locomotive. From the beginning, since 1968, the small Stainz steam locomotive of the Stainzerbahn has been part of the Lehmann range, which can also be found in the company's trademark .
Series for children
The tracks and transformers are also used in the first Playmobil toy railway , so that both can be combined with each other, as the two companies had worked together for several years before Playmobil introduced its RC trains with plastic tracks in the same gauge. With the introduction of the “Toytrain” product line, a similar group of buyers was addressed to that of Playmobil.
Company lettering
Until 2007, the production was carried out with the assembly from existing individual parts, which is why the article Lehmann can also be read on the bottom of the articles under Märklin . Only when series production by Märklin had started did the Lehmann disappear from the articles because it was removed from the molds. The LGB innovations from 2007 that went on sale initially had Lehmann on the floor and EP Lehmann and the address in Saganerstraße were printed on the item stickers and on the packaging . LGB Witschelstraße was on the product labels from the 2008 innovations. The Lehmann company with the old address and the new address in Witschelstrasse was pasted over the packaging. After the Nuremberg location was closed, the item labels and the boxes were given the address of Märklin in Göppingen.
publication
One year after the start of production of LGB was made to publish its own model railway - magazine . The LGB Depesche dealt primarily with topics relating to the garden railways in Gauge IIm (Gauge G) and their models. With the takeover by Märklin in 2007, the publisher's position also passed to the new owner.
literature
- Helmut Schwarz, Marion Faber: Moving Times - Moving Times - History of the toy factory Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk. (= Writings of the Nuremberg Toy Museum , Volume V). Museums of the City of Nuremberg, Nuremberg 2003, ISBN 3-921590-90-6 (German / English)
Web links
- Internet presence of Lehmann Gross Bahn
- Nürnberg-Infos.de: Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk (EPL) - Lehmann Großbahn (LGB)
Individual evidence
- ^ Nuremberg Toy Museum: History of EP Lehmann Patentwerk (PDF; 38 kB), requested on November 4, 2014.
- ↑ www.trains.com (English)
- ↑ Press release of the City of Nuremberg No. 800 from July 26, 2007
- ↑ Märklin press release of July 26, 2007 ( Memento of the original of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 14 kB)
- ↑ Press report on the termination of the Märklin insolvency
- ^ Press report about the interview by Stefan Löbich at the toy fair in Nuremberg
- ↑ Press release from the Simba Dickie Group on the takeover of Märklin
