I guess that it is possible that Hag knew about the design earlier and that production had already begun prior to the official unveiling of the lok, so that the model would come out shortly after the prototype was announced. We already knew that the 1997 150th Anniversary models had been planned in advance and that a couple of last minute changes by the SBB caused nightmares for Hag and it's management and designers.

Regards

Mike C

Hello Friends

I just returned from a 3-day visit to the Toy Fair in Nürnberg where I had
the pleasure to have a long nice conversation with HAG's new owner, Mr
Heinz Urech.

Essentially I think we must be re-assured that he and his team are really
committed to bring HAG back to a prominent position in the market, both
technically and commercially.

Deliveries to dealers have started again...and that is going to be the only
way to get HAG products in the future.
Also (spare) parts deliveries to dealers have taken place again, so do not
hesitate to contact your favorite dealer, things will be back to "normal"
there too.

He understands the difficulty of competing on the international market,
penalized that he is for the moment with the very strong Swiss franc..but
will work hard to create conditions for importers and dealers to offer
attractive conditions.

Besides the products already announced in the New Item prospectus, I
understand that there will be progressively upgrade boards for *all of the
existing HAG locos*.

So we will all have an opportunity to re-visit our collections and bring
them up to date with state of the art cabling and LED lights: this will allow
to materialize all the typical aspects of SBB white/red head- and
taillights + cab lighting, etc.

I saw the version of the boards destined for the RE 421 "Lion" and found
the solution to be really smart: gone are the finicky contact fingers
that were so hard to adjust.
There is one little board with a 21 pin MTC connector, to be installed on
the chassis, and a second board with the LEDs + circuitry to be mounted
under the roof of the loco,(where the old board used to be).
The two are connected with a multi-wire flat-cable, but a connector allows
the separation of chassis and body, simplifying interventions.

I suggested maybe to also include an 8 pin NEM plug as well as solder pads
to accommodate older decoders on the little chassis board: this would make
it possible to upgrade our locos' lighting without having to go to the
additional expense of a new decoder.

I also saw the raw injection sample of the body parts for the upcoming
Ee2/2 tractor/switcher.
Very nice I'd say!
The walls are nicely thin, which will confer a very realistic aspect to
the finished product.

I am enthused with what I saw and heard, mostly by Mr Urech enthusiasm and
determination...and thus came back re-assured on the future of our
favourite brand.

Now it is probably time for us to support the "New- HAG" with our business??

Cheers!

Hi Mike and all

We briefly touched upon that subject. He understands that if he wants to expand in other markets, he will have to come up with other models.
What to build for e.g. France, Belgium, Germany, Italy or Holland that would fill a gap left by other manufacturers? (I know you could write books on this subject... )
There are still also a number of Swiss prototypes that deserve a nice, well engineered HO reproduction.
A Be 4/7 "Grande Sécheron" comes to mind (pure speculation on my part!)
In any case for the next few months, he has a challenge to rebuild the business flow...and has his work cut out for him!

Cheers

Hi,

There's a new items brochure available at HAG's web site that allow us getting some insights on what their short term plans are.

You can find it at: http://www.hag.ch/hag2013.pdf

I'm far from being an expert in HAG's range of models but the content of the brochure seems to go to a great extent along the same line of Swiss models HAG has been producing so far (Re 460, Re 420, Re 4/4, Re 4/4 II, Re 6/6). New I see e.g. a SBB Rangierlok Ee 922 and the SBB S-Bahn set.

As other members already mentioned, maybe the new flavors and variants of the traditional models will bring some surprises inside such as new lighting (LED), a new circuit board,... I guess we will have to wait and see.

Regards,
Pedro

A video showing a consist with two LION Re 4/4 II (one heading, one at the rear) on HAG's test layout has just been published by the company here:

http://www.facebook.com/...eo.php?v=575117075841358

However, to be able to view it your computer must be equipped with Adobe's Flash Player software.

I'm a little confused about the red taillight thing. Can you please elaborate on what the current regulations. I have seen two red at the tail end of Pendelzuege (Re 460 EWIV/IC2000 and Re 4/4II with NPZ/Regio EWI/II).
When would a pushing lok have one red or two reds?

Thanks for elaborating.

Regards

Mike C

Mike, this lighting issue has been the source of almost endless discussions recently in the forums. One member, Markus (Guerbetaler), has explained it as follows:



However, it is also a fact that in the cab of the prototype LION Re 420's there is a manual switch device that no longer enables two red lights to be illuminated, so there also seems to be some technical reason for the confusion.

As to production volumes, one can't really compare HAG (currently boasting a total staff of approx. 7 to 10 members) with the large Marklin enterprise, and thus production batches of 500 to 1,000 units can be considered as standard for HAG nowadays.

Two more items for me, I never had a Cargo Lok and the Voralpen suits my fondness for all things colourful....

Good Afternoon Mr. Stefan!!,

Not sure I should be here at all .....

My enthusiasm has had a hit recently as my treasured hope for a modest train room is really delayed. Note that I put the train room ahead of my
office as it is indeed part of that enterprise!! Site is now cleared, tenders go out soon and maybe I should be in next Easter. Here is a piccy of the
site with some external works underway.

All will be well I am sure.

Jeremy.

Hi JP,

1). I noticed Stefan's comment and you beat moi to the question - thanks!!!
2). Switzerland?

J.

