VINTAGE GERMAN ‘O’ GAUGE TIN / LITHOGRAPH TRAIN SET
Featured manufacturers:
(Heinrich Wimmer oHG-Nuremberg HWN)
(Johann Distler KG-Nuremburg)
(Ottmar Beckh aka Beckh KG-Nuremburg)
Description:
This unique offer combination includes: HWN and Ottmar Beckh KG track, switches and “X” crossing; Johann Distler KG locomotive and coal tender; five HWN freight cars and one Ottmar Beckh KG passenger car; all from the early 1950’s.
These are very RARE German tin plate lithograph ‘O’ gauge train collectibles, manufactured in the US zone shortly after WW2. Rarely are these vintage items offered in a combined collection in such fine condition.
Included Offering Inventory:
Locomotive:
DISTLER KG ‘O’ GAUGE
JD-1956 STEAM LOCOMOTIVE WITH COAL TENDER #1518
Locomotive and tender are detailed with finely painted chromolithography. The locomotive was originally electric and ran with DC power pack ('BatteryLocs' at 4.5 V).
Rare collectible, not many of these available today.
Condition: Fair to Good given age and wear (untested electrically). Without original box.
Measurements: Locomotive 6-1/2”length; tender 4” length
Freight cars:
(Heinrich Wimmer oHG HWN) O GAUGE GONDOLA CAR # 200/WsG
Gondola car # 200/WsG with four wheels, chrome-lithographed in brown, on both sides have two painted loading doors; with stairs; without buffer; "15746" printed on the sides. Rare collector’s piece from HWN.
Condition: Very Good to Excellent
Measurements: 7” length x 1-7/8” width
(Heinrich Wimmer oHG HWN) O GAUGE - “KUHLWAGEN” - BB ESSEN
“Kuhlwagen” (Cold freight car) with four wheels, chrome-lithographed, 2 painted sliding loading doors, with stairs, without buffer, "15041" printed on the sides
Condition: Very Good to Excellent given age and playwear
Measurements: 7” length x 1-7/8” width
(Heinrich Wimmer oHG HWN) O GAUGE - “BANANES-WAGEN” - BB KOLN
Bananes-wagen (Banana freight car) with four wheels, chrome-lithographed, 2 painted sliding loading doors; with stair; without buffer; "14501" printed on the sides
Condition: Good, given age and wear (missing one coupler)
Measurements: 7” length x 1-7/8” width
(Heinrich Wimmer oHG HWN) O GAUGE - FLAT-BED LUMBER WAGON
Lumber flat-bed freight car with four wheels, upright container supports and chain; one support is broken; color black.
Condition: Fair given broken support piece and wear from age
Measurements: 7” length x 1-7/8” width
(Heinrich Wimmer oHG HWN) O GAUGE - SHELL OIL-TANK WAGEN
RARE Shell Oil-wagen (Shell Oil tank car) with four wheels, chrome-lithographed, yellow painted earmarking “Shell Oil” logo, black “filler” cap on top, with stairs, Shell Oil logo printed on the sides. Limited availability and highly sought after by collectors!
Condition: Very Good, given age and wear
Measurements: 7” length x 1-7/8” width
Passenger car:
(Ottmar Beckh KG) PASSENGER CAR 1ST & 2ND CLASS
RARE Passenger car (1st and 2nd Class) with four wheels, chrome-lithographed, with stairs, without buffer, "1200” printed on the sides, numerals 1 & 2 on sides designating Class, Koln - Paris signage on both sides. Very nice collector’s piece from Ottmar Beckh.
Condition: Very Good
Measurements: 6-1/2” length x 1-3/4” width
Track and switch pieces:
(Heinrich Wimmer oHG HWN) O GAUGE - STRAIGHT TRACK
18 pieces of straight track
Condition: Very Good given age and wear
Measurements: 12” length each piece
(Heinrich Wimmer oHG HWN) O GAUGE - CURVED TRACK
27 pieces of curved track
Condition: Very Good given age and wear
Measurements: 11-1/2” length each piece
(Heinrich Wimmer oHG HWN) O GAUGE - SHORT TRACK PIECES
4 pieces of curved track; 1 piece straight track
Condition: Very Good given age and wear
Measurements: 5-1/2” length each piece
(Heinrich Wimmer oHG HWN) O GAUGE - MANUAL SWITCHES
(VERY RARE)
1 left manual hand switch; 1 right manual hand switch
Condition: Very Good given age and wear
Measurements: 11-3/4” length each piece
(Ottmar Beckh aka Beckh KG) O GAUGE - ‘X’ CROSSING (VERY RARE)
1 - ‘X’ Crossing, branded with Beckh KG logo on bottom
Condition: Very Good given age and wear
Measurements: 12” length
Scale: ‘O’gauge
Manufacturers: Heinrich Wimmer oHG (HWN) Blechspielwarenfabrik “Tin Toy Factory” - Nuremburg; Johann Distler KG-Nuremburg; Ottmar Beckh aka Beckh KG-Nuremburg;
Year: early 1950’s
“Made in US Zone Germany”
Toys marked with a "Made in US Zone Germany" text, range in date from about 1945 until 1952 and are highly sought after and collectible items. The American zone where US Zone Germany toys were made consisted of Bavaria and Hesse in Southern Germany, and the northern portions of the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. Toys manufactured after 1952 are branded “Made in West Germany”.
