Collecting and Collecting Information 36

The Distler Trans Europ set. The box art displays
considerable artistic license.

I've written before about the H0 train set Distler made for Cragstan. A recent auction offering provided some additional information about Distler products.

Interchangeable parts

Distler's design for Cragstan was done quite economically, recycling parts from another popular set.

The Distler TD5000 set shares many components with
their Santa FE set made for Cragstan.

The Trans Europ Express set was based on a European prototype. Many European passenger trains have locomotives at both ends, allowing point-to-point travel without complicated switching maneuvers at the terminals.

Another set offered by Distler had the same configuration. The TD5000 set, like the Trans Europ set, has two locomotives.

In both cases, only one of them is powered. The other is a dummy locomotive.

The Distler Trans Europ set.

I had previously found examples of Distler sets that were identical in profile to the Cragstan set. The only differences being the graphics and the lack of a second locomotive in the American set.

Trans Europ vs. Santa Fe

Two examples of Cragstan/Distler rolling stock.
The body and base of the passenger car are identical to the
Trans Europ version.

This set uses many of the same parts as the Cragstan set. The locomotive has a different profile, but the frame is similar to the TD5000 and the Cragstan/Dister F3. The power truck (and by inference the motor) is identical.

The passenger cars are the same, too. The lithography is different, and the truck frames are painted gray (they're silver on the Cragstan cars).

By using many of the same components, Distler kept costs down. An important feature for these simple toys -- and vital for American importers. I can see why Distler got the gig with Cragstan.

Not entirely the same

Shared parts keep costs down. But there are some key differences that make this set unique. The locomotive has an entirely different profile than the Santa Fe F3 or the TD5000.  The heightened cab isn't attached to a TD5000 shell -- it's part of the shell. That required its own stamper.

The locomotive trucks are also different. Their smooth sides suggest streamlining. These trucks required a different stamper as well. I wonder if the TD5000 was a later model. If so, it would suggest economies were made, as the truck frames for the locomotive and the passenger cars are all the same.

A Hair-raising Distler/Cragstan Repair

I've tried to keep a tight focus what I acquire for the Straco Express display layout. But somehow I ended up with a few outliers, like a mid-1960s Cragstan freight set.

Sure, it's a little outside the scope of the Straco Express layout project,
but this Cragstan/Distler set did come complete in the original box.

This set was made by the German toy company Distler. The overall build quality is much higher than that of Cragstan's Japanese suppliers. The car and locomotive bodies are plastic. It's a thick, sturdy plastic that would hold up well in play.

Those elastic bands that transfer power to the axles are the first things to go.

The Japanese locomotives -- and the Distler tinplate F3 -- I have all use some type of gear drive.

This locomotive uses a belt drive. Rubber bands loop around the wheel axles and the drive rod that extends from the motor.

This set is over a half-century old, and the original belts have long since dry-rotted. But apparently, they didn't hold up to continued use, even when new.

I've seen several examples of this set with all its component parts. Every single one has a small bag with spare drive belts.

The set I have also came with replacement belts. Of course, after all this time even the replacement belts that came with my set are dry-rotted. So I need to find a solution.

Most rubber bands are simply too big. I couldn't loop it around multiple times. That made the rubber band bind to itself as it was turned. The wheels hardly turned.

I thought the rubber bands used with braces might work. They're very small and strong. The drug store didn't have any in stock, but they did have very small hair bands.

These are made of silicon rather than rubber. This keeps the bands from catching on the hairs. And as it turned out, it was just about the right size for the locomotive.

So for a dollar, I got a pack of 75 bands. That should be more than enough to keep this loco running for some time!

I used two polybands. This powers both axles and gives the locomotive a little more energy.

Ready to roll. You can see the lead and trailing trucks on the body.

The Cragstan/Distler set came with wider radius track than I have on the Straco Express layout. Fortunately, the locomotive has both leading and trailing trucks. These help keep the engine from derailing, even on the tighter curves of the Japanese track.

I'm glad to get this train rolling again. I know most collectors are content to just have something nice to put on the shelf. But these are toys and were meant to be run. So I'm happiest when they're doing what they were designed to.

Distilling Distler Info

I didn't plan on it, but somehow I ended up with a Distler Santa Fe box car. And, as always, it came with as many questions as it does answers.

Distler was a German toy firm who manufactured H0 scale tinplate trains from about 1953-1960. Their postwar history is intertwined with Trix, another German firm, but that's beyond the scope of this post.

I knew that Distler had made a Santa Fe passenger set in 1957 for the American importer Cragstan (see: Distler vs. Nomura, parts 1 & 2). I was only aware of two Distler sets imported by Cragstan - the 1957 tinplate passenger set, and an early 1960s plastic freight set. Both were battery powered.

The seller billed this box car as coming from a "department store set."

But where?