Only 50 units (35 AC, 15 DC) produced in the year 2004 for the customers of the (now closed) dealer Pulsar/Swissmodell at Maerstetten. There should be a (numbered) certificate included in the box.

Thanks for heads up Mike - I sent a note to EYRO and got a pleasant and most courteous prompt response from Herr. Eymann saying
that a few models were still available.

Jeremy.

Looks like a lot of "ouch" could be involved there - but I am a Leo...........and I do not have a bi-level
model ........

Is that a "general release" model or a limited offering?

Thanks for heads up Mr. Stefan.

Jeremy.

It is actually the archive of the HAG Mörschwil company - or rather, what is left of the company archive. It came into possession of Mr. Adolf Schoch who acquired HAG at the beginning of 2012. He would have liked to keep the items together, but there are not many collectors capable and/or willing to take over such a quantity of rolling stock.

I am in contact with Mr. Roger Suter who will reveal in detail how he plans to carry out the sale after his summer vacation.

By the way, I've just noticed that HAG's new Web site is now available!

http://www.hag.ch/de/

Quite a 'face lift' compared to the previous one.

Today I noted that Roundhouse.ch has listed that the model for the Hag Excursion (HAG Reise) of 02/07/13 is now available. This model is a souvenir of the trip to the Blonay-Chamby railroad.

One thing that I noticed in the photo is that the plastic piece reproducing the airconditioning panel does not seem to be properly done.

Photo here: http://www.roundhouse.ch...11330-HAG-Reise-2012.jpg

Maybe Stefan or other members have this model and can tell us whether all models had this issue with the panel or whether the Roundhouse photo is unique?

Regards

Mike C

Congratulations! As it seems, this sale is making lots of people happy, including Mr. Suter who is being flooded with orders and trying to cope with the customers invading his shop.

Wow; an expensive end of summer.

A new batch released today. I was able to pick up a couple of others that I have been hard pressed to find.

BLS Re 4/4 TYP 465 Jungfrau Marathon 2002 465 003-2 DC
SBB Re 4/4 TYP 460 Aargau 460 024-3 DC

It is straight DC. It was rather expensive at 590 swiss francs.

Re HAG Lion: according to a post on the HAG forum HAG cannot currently make any Re 4/4 II locos (including the Lion) because the mould for the truck frame was damaged. They expect new truck frames to arrive in November.
If the dealer does not have the loco in stock, do not expect delivery before November.

Haven't seen the HAG Lion in real life, but it must have very sophisticated light functions.

Is it Roco? Or HAG?

See also (German PDF):
http://eyro.ch/downloads/hag_umbausatz_re460.pdf

There were discussions whether a model really must be able to show three red lights on both sides. Well, the prototype locos can.

AFAIK the Lion (1:1) cannot show all these combinations due to simplified controls inside the loco (the PDF is for Re 460). But three red lights are possible.
Two red rear lights are not prototypically correct for a Lion - HAG promised to make it correct with only one red rear light (but they shipped some that showed two red rear lights).

I used to think that the HAG Bourret was another "fantasy" model - just learned differently....

Sorry, Christmas is not really the right moment to ventilate anger and frustration, but I think that our members here should also be aware of some current developments connected with the HAG company:

- To sum it up, dealers and users here in Switzerland are increasingly unhappy that "New HAG" seem to be mostly producing promises, promises and paperwork instead of actual models.
- Sure, they have recently issued lighting kits for the IC 2000 double-deck coaches, but collectors want to buy rolling stock and not miniature lamps!
- Promises are not fulfilled. For instance, the "HAG Ambassador Club" founded last spring has so far not even received a firm delivery confirmation for its planned club model of the Ae 6/6 11520 with coat-of-arms "Langnau im Emmental"!
- Quality control still is lacking in spite of cute "Checked by XXX on XXX (date)" stampings inside the boxes.
- On some items that surfaced, the quality of the paintwork and printing was a pure catastrophe.
- Last Friday, the first models of the Re 460 "Fiat Panda" were at last delivered to customers. In this case, the body shells had been painted and printed in the old factory at Mörschwil. However, the entire LED illumination (including cab lights, red rear lights, etc.) is new. But on close inspection, my model (acquired from a reputable dealer at Zurich) shows defects that are unacceptable (upper transparent light covers not correctly fitted into the housing, buffers falling out, bent windscreen wipers). And most of all: the locomotive only ran for a maximum of seven minutes, then suddenly stopped and is now apparently D.O.A.
- My impression is that they are stuffing too much electronic gimmicks into the models and that we thus no longer get the traditional HAG models that run almost for ever out of the box and can easily be serviced by the user. I received my first HAG model exactly 50 years ago as a Christmas gift. It is still running. On the other hand, I do not dare to even open my Re 460 "Fiat Panda" because I do not understand the electronic stuff inside, let alone would I be able to repair something.
- And last but not least, the overall situation is not being improved by persisting rumors that the intermediate owner Mr. Adolf Schoch (who is still playing a role behind the scenes) and the current boss Mr. Heinz Urech do not share many opinions and are thus playing something like a tug-of-war game.
- Conclusion: It is evidently impossible to build up a new model train company within a few months and to produce high quality like before with new, unexperienced staff.
- For me personally, my HAG book will sadly be closed. I will not buy any of their models in future if I can't be absolutely sure that they work for more than seven minutes and have the look and feeling of a true Swiss quality product.