Loks

Right at the start of the New Year, we are presenting the “Marschbahnwagen” in their current colour scheme from DB Regio Schleswig-Holstein.

After DB Regio Schleswig-Holstein emerged as the new operator of the Hamburg-Altona – Westerland regional express trains in the 2015 tender for transport services, the coach sets previously used by the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn were taken over by a leasing company and leased to DB Regio. As it was foreseeable that the carriages would be given a new exterior design in the Schleswig-Holstein state design, the previous Nord-Ostsee-Bahn colour concept was only carefully modified. The entrance doors of the carriages were painted turquoise instead of melon yellow, the operator logos were also replaced and the operator of the service, “NAH.SH”, was clearly advertised on the sides of the carriages. Some of the driving trailers were given silver-grey “bibs” on the front, but some remained in the melon yellow of the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn; this is also the case with our model.

All of the models correspond exactly to the prototype in terms of paint and lettering. The cars have close coupler linkages with NEM coupler pockets for close coupling. The interior design is multi-coloured. As with the previous H0 models, these cars also have built-in interior lighting as well as head and tail lighting that changes with the direction of travel. The lighting boards already contain a digital decoder that also works in analogue operation. The operational reliability of the lighting is protected by buffer capacitors (“gold caps”) in each car. The train destination indicators on the carriages are backlit in matching colours. We have had the circuit boards completely redeveloped by the KRES company in Fraureuth near Zwickau, and production also takes place in Fraureuth.

The models are available immediately from stock and from well-stocked specialised dealers. Our models are now supplied to specialist dealers via Wolfgang Lemke GmbH. You can find a list of specialist dealers at: https://lemkecollection.de/haendlersuche/

We wish you a good start to the New Year

Your ASM team

Das Team von ASM

Dear Model railroaders,

It has been a long time since the last news entry. And indeed: very, very little has happened in the past months. We have been waiting for the delivery of long ordered models, in vain so far. This is changing now.

In November, the post-production of the Married Couple wagons in H0 will arrive with us. It is currently in final assembly and in the test phase at the factory in China. So the long wait is over. We have postponed the NOB, Hectorrail and NIAG locomotives to the end of the I quarter 2024 for delivery. We appreciate the tight schedule of the factory, but after the experiences of the past 12 months we do not want to raise expectations that cannot be fulfilled in the end because too little buffer time was planned.

N-gauge model railway enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting the reissue of the Czech seat cars. These will now be delivered in January 2024. Our trains will then be completely available again.

Now you are probably asking yourself: are there any novelties??? Yes, there are. We will announce them when they are on their way to us. We had announced this after the experience with the March train cars and we are sticking to it. Otherwise, disappointment would be inevitable in the event of delays in delivery. But we can reveal this much: at the end of this year there will be a new H0 model, followed by two more for N gauge in 2024.

We are now moving full steam ahead with our beautiful hobby!

Many greetings

the ASM team

Another year is coming to an end. For us it was by far the most challenging year so far. Start-up difficulties with the H0 models, the need to take over the storage and shipping services ourselves at short notice, and the uncertain prospect of what rising prices might mean for us.

Not all the remnants of these challenges have been eliminated yet, but we have fought our way forward and look to 2023 with confidence. There will be new models, new moulds and painting and printing variants of existing models.  The long-announced diesel locomotive in H0 will also be delivered in 2023, together with the reissue of the NOB’s Married-Pair wagons, the demand for which was pleasantly surprisingly much higher than we had assumed.

Before we say goodbye to the new year, we have some information for all customers from Austria. On 1 January 2023, an amendment to the Packaging Ordinance will come into effect, which stipulates that we, as an online retailer, must appoint a notarially authorised representative in Austria to monitor compliance with the Packaging Ordinance on our behalf when shipping to private customers in Austria. For us, this would be additional bureaucratic and financial effort (we already do this in Germany) and would be disproportionate to the revenue. Moreover, we are of the opinion that exactly this would be a nice task for an EU-wide regulation and not – to hinder the intra-European movement of goods – a national task. Therefore, until further notice, we will no longer ship to private customers in Austria until another possibility presents itself. We ask for your understanding and recommend that you talk to your respective member of the National Council.

