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WINCO's     NURNBERG 2016 REPORT

Apart from problems with my Hotel this year's visit to the Toy Fair went very well. Once again the exhibition area had "shrunk" - more and more companies appear to be combining stands and this means less appointments. Whereas for example I used to have one appointment for KIBRI, one for VOLLMER and one for VIESMMANN this year due to the takeovers only one was necessary. More and more of the smaller manufacturers have disappeared altogether and to be honest as I have been doing this trip for some 35 years now there was not very much new to see.

There are lots of resurrections from previous years but in slightly different colourings and what seems to be apparent is everyone is making the same thing - how many manufacturers do you want making the same TRAXX locos!! Anyway I digress - onward with the news most of which you will already know about as it has all been on their various web sites for some weeks now.

It has also become apparent from talking to the manufacturers that many of them are now bringing their moulds back from China for the models to be produced in the EU. Although costs in China are still far cheaper a lot of the companies are paying out a lot of money for repairs / replacing defects on incoming shipments before they can sell on. If they get their models produced in the EU they have more control and 99% of the goods are supplied to them pristine so ready to ship out.

This is the shortened version of my report - a more comprehensive copy to follow.

BEMO: all WINCO Club members will shortly receive the HOm/ HOe New Items leaflet together with our 4-page translation. Pre-orders are now being taken for all BEMO items.

Om: we now have code numbers for the Ge 4/4 Locos which means we can now take pre-orders. There are two versions - 618 BERGUN with round headlights and 613 with rectangular lights. These locos will come in 2 versions - standard and digital sound and only available with fine-scale wheelsets although separate FAMA/UTZ wheelsets can be purchased if you are using the older track system.

There is a new CoOp Refrigerator Wagon - 9468118 showing a Strawberry and also a new POST Wagon 9469106. Also to come are two individual Containers one a CoOp Gerbera (flower) Container and the other a POST Container. The Cement Wagons are now well under way and should be appearing shortly.

BRAWA: the piece de resistance this year is an HO Loco and 6 Wagons which are all hand weathered. It's almost a showcase model and expensive but something to be proud to own. Very early ordering is required for this one as it will be available in very limited supplies.

Other new items include in O Gauge 3 new UIC Refrigerated Wagons - 37214 "EVIAN" / 37215 "STEFF" and 37218 "DOLE Bananas". For the HO range nearly all the locos now come in 5 versions - Analogue / Analogue with Digital Socket / Digital / Digital Sound and AC which means if I list all the codes I won't have any room for anything else! However here goes with some of the models - The Ae 4/7 Lokoop Loco in blue "Orient Express" livery reappears and there are more TRAXX locos including Electric 484 in SBB CARGO livery and BR146 of the DB-AG in grey with red stripe, a DR BR 211 Electric in red and a 4-car DB EMU Class BR245 in 8 different versions.

At long last the InterCity TWINDEXX Double-deck Coaches are nearing completion - 44504 a 3-car Set with Driving Trailer / 44501 additional 1st Class Coach and 44506 extra 2nd Class Coach. There are a number of different wagons - 47839 2-axle SBB Tanker "MOVENPICk" and a number of Type

K2 2-axle Closed Vans which include 47838 SBB "OVOMALTINE" / 47841 SBB "CALANDA BRAU" / 47837 SBB in brown and 47836 for the BLS in brown. Finally for the DB 47258 Type Gos Closed Van in "PEUGEOT TALBOT" livery. There are also many other re-liveried wagons - please see our Website or BRAWA's for all the variants.

In the N range we have two DR Class BR 132 Diesel locos with new running numbers / two DR Class BR 229 Diesels again with new running numbers and two DR Class V180 / BR 118 Diesels in new liveries. The Lokoop BR 242 in the Classic Orient Express livery also appears in this gauge. In rolling stock there are three new SBB EW II Coaches in green - 2 x 2nd Class and 1 x 1st alongwith four 2-axle UIC Refrigerated Vans - "EVIAN" (F) / "STEF" (F) / "BELL" (CH) and "TRANSTHERMOS" (DB).

Finally for BRAWA there will also be some "MESSE" Special models in both HO and N more of which I will put in a later Newsletter once they are confirmed and delivered.

