New items from PIKO...

PIKO #38225: D&RGW Mogul Loco #347
This Denver & Rio Grande Western Mogul is decorated in the well known bumblebee paint scheme and carries a snow plow.    

This steam loco has directional LED lights, smoke, fantastic digital sound, and it works on either Analog DC or Digital DCC. It also has a colorful paint scheme great for passenger or freight service.  

 

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PIKO #3885: CB&Q Friendship Train Boxcar
During 1947, citizens from the U.S. donated money and food and had them sent to Europe to assist after the war.  This Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (Burlington Route) boxcar carries one of the colorful “Friendship Train” paint schemes.  PIKO painstakingly reproduced the real-life boxcar that traveled the upper Midwest in support of our European friends. 

 

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PIKO #38757: U.P. Flatcar w/ Lumber Load
This flatcar for the Union Pacific railroad carries a great-looking lumber load made of real wood and has removable stakes. 

 

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PIKO #38882 Chessie/B&O Hopper Car
This Baltimore & Ohio Rib-Side Hopper reproduces the lovable “Chessie” cat paint scheme shared by B&O, C&O, and WM for a time.  Relive your memories with this nicely painted car.    

 

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PIKO #38881 D&RGW Ore Car

This Denver & Rio Grande ore car has detailed molding and has nicely printed “speed lettering”.  Goes great in a string of cars with the 36311 Ore Load.

New items from PIKO...

PIKO #38206: U.P. 2-6-0 Saddletank Loco
This Union Pacific loco is the first 2-6-0 Saddletank made by PIKO!  

This steam loco has directional LED lights, smoke, fantastic digital sound, and it works on either Analog DC or Digital DCC. It also has a colorful paint scheme great for passenger or freight service.  

 

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PIKO #38744: D&RGW Flatcar, 2-Pack
This pair of Denver & Rio Grande flatcars comes just like the prototype, with removable stakes and “no-two-alike” paint colors.  It will pair well as idler flats for the 38749 D&RGW Pipe Gondola, or in a long line of flatcars for nearly any use.  

 

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PIKO #38758: Phillips 66 Tank Car
This colorful Phillips 66 tank car carries the well-known black and white logo, and includes lots of details like black nickel-plated handrails and realistic turnbuckles. 

 

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PIKO #38886: S.F. "Travel the Chief Way" Reefer
This Santa Fe refrigerator car is the next in a series with famous Indian “Chief” designs, carefully produced on the car in a way no other G-Scale manufacturer can.  Produced only once.

 

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PIKO #99718: PIKO G-Scale New Items Flyer 2018

The 2018 G-Scale New Items Flyer gives railroad fans details and images of the many brand-new PIKO trains and accessories arriving this year. Download it, or get a physical copy and see tons of new items coming this year from PIKO!

 

 

November 2017 G-Scale new items from PIKO...

PIKO #38746: Santa Fe Auto Transport
w/ Diecast 1950 Chevy Bel Air
This product has already proven popular with pre-orders and there is no surprise why.  Santa Fe is loved by fans, and the auto transports have been disappearing off shelves since production started.

The DieCast vehicle is a classic 1950 Chevy Bel Air with openable doors and numerous details.  The auto transport has great printing and even has nicely detailed wheel chalks. 

MSRP on date of posting: $114.99

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PIKO #38750: Union Pacific Container Car

This UP Container has openable doors, and of course, a colorful U.S. Flag painstakingly printed.

MSRP on date of posting: $89.99

 

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PIKO #38754: Pennsylvania Railroad Low-Side Gondola w/ Roof Trusses

For those fans of Eastern railroads, we have two new PRR cars for you.  This car is a low-side gondola with a hand crafted load of wood roof trusses - made of real wood.  

MSRP on date of posting: $119.99

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PIKO #38755: Pennsylvania Railroad Bulkhead Flatcar w/ Pulpwood Load 

This second PRR car for the month carries a load of pulpwood logs on a great bulkead flatcar with removable stakes. (Though the stakes will help keep the removable pulpwood load contained)

MSRP on date of posting: $119.99

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PIKO #37307: DB IV Jägermeister Railbus

 

This Railbus can add color to your collection with its colorful advertisement for Jägermeister.

MSRP on date of posting: $429.99

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PIKO #37792: DR IV Cement Silo Car
This highly detailed Cement Silo Car was carefully created with numerous piping details. This one should draw tons of interest.