2022 is going to the siding, for 2023 the train notification has already been sent. We are ready to leave.

Thank you all for your loyalty, patience and the many good discussions on these and possible further models.

A Happy New Year to all of you

Christian Arndt
and the ASM team

Finally! The Czech dining cars and the seating cars are available again! We are serving as of now.

And we are preparing the next re-production, as some of the Czech EuroCity cars are already sold out again. That means: the models will still be available from us.

At the end of November, the still outstanding Norwegian sets with dining cars and locomotive will be ready and then delivered immediately.

Contrary to previous assumptions, the reissue of the Married pair cars will not be with us until spring 2023. This is a little disappointing, as we had hoped that these would be available again in time for Christmas. The only consolation here is that the phase of anticipation will now last a little longer and that everyone who orders will receive their model. We have reordered enough.

The DE2700 diesel locomotive will also be released in late spring.

The factory in China has been working diligently to make up for the backlog. We are now hoping for the best for 2023 and are putting a new design for 2023 into the mould shop next week.

Your team from ASM

Dear partner, colleague and model railroader,

Some news from our side. There is finally another new delivery. This time it is the set 188686 of the NSB, i.e. El 18 2246 and the matching dining car in Nydesign. The train destination is Bergen. Next week the set will be shipped out. Enclosed you will find some pictures of the locomotive and some printing details. Please keep in mind: these are extreme close-ups of a 1:160 scale model! The precision and sharpness of the printing are more than impressive.

The set 188689 with loco El 18 2241 and dining car, train destination Oslo, is expected to be delivered in November. Unfortunately, more cases for samples were needed during production than planned. We will have to wait for a subsequent delivery in October. But you can already get an impression of how good the model will be.

Unfortunately, the delivery dates of the other models will also be postponed. The reason: our factory in Southern China, in Guangdong, can currently only produce at half power. There are power rationings, the power plants are not producing according to demand due to a lack of cooling water. I don’t even want to comment on that, at the moment we all have to deal with it.

The Marschbahn models will be delivered around the beginning of September.
The dining cars WRmz 815 of the Czech Railways as well as the Czech cars of the EC100 will follow approx. mid-October
Shortly before Christmas, so the current hope, the DE2700 diesel loco of the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn will be delivered.

I regret not being able to bring you more positive news. On the other hand, this gives you a little more time for anticipation. All other new models we are working on we will announce not before they left the factory.

Many thanks for your loyalty and anticipation.

With kind regards,

Christian Arndt

…this is the title of an old song by the Bay City Rollers many years ago. And it is the question some of our customers who pre-ordered the “Marschbahnwagen” and the Czech dining cars.

After we now clearified the last status of production we would like to answer this question.

Marschbahnwagen:: The cars are completely produced, packed and will go on the journey to us this week. We expect them to arrive around the first days of July, so a few weeks later than we wanted to have them. But: we think it is worth it to wait. They will be here soon.

Diesel loco DE2700:: This machine is delayed and shifted to the beginning of October. Production capacities in the workshop are fully booked. Already in February the workshop got a new machine and new crew members but it takes time to steer it in. So please be patient for some additional time for this loco.

Czech dining car N scale: These will be delivered in August, together with all cars of EC100.

Future models we will announce shortly before they are ready to leave the factory in China. All of us have a benefit of this and no one will have to pend for too long time on his models.

Maybe this is of interest: our models will now reach us by railway! The freight costs for railway transport decreased significantly and is now almost on the level of sea transport. Minimal additional costs, shortage of the sending time on around half of the time for sea transport and in addition a benefit for the environment. A benefit for all of us.

Sincerly, your team of ASM