Customer Reviews

Official Guide to LGB

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Aside from some small errors and a missing index, this book is the definitive guide to LGB. A must have book for anyone who owns or collects LGB engines and/or cars. A very well written narrative accompanies each description. This book is timely and well done. Highly recommended!

As rather a fan of LGB, and having seen the high prices for this book, I presumed it must be wonderful. Now that i have it, I would like to share my observations for other would-be buyers. this book more or less follows and lists LGB products through about 1998.

I have, since about 1986 followed LGB, and have all the catalogs dating from 1985, as well as a great variety of the product flyers and other sales literature since that time. I have a fairly good history of LGB and its products since that time. I find it a lot of fun to simply look at LGB models, and when I can, pick out variations. With this in mind, this book did not fulfill this aspect.

First, as a point of comparison, the ten year older and far less pricey "Greenbergs Guide to LGB" obviously misses those items produced after 1988. On the other hand, the Greenburg's offers far more in the way of visual help, and I think it the better guide in many ways. The Roth book takes you through 1998, or so, including some later items listed it's in appendix.

Second, if you are a collector, this is a great list of items that LGB produced. Comprehensive in including track, accessories, and publications, as well as a variety of odd ball or limited production and after market rolling stock. In this regard it it more complete by far than the Greenberg's.

Third, while I do not consider myself a collector, I have followed LGB sale prices and items regularly since I started my own garden set in about 1986. I have some current knowledge of general prices. It is my opinion that this book , well out of date obviously, does not reflect current market prices, and in fact, may be wildy off, high as well as low.

My main disappointment with this book is the lack of eye candy. While it may sound sophomoric in terms of a collector's point of view, there is nothing like seeing examples of the items described. While the book does contain some photos, it does not contain as many as the Greenberg's (which i thought a bit sparse photo-wise when I purchased it). The Roth book is drier still in this reagard. There are no drawing to provide examples of roof style variations, colors, and other items described in the brief product entries. If I did not have a good familiarity with LGB items, i think i would find this book not only dull, but not a great help in identifying variations of rolling stock.

To its credit, it is obvious that the authors verifed a great number of details with the executives of LGB on many models. In this regard the information is more reliable, but still not without some errors or details omitted, such as no mention of the one piece handrails on the earliest version of the 2018 US red mogul.

It might be more helpful to one seeking to learn about LGB products to assemble past catalogs, with the myriad of photos contained in them. It is helpful most as a list, to a person fairly familiar with LGB, but not detailed enough to make the reader an expert in identifying subtle variations.

Had I the chance for a hands-on inspection prior to purchase, I would have passed on this book, only due to the price versus my satisfaction.

This book is a great addition to my collection of documents published about LGB. It will be a good resource for my friends and me. I am avidly searching for other LGB english documents such as LGB telegram, LGB Despeche and other documents providing technical data and diagrams of LGB products.