MSRP on date of posting: $162.99

 

With ETE EuroWest in late-July, PIKO America decided to use the trip as an opportunity to show PIKO SmartControl and other products with some local California retailers.  So we loaded our bags and headed to the Bay Area and found shops eager to see what SmartControl could do by testing it out for themselves.  (PIKO SmartControl works on all scales of 2 rail locos with ANY DCC decoder… American and European)

The crowds at EuroWest seemed attentive and were quite interested in finding PIKO SmartControl at their favorite retailers, mostly because you don’t have to be an engineer to use PIKO SmartControl.  In fact, Dan mentioned that he still hasn’t read the manual even though he demonstrates it all the time! 

(When you see a new loco with RailComPlus get placed on the track, and the SmartBox and SmartController automatically load all the features and icons right on the screen, you will find you won't need the manual much either.)  If you have an older loco, it will work within seconds and adding it into the system has never taken us over 1 minute.  SmartControl is not only powerful, but a compact, simple system that will let you run your trains without spending hours reading a manual! 

 

(Above image: Dan shows off the wireless SmartController at The Western Depot in Yuba City, CA)

Our trip finished at Upland Trains in Upland, CA.  Upland Trains is a great shop for G-Scale enthusiasts and houses one of the best selections of current PIKO G-Scale products in California!  See the below image to see some - not all, since it doesn't fit in the photo - of the current PIKO offerings at Upland Trains.

In time we will have a video that shows our first official demo of SmartControl running a G-Scale loco.  (The video was shot at Upland Trains with the owners Kim and John.)

 

Wrapping it up

The retail shops we stopped at already have PIKO SmartControl available for you to check out.  Most of them should have a demo system that you can actually use to see for yourself just how easy PIKO SmartControl is! 

Digital/DCC systems with no need for a manual… that is “Brilliantly Simple – Simply Brilliant”.

 

Oh, and just a reminder... PIKO SmartControl works on ALL DCC controlled locomotives whether American, European or anything else.  (We had many retail shops test us on this!)  It was designed to NMRA standards, among others, so we know you will love it.

On June 2nd, 2017, PIKO Lok 1 – a small type V 23 diesel switcher locomotive – was lifted by cranes and placed in the center of a traffic circle (Kreisel) on the road leading to the PIKO factory in Sonneberg, Germany. The locomotive is part of a celebration of what PIKO means to the city and region where the PIKO company headquarters and large factory complex are located. 

The event was in planning stages for quite a while and had numerous parties involved.  Dr. Voigt (Mayor of Sonneberg), Dr. Wilfer (Owner & CEO of PIKO), artist Wolfgang Otterpohl, as well as numerous others worked to cosmetically restore, ready and move the locomotive, as well as prepare the city intersection now titled "PIKO Circle".  The event marked the 67^th year of business for PIKO and the 25^th anniversary of the Wilfer family ownership of the “new” PIKO Spielwaren GmbH.  The idea was first brought to Dr. Wilfer by Bernd Pöschl, product development manager for the PIKO G-Scale train category and the coordinator of many of the steps to bring the loco to its new home.

The full-sized locomotive was manufactured in 1972 by the locomotive manufacturer LKM in Potsdam-Babelsberg and has the serial number 262-404. The loco was used as a shunter in Gotha, usually handling grain cars.  The loco was later owned into the late 1990s by Heyl-Mühlen GmbH & Co. KG in Bad Langensalza, after which it went to the IG Hirzberg Railway, which performed the extensive restoration work on the loco in the past year, prior to it's movement.

With a weight of over 14 tons and a length of about 23 feet, the locomotive was a challenge to transfer from Gotha to Sonneberg.  Henneberger Heavy Transport performed the move, while Hartsteinwerk Hüttengrund, Erfurt Track Construction and the Thüringer Railway handled ballast and track construction.  It was truly a group effort. 

In the ceremony dedicating the new "PIKO Circle", the town citizens and city officials felt it was important to remember Sybille Abel, the late mayor of Sonneberg and a great longtime supporter of PIKO, as well as honoring PIKO, which has provided so much to the region over the decades.  The loco now stands ready to be enjoyed by thousands of PIKO fans during the upcoming Open House Day, June 17th 2017 at the PIKO factory, and doubtless thousands more in the coming years.

 

The model version of the PIKO "Kreisel-Lok" traffic circle locomotive is available in HO- and TT-Scales and can be enjoyed by train fans and hobbyists worldwide.