Large Scale Central

Nürnberger Nachrichten comments on "LGB Style"

General Discussion
#21
John Joseph Sauer said:
LGB was beginning to sell locos without the electronics and sound. Examples are the Heidi, Bernina rail cars and the Genesis.
Yes, it took three+ years of "bitching and complaining" by the customer base to finally get them to that point. Prior to that it was "our stuff is the BEST", which must have been the reason why so many people gutted the decoder boards and replaced them with "something inferior".

When you get a chance ask Bob Brashear - he teaches the MTS Seminars - what make decoders the majority of his engines have and while you’re at it, ask him which DCC system he has installed/uses on his home layout.

BTW while we’re on the electronics i.e. DCC; Massoth - they’re the OEM for the LGB MTS - has opened a US office. And just like Lenz before them - when it came to MTS - they now produce what the customers have been demanding for years and LGB said they couldn’t deliver. Reason? There’s a law in Europe/Germany that prohibits TOY items to be supplied with more than 5 amp of current.

I guess if one would have been less “advice resistant” one would have marketed TOYS and one would have marketed Model Railways! But if you not only know everything, but know everything better, then you may get passed by. One more reason why turnover took a rapid dive!

Oh yes, that is most certainly a comment on the “LGB Style” as it used to be practised by the previous owners!

#22

Personally I wish all locos came with sound installed so I wouldn’t have to fuss with buying an expensive add-on system, paying someone to install it, etc.

#23

Hans.

Quote:
Advice resistant huh!!!.
I actually experienced that in 1992. Wolfgang, who actually owns a battery R/C loco equipped with RCS, asked my advice about a technical matter. I had a meeting in the beer barrel car at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. I gave that advice which was of course ignored by the LGB technical gurus, only to see it incorporated later. But hey what would I know. Also.
Quote:
Yes, it took three+ years of "bitching and complaining" by the customer base to finally get them to that point. Prior to that it was "our stuff is the BEST", which must have been the reason why so many people gutted the decoder boards and replaced them with "something inferior".
That is what can happen when you "let the kids play with the trains".
Quote:
Personally I wish all locos came with sound installed so I wouldn't have to fuss with buying an expensive add-on system, paying someone to install it, etc.
Ray, I respectfully disagree. It would not be so hard to design the insides of the locos in such a way that the sound/control system was a simple plug in affair. I am convinced LGB tried to "force" the LS market to accept their add ons not so much that they were the best, rather, it was because they sought to maximise the $$$$ they could extract per unit sale. That back fired, spectacularly as it turned out, such that they went back to the way it should have been done all along. Too late by then. Bachmann will fall on their own sword too if they persist with the same business mentality.
#24
TonyWalsham said:
It would not be so hard to design the insides of the locos in such a way that the sound/control system was a simple plug in affair.
Yeah, I think that would be the best practical solution, and certainly better than the current situation.

The problem with manufacturer-installed sound/control systems isn’t that they aren’t “the best”, but rather, no matter how good it is there’ll always be people who want something different. And even if everyone could agree on one specific system, the lack of choice would mean higher prices.

I just long for the convenience and simplicity of having it all in one neat package. Wishful thinking, nothing more. :slight_smile:

#25
Ray Dunakin said:
Yeah, I think that would be the best practical solution, and certainly better than the current situation.

The problem with manufacturer-installed sound/control systems isn’t that they aren’t “the best”, but rather, no matter how good it is there’ll always be people who want something different. And even if everyone could agree on one specific system, the lack of choice would mean higher prices.

I just long for the convenience and simplicity of having it all in one neat package. Wishful thinking, nothing more. :slight_smile:


Indubitably.
The manufacturer’s choice may not be ours.
You cann real-time some, and they are a somethimes $300 premium,
Some, you can’t turn the dag-blamed cab chatter off.
Some are so bad they are not even “polyphonic”, meaning it can only do limited things at once, but, by gum, they’re cheap!

“Too soon old, too late smart” could be re-written to “Too late smart, too soon bankrupt”.