B-Modeles: it's hard to tell what's new and what's not. I appear to have picked up a complete catalogue but on the cover it says "2106 New Items". Anyway I'll make a list of some of the things which might be of interest -7201.01 Belgian SNCB POST Unit Am 54 / 7001.00 Belgian SNCB 2-unit EMU Type Am 54. Like many of the other producers there are a lot of Container Wagons and Bogie Tarpaulin Wagons alongwith 54 202 Well-wagon with Timber (Tree) Loads and 92 101 set of 3 x SBB CARGO Bogie Silo Wagons.

In Gauge 1 a new project is the TRAXX Loco BR185, 8011 DB red, 8021 SBB CARGO and 8031 "CROSSRAIL".

BUSCH - new for the FELDBAHN system - 12140 "Decauville" 0-4-0 Steam Loco / 12011 a Start Set with a different "Decauville" Steam Loco, a Bogie Log Wagon and a circuit of Track . The Log Wagon 12247 is also available separately. Other wagons include 12245 Stake Wagon / 12246 Low-sided Open Bogie Wagon and 12250 a small Wagon with antique "LANZ" Tractor load.

In HO there is the usual selection of Laser-cut and real Wood Buildings, Trees, general Scenics and Road Vehicles. One of the themed areas is a Brew House with beer garden, smaller brew house with Vats and matching vans and scenics.

FALLER: as well as PECO and Andrew Burnham (according at their advertising!!) FALLER are also celebrating their 70th Anniversary this year.

As always there is a massive New Items leaflet so I can't mention everything here. All the new items can be seen on FALLER's website. A few Alpine items I will mention to give you a taster include the following (those with "LC" after the description denotes they are Laser-cut).

HO - 120245 "LANGWIES" RhB Goods Shed (LC) / 130198 Dairy with bottling plant / 120209 Wooden Bridge with tiled roof (LC) and 131004 Swiss Hot Air Balloon (red with white cross).

N - 212121 "LANGWIES" RhB Station (LC) / 222574 Wooden Bridge with roof and 232338 Mountain Rescue Chalet.

HERIS: HERIS have announced some more Russian Coaches some of which run from Mongolia to China and others Moscow - Berlin. They have also produced a Wagon which in real-life is used to attach German coaches or locos to the Russian coaches as their couplings are not compatible! There are also 7 more Silo Wagon liveries, a brand-new shaped Silo Wagon and lastly 2 Gravel Hoppers in Portuguese livery.

I will not give any code numbers for the above as they will probably change before they appear!

HAG: this year HAG didn't attend the show so no news on this one.

JAGERNDORFER: JC are a bit like BRAWA using 4 difference code numbers for each item - DC with socket / AC with socket / DC Sound and AC Sound. The only numbers I will show here are for the DC with socket. In HO two new liveries for the Austrian Class 1062 - 26750 Computer numbered in traffic Orange and 26740 BBO in green. 25830 is a Class 1822 in "Adria" livery and 25850 a different OBB version. Two new TAURUS models appear - 28170 "Kaiser Franz Joseph" livery and 28190 GySEV CARGO. Finally for the future it would appear they are working on an OBB Class 2068 body.

A few items are also shown in their N range and include - 3 new versions of the Austrian Krokodil - one version being EXCLUSIVE to HobbyTRAIN. There also appears to be 4 versions of the OBB 1014 / 1114 Electrics one being in the "CAT" livery. Also 2 "CAT" Sets (Loco / 2 x Coaches & Driving Trailer). One of these sets is in the lighter Green (60300) and the other in the darker shade (60320). Finally they are also showing a CityShuttle Set with a Class 1142 Loco.

LEMKE Group - news from the various ranges under this Group includes -

HOBBYTRAIN N: lots of items here but I have only included a few in the listing. Hopefully some New Item leaflets will be on route shortly.

Four sets of 2 x Bogie Sliding Wall Vans - H23450 SBB (CH) / H23451 "APROZ" (CH) / H23452 "NENDAZ" (CH) and 23453 "MIGROS" (CH). This year also brings 2 sets of 2 x Bogie Sugar Silo Wagons - H23465 and H23466 - both SBB CARGO but varying liveries. Some of the new locos to be announced include H2975 BLS VECTRON Electric (the side advertising on this one hasn't yet been approved) / H2976 MRCE VECTRON Electric "BERLIN" livery / H2977 MRCE VECTRON Electric "Connecting Europe" / H2775 MRCE TAURUS "Kaiser Franz Joseph" / H2731 TAURUS "Albert Einstein" and H2732 OBB TAURUS in "RAILJET" livery.

For coaches there are 6 more of the SBB IC2000 Double-deck Coaches with some new liveries and new running numbers - 25114 1st Class / 25115 2nd Class / 25116 1st Baggage / 25117 "TICKILAND" Driving Trailer / 25118 "Starbucks" Restaurant Coach and 25119 2nd Class with "Stau-wagen" advertising on the side.

HOBBYTRAIN HO: some similar items to be announced in this gauge include the twin sets of Bogie Sugar Silo Wagons - 42060 and 42061 again in SBB CARGO but with different markings. Some of their Bogie Flat Wagons are going to appear with Jumbo Containers and include 58862 "Bahntrans" and 58863 "DHL".

HOBBYTRAIN HOm: yes - a different offshoot for HobbyTRAIN and two models they are showing are 43100 Zugspitzbahn 2-axle Centre-cab Electric and 43101 a Zugspitzbahn Bogie 2nd Class Coach.

KATO RhB N: this year we have some more items to the range. Firstly there is an ALLEGRA Starter Set. Also a BRUNIG Set which consists of an Allegra 3-unit + 2 x Bernina Coaches and also an add-on set of 4 additional Bernina Coaches. We haven't been given any code numbers as these appear to be different depending on the Country! There are also 2 new individual Ge 4/4 III Locos in "LAZZARINI" and "BERNINA Express" Liveries.

P.I.R.A.T.A.: as previously mentioned in our Newsletters this Company has now linked up with ViTRAINS as well as ACME. Most of their are items are Italian based and in N scale which could be manufactured anywhere in Europe to high specifications. One project for 2016 are 7 liveries of the Italian E444 Electrics alongwith Codes 2060 V100 "Oceangate" livery / 2130 SBB Tm IV Tractor / 2131 SBB ARGO Tm IV Tractor. 1030 the RhB Bernina Railcar is now partly assembled but beware this item is in brass and could turn out to be rather expensive compared to the KATO RhB locos. The Italian GranComfort Coaches appear in EuroCITY Italia livery and also in coaches there are some Swiss models but these are EXCLUSIVE to an Italian Company.

RailAD HO: for 2016 there are more of these superior TAURUS BR1116 / BR541 locos and new liveries include - 1016 "Austria E Card" / 1017 "Chiquita" Bananas / 1018 "Eurovision" Song Contest and 1019 "Albert Einstein".

L.S. Models - there is so much that I can't go into all the stuff from this Company which is coming or should be coming out left, right and centre! What I would say is that most of the models we have ordered over recent years as yet have not materialised! If you see something you are interested in "Please Oh Please" use our pre-order scheme as if you wait until the items are announced as being imminent or released the chances of obtaining them is very slim!

LIMA EXPERT / L E Models - keep a watch out for more information on this one.

LILIPUT: a new catalogue here for 2016 which once again includes the new items for this year. There is nothing new in the HOe section although it does shown items which still have not been released from last year.

In HO there are more versions of the GRAZ-KOFLACHER Steam Loco in various guises - 131961 Austrian BBO version / 131963 Preserved Loco no. 677 and 131968 another Preserved version No. 680. The HENSCHEL CoCo Diesel Locos are shown but these have still not materialised from last year.

New for 2016 are two 3-Car DB Class 614 DMU's in different liveries. Also shown for this year are variants of the OBB Draisines in various colour schemes, some of which are already available. One new Wagon is an OBB Bogie Flat carrying an OBB HOe Coach.

In N Gauge there is not much, a couple of wagons included are - 265655 Bogie Refrigerated Wagon "VELTINS" (Beer) and 265660 as before but "KONIG PILSENER".

HOe - as already indicated this year no new items as there is still a backlog from previous years.

L.G.B: once again we can supply nearly all items from the LGB range (subject to availability). Our website has already been updated with the new 2016 Swiss items.

