About Us

TrainCraft by Klaus©  with your “Famous Klaus" at its helm provides :  sound and DCC installations for analog and digital LGB locomotives, LGB loco restorations, repairs and parts replacement, spare parts supply for almost anything LGB . Klaus utilizes outstanding sound decoders of the newest kind and Original LGB parts. His excellent technical execution and consummation have become the benchmark for LGB loco installation and repairs.

 With over 30 years of LGB products experience, Klaus has invented and implemented some road-paving LGB products like the Duo-coupler, the firebox, and more.  Klaus was instrumental designing the LGB Mogul loco chassis and the operating of the first LGB 2074 Spreewald. Klaus continues an ongoing personal working relationship with almost all of the "Old LGB Dinosaurs” still standing. His abundant, comprehensive knowledge, unparalleled craftsmanship, his sophisticated workshop machinery and his sincere belief in service constitute the soul of this company.  

Biography      

By trade Klaus is a Lufthansa Captain pilot for the Airbus A 340. Starting with model airplanes in his youth he soon developed a liking for model trains, too. When an LGB Mogul ran erratically on his layout he contacted LGB in 1983 - without any luck. While visiting the LGB manufacturing site in Nuremberg  later that year he met Klaus Baumann who would become Senior Sales Vice President LGB. They both "clicked". Klaus Baumann introduced him to Wolfgang Richter (owner of LGB) and to Günter Ruhland, Head Mold Master of LGB. Soon, Klaus was working with LGB to improve the driving characteristics of the first Mogul by developing a specific lead weight to be added to the Mogul. He also redesigned the pilot wheel geometry.

With that a co-operation was born that lead to many great LGB loco improvements. And being also introduced to Hartmut Massoth Sr with Massoth Elektronik GmbH, Germany- Klaus soon also started to develop and create new products for Massoth.
 

From 1982 to 2001 Klaus consulted LGB in product improvement. Working in close co-operation with Günter Ruhland, Klaus developed and collaborated in setting technical standards. He co-developed the body for the Mogul locomotive. He designed and consummated the fire box (1987) and the LGB DUO coupler (1993), both patented. Klaus created the fire box light simualtion for the Mogul 2019S and other LGB locos. He designed the prototype for the handheld MTS remote control (55015) and the MTS loco remote (55016). Klaus also recorded Original sounds for Massoth Germany.
In October 1995 Klaus started working on the famous sound towers, designed and built to be utilized and displayed at the International Toy Fair Nuremberg 1996. This was the first sound tower EVER to be displayed at the Toy Fair that displayed on three (3) levels within that "tower-box" locos and cars mounted hovering 1/32" above the track. All sounds available in each loco played for 35 seconds- then came to