I did find some references to an H0 tinplate train set made a German department store by Grötsch, another toy manufacturer. Grötsch rolling stock is similar to Distler's but they're based on European prototype (including a German-style goods wagon with New Haven markings!)

Fortunately, the German site Spur00 had the answer. In 1957 Distler offered both a freight and passenger train set.

Was the freight set ever imported? That I don't know.

Comparing the box car with the Cragstan/Distler passenger cars proved interesting. Both had the same "Made in Western Germany" markings. The frame, wheels, and trucks are identical, although they're painted black on the box car.

There is one difference. The box car has an angled roof, while the passenger car has a rounded roof. That's an additional manufacturing expense.

The comparable box car and passenger car from Japan's Nomura company (also imported by Cragstan) don't have this distinction. Both have a rounded roof, requiring only a change in lithography. But that's not surprising since Nomura was all about keeping costs down.

According to Spur00, the 504 Freight Set had three cars; an orange Santa Fe box car, a brown NYC gondola car, and a black flat car with two plastic vehicles.

So one down, and two to go. Although I'm not optimistic about finding that flat car with the vehicles still with it...

I know, the box car never came with the passenger set. But they're all
Santa Fe rolling stock, and I think it makes a great photo.

Distler vs. Nomura, Part 2

The American importer Cragstan brought in a tinplate toy passenger train from the German firm Distler in the late 1950s. In the early 1960s, they imported a tinplate toy passenger train from the Japanese firm Nomura. 

Were they the same? In Part 1, I compared the rolling stock. But the real answer was in the locomotives.

Even placed side by side, it's easy to see some differences in the lithography between the Distler and Nomura locomotive. Superficially, though, they appeared almost identical.

Nomura diesel (top) and Distler diesel (bottom)

Distler (left) and Nomura (right) - there are slight variations in the design.

When I turned over both locomotives, it was easy to see that the mechanisms were more than a little different.

Nomura (left) and Distler (left). Note the Distler motor casing.

The Distler motor was encased in a thick, clear plastic shell.

The Nomura motor was more basic.

Distler was famous for their motors, and I can see why. The contacts were stronger than Nomura's, and the clear plastic casing kept the motor dirt-free. The gears are more precise, making the motor work more efficiently (although, like Nomura's, it only provided enough power to pull the two cars that came with the set).

The Nomura shell (left) had a metal weight, while the Distler (right) had just
a thick cardboard one.

Both locomotives had weights in the back to help the powered wheels maintain traction. The Distler motor was heavier and required less excess weight.

My original speculation was that Cragstan moved the manufacturing from Germany to Japan because of lower costs. I think that's now partially true. I don't believe Cragstan moved stampers and lithograph plates from one company to another. The differences in the locomotive decoration suggest that Nomura copied the Distler design (but not exactly). 

I think the lower costs were achieved by cheapening the product. The Nomura motor was certainly less expensive than Distler's. And by using a tighter radius curve, they reduced the circumference of the loop. And that made the track was less expensive, too.  

 And both companies continued to use their versions of this set. Nomura made freight sets and added flashing lights to the locomotive.

Distler, according to Spur00 originated the design. They offered this German prototype train in 1957, along with the Santa Fe set. As you can see, only the nose was changed. 

The Distler TD5000 set featured a powered and dummy locomotive.

This TD5000 set came in several configurations. The train was available in either brown or green. All the sets featured a powered and a dummy locomotive. Some only had the two pieces, while larger sets added a passenger car (with a different frame than the Cragstan-commissioned set). 

As I said in Part 1 -- there's nothing like first-hand research. Through it, I was able to better understand the relationship between two toy companies with a common importer.

Distler vs. Nomura - Part 1

There's nothing like first-hand research.

I've written before about how closely the Distler passenger train set imported by Cragstan from West Germany in the late 1950s resembled the Nomura passenger train set imported by Cragstan from Japan in the early 1960s.  (see: Japanese Litho Train Sets, Part 3)

My theory was that Cragstan had ordered the set from Distler, then switched suppliers to Nomura, taking the stampers and designs with them.

After obtaining a Distler passenger set, I revised that theory -- especially after I compared the two sets side by side.

Distler passenger car (top) and Nomura passenger car (bottom)

Comparing passenger cars from the two companies, I found them virtually identical. The Distler graphics more closely resemble European prototypes, but the frames, bodies, trucks and couplers were the same.

There were two primary differences. Distler's couplers held the cars closer together than Nomura's. And their track had a wider radius. But even with that gentler curve, Distler's cars still almost touched each other.

So far, the contrasts were interesting, but not particularly meaningful. 

But further research (thanks to the discovery of the German website Spur00.de) revealed that Distler also used these same basic designs for some European sets offered at the same time. Since only the one passenger set was imported by Cragstan, it seemed unlikely that the stampers and designs originated with the American importer. 

Then I looked at the locomotives, which I'll cover in Part 2.