About: Heinrich Wimmer Nuremburg (HWN)
The Heinrich Wimmer oHG Blechspielwarenfabrik (HWN) “tin toy factory” was a toy company based in Nuremberg in the 1920s and was primarily focused on the production of inexpensive toy trains. In 1920, Heinrich Wimmer, a dealer in second hand goods founded his tin toy factory in Nuremberg on Julienstraße (Julien street) where he began production of model vehicles and airplanes with clockwork drives. In 1930, Wimmer relocated its operations within Nuremberg. In 1933 he added model tanks and launchers to his range of products.
Following WW2, in addition to commercial vehicles and tinplate planes, the company manufactured clockwork and electric model trains in 0 and H0 gauges. Extensive accessories were made both from sheet metal, featuring detailed painting in chrome-lithography. Mainly train stations, signal boxes, houses, bridges and signals were part of the production. The large department store chains such as Karstadt and Kaufhof were mostly responsible for sales and distribution. The former mail order companies like Quelle and Neckermann also published the inexpensive toys in their catalogs, especially around Christmas. This is how the Wimmer-Bahnen received the nickname "Kaufhausbahn".
Heinrich Wimmer left the company in 1969. The business was continued by his son, Ernst Wimmer, and was dissolved in 1976. HWN toys continued to be highly sought after and collectible!
About: Johann Distler KG
The Johann Distler KG metal ware factory was founded in Nüremberg, Germany around 1900. The first products manufactured until the breakout of World War I were lithographed tin penny toys and On November 28, 1917, Distler brought in Nüremberg merchants Adolf Braun and Joseph Meyer as partners. Another merchant, Siegmund Heussinger from Schweinfurt was also brought on as a partner. ther action transportation toys. After Distler`s death in 1923, his partners took over the business. On January 25, 1923, businessman Ludwig Meyer was registered as a further shareholder. Joseph Meyer passed away December 22, 1924. In 1935 the company was forced to change ownership completely. The owners Braun & Meyer were Jewish and were forced to sell the company as the German Aryanization laws mandated no Jewish ownership of companies. On December 24, 1935 it was sold to Ernst Voelk who also later took over Trix in April 1938. Ernst Voelk (1896 - 1969) was born in Fürth, Bavaria. Ernst Voelk became a leader in Adolf Hitler's 3rd Reich as head of section S - toys, sporting goods and gymnastic equipment of the iron and metal industry group. He was also leader of the Reich Association of German toy industry and the Nuremberg-Fürth toy industry and leader of the Association of Bavarian play and metal goods manufacturers. From 1939 until the end of World War II, many toy factories in Germany stopped production and were converted to help manufacture goods for the war effort. Distler produced aircraft and auto parts during these years. The Distler factory was 85% destroyed from allied bombing during World War II. After the war, the factory was rebuilt (1948-53) and Distler returned to production of toys. Their factory was in the U.S. Zone and the toys made from 1945 to 1952 were marked 'U.S. Zone Germany'. After then the Distler trains and toys were marked as 'Made in Western Germany'. The earliest Distler trains were clockwork powered. They came in either passenger or freight sets that typically included a loop of 2-rail 'O' gauge tubular steel track. These sets came in cardboard boxes adorned with elaborate illustrations that depicted a real train, typically the prototype of the train contained in the set. The earliest electric sets issued by Distler appear to have been designed to operate on special 2-rail insulated 'O' gauge tubular steel track and were powered using 4.5 volt's. The power was supplied to the track via wires that were connected to a small plastic box that housed 3 1.5 volt batteries and allowed limited control of the train's speed. Distler was one of the many train manufacturers that also manufactured their own 'O' gauge tubular steel track. By 1955 the product line had been reduced in size and the Distler catalog was only 46 pages long. Starting in 1957 Distler began to switch from making 'O' gauge railway models in favor of HO scale. Changes in market conditions led to financial problems for Johann Distler KG in the late 1950's as the company's products could not compete against larger German manufacturers such as Schuco and Märklin. Additional restrictions on the ability for Distler to compete for consumers and innovate were put in place merely by the fact that they could not produce anything already covered by the German Trix range. Demand for the cheap tinplate toy railways with clockwork and battery powered drives fell and production of Distler toys and models in Germany was discontinued in 1962.
Founded by
Ottmar Beckh in Nuremberg, Ottmar Beckh manufactured O gauge trains. In
addition, he produced accessories for railway systems such as level
crossings. These were of high quality, so Beckh's tin toys are still
popular and collectible today.
'Ottmar
Beckh' or 'Beckh KG' is a firm that is relatively unknown, except for their
products that are still collectible today.
In 1939
Beckh acquired the tooling’s and molds from the toy maker Adolf Schumann,
improving and expanded their product range to include military toys. Production
was suspended during the Second World War and resumed in 1949.
Ottmar Beckh
became known for his production of trains and accessories, all tin plate and O
gauge. Beckh KG was well known for their very nice lithographed signals and
other miscellaneous accessories for clock work trains, such as cross overs and
foot bridges.
Production
ceased in 1973 when the company closed.
Beckh's logo was a stylized railroad. The
initial abbreviation OB for Ottmar Beckh is
also known
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