German model numbers

Do you know the name of the manufacturer?

#5250 from Fleischmann would be the catalogue number. They often have something like "5/12" in faint white paint under the chassis. I think it is either the quality checker's mark or a production code. #5250 from Marklin would be a length of tinplate track. DDR era Piko had catalogue number sequences with the first number representing the specific manufacturer, while the second and third were the factory catalogue code number. Piko was a manufacturer but also had control of all DDR model railway exports.

Greg.P. NZ

Hi Karl,

I bought quite a lot of East German models back then. They were behind on materials but often ahead on accuracy and detailing.

An example of materials are the wheels on Piko locomotives which were a porous alloy whick collected rail gunk like it was going out of fashion. I found that assembly of loco mechanisims was far from perfect and the current collection wipers often needed to be carefully adjusted before locos would do better than stutter around the track.

A comparison between the running of Piko BR 55 (0-8-0) and the Roco BR

58 (2-10-0) showed the Piko ran slower, smoother and quieter than the Roco _after_ adjusting the Piko wipers and cleaning the wheels. If you've seen the Roco model running you'll know that is truely remarkable. On the down-side, after a few years the Piko model broke a gear pinion in a position where it was nearly impossible to replace :-(

Since about 1995 Fleischmann has numbered all it's DR (East German) wagon models in the 57xx series.

5260 is the DRG (Reichsbahn 1924-1937 era) flat roofed 2 axle box wagon (1908 design) with no angle bracing. 5250 is the DB (1949-68 era) flat roofed 2 axle box wagon with angle bracing. (the initial 5250 was marked DRG for about three years but had diagonal bracing on the side at each corner which was incorrect as the braces were fitted in the 1950s)

Regards, Greg.P.

Karl P Anders>