NOCH: we don't normally advertise this range that much but can always supply (eventually!) but some of the sets of figures and even buildings are now coming with sound modules and speakers - for example: 66822 Laser-cut Stage with Brass Band / 66825 Open-air Stage with Rock Band / 66701 Micro motion "Love Barn" with moving figures and sound unit. Packs of figures with sound include - 12820 Street Musicians / 12841 Construction Workers / 12860 "At the Church" with Church Bells / 12850 Farmers and Animals and 12800 German Station Staff.

Finally a model which is ideal for any Alpine layout but without sound is 65800 a Mountain Hut / Restaurant.

PIKO: something which has suddenly become apparent is the rise in PIKO prices. I have a feeling they will do a "ROCO" if they're not careful and begin to price themselves out of the market. Once again there are loads of new liveries in all three of their HO ranges - Classic / Expert and Hobby. There are far too many to list so once again we should receive some leaflets and hopefully will be updating our website with some of the new items. There isn't much to report on G or N scales at this time.

PREISER: I thought they had cut back last year but this year's offering is very poor but there again they make figures for other companies so I suppose that keeps them busy. HO items of note include - 10691 Lifeguards / 10718 Seniors with Zimmerframes (I know the feeling well!) and 10723 more Seated Passengers. There are also a lots of sets in a series of "Medieval Festival" - I'm not sure where this one is going?

RIETZE: not new for this year but due to release March/April 2016 are the following items:

O Gauge: 14236 MB Citaro 1:43 scale PTT Post Bus

HO: 71825 MB 045 Swiss Post Bus with Trailer / 69454 MB Citaro Swiss "TPF" Bus and 65961 Solaris PTT Bus "Grisons".

RockyRAIL: this year introduces in their N range 3 new ALSTOM PRIMA BB Locos - all in very limited supplies so please pre-order these immediately if you are interested - 37506 EUROPORT E37 506 / 37502 VEOLIA E37 502 and 37531 VEOLIA E37 531. There are also a number of wagons in N due to be released during the coming year . All are Type Sdggmrs Twin Wagons with double lorry trailer loads as follows: 60333 "CARLSBERG" / 60334 "WARSTEINER" / 60308 "DHL" / 60311 "DB SCHENKER" / 60312 "HANGARTNER" / 60325 "LKW WALTHER" / 60329 "WETRON" AND 60330 "GRUBER".

ROCO / FLEISCHMANN: this year they have released 3 New Item catalogues which appeared about 2 weeks before the show. There is one for each "normal" range and one issued as a "Start Range", the latter being mainly sets and resurrected "older" products. Having said that me doing this job for many years and also being slightly cynical finds that most of the items also shown in the 2 main brochures seem to have been around many times before! Once again there are far too many to mention individually so I'll just do a quick rundown -

ROCO HO: most of these new items come as Sound versions of existing models - 73290 OBB 1046 in orange / 73392 OBB 1043 in jaffa / 73552 OBB 1044 in orange / 72604 BLS Ae 8/8 / 73252 SBB Re 4/4 "Gottardo 2016" livery / 73729 SBB 460 "Gottardo 2016" / 3270 SBB 460 "Japan" / 73274 BLS 465 "Pink Panther" / 73272 BLS 465 "Flash Fire / 73666 BLS 186 CARGO / 73599 Class 185 "Captrain" / 73412 DB AG Class 111 "500 Years Reinheitsgebot" / 73669 DB Class E483 Electric "ITALIA" / 73492 Polish TAURUS "T Mobile" and 73440 Swedish Re4 "Green Cargo" and so the list goes on and on. You can even have your own individual locomotive printed now they have the new digital printing machine. Finally one new ROCO item which does appear to be "new" are the sets of 2 x Swiss Postal Vans - 67184 in green and 67183 in yellow.

FLEISCHMANN HO: a few additions here including 430003 "Edelweis" Rack loco which now comes in a new more attractive livery plus loads of reliveried Wagons. The only thing which really stood out being two sets of 3 x DB CARGO Silo Wagons which have been weathered.

FLEISCHMANN N: most of the Steam locos have now been fitted with DCC decoders. Some of the new liveries to appear include - 781604 DB Class 111 "500 Years Reinheitsgebot" / 734009 Re 4/4 "RailADVENTURE" / 781602 Re 4/4 "Gottardo 2016" / 781603 Re 460 "Gottardo 2016" / 731129 OBB TAURUS "VEGA" Design" / 731311 BLS 465 "Cat's EYE" / 738510 CFL 4019 and 725006 Austrian "RTS" Class BR221. In rolling stock we have 4 new EW IV SBB ICN liveried Coaches plus a Driving Trailer to match (latter with decoder) and a host of new Container Wagons.

START Range: something which did catch my eye on the ROCO side in HO is the resurrection of the SBB Be 4/6 Electric in both brown R73431 and green R73433 - this model has come and gone many times over the past 30 years. There is also an Ae 6/6 "Obwalden" R52660. Also in the START Range in HOe is a small Diesel in green "LEO" R33209 and a set of 2 x Mineral Wagons in brown R34499. The FLEISCHMANN side is offering in HO F437602 DB Class BR103 and F631581 Swiss Digital Start Set and F631581 an 0-4-0 Steam Loco. Finally in N OBB 2048 F722803 / SBB Eaos Wagon F828335 / F828336 again an Eaos Wagon but in pink plus at least another Eaos type Wagons for various countries.

TRIX / MINITRIX: both these ranges now appear to have a few buildings to go with their models which to me seems a strange way to go so I will not be mentioning these further but show below some of the models in both gauges which took my eye:

TRIX HO: 2016 should bring the following from their announcements - 22920 Italian RAILION G2000 Diesel / 22925 SBB C5/6 Steam Loco / 22868 SBB RBe 2/4 "RED ARROW" and 22921 Belgian G2000 Diesel.

MINITRIX N: this part of the business seems to be taking off again but I do wish they wouldn't put so much into Sets or Multiples rather than as individual items. The cost of some of these almost makes purchasing prohibitive. Anyway here with go with yet another list of the new releases for 2016!

11627 "Rheingold Airport" Set (loco + 3 coaches) / 16025 DB Class 120 "MARKLIN" advertising / 15711 set of 3 x HAMBURG Express Coaches / 16895 ERS Class ES64 "Vincent van Gogh" / 15610 set of 4 x "FELDSCHLOSSCHEN" Sliding Wall Wagons all with different liveries / 16763 SBB 460 "MIGROS" / 16903 SBB CARGO International Class 482 and finally 16935 Hungarian ES64 "Gold Team".

VK Modelle Vehicles: as with many of the small manufacturers there was nothing "completely new" for this year and their production schedule from last year is still running late. Please keep an eye on the "Latest Arrivals" section of our website and Newsletters for more details.

ViTRAINS: again this was another Company who didn't attend this year's show although they did have a display alongwith Pi.RATA on part of the LEMKE stand. LEMKE are not stockists for this range - they purely rented out some of their space. I am told there will be a new catalogue later this year.

VIESSMANN Group:

KIBRI - quite a few items here for HO - 38295 Corner Town House with 1 lighting unit and a Waving Figure in the window / 39170 Lighthouse with LED lighting - this one looks as though it could be also used off of the UK coastline / 39495 Swiss "WALSER" Village Kit which is a selection of discontinued Swiss building kits brought together with some accessories (these used to be called "Davos" buildings). We also have 2 Swiss Stations - 39493 RhB "DAVOS MONSTEIN" and 39519 RhB "SURAVA" - both of these come with interior lighting. Finally 39450 a 3-track Modern Loco Shed.

VOLLMER - very little happening here as existing production is still being caught up. New in HO or should I say "reborn" is 43661 "Babyland Boutique" this time with lighting and 46889 a Half-timbered Building under construction. For N there is a nice Platform with a Canopy and again lighting - code 47530.

VIESSMANN - there are some new lights with different LED lighting to give cool, bright or orange glows. Another interesting thing is 1549 an operating Organ Grinder plus music - a well known sight in Germany but not seen in many other places in Europe. Also in their range of figures is 1551 a Woman taking a "Selfie" complete with Flashing Camera and another is a Lumberjack with moving Chainsaw. Something else which caught my eye was a Manual Slow Motion Level Crossing with Figure turning the handle and a Bell sound unit.

Once again I hope that the above information may be of help and interest to you. Both Yvonne and I would like to thank you for supporting WINCO and we hope to be of further service to you during 2016.

Peter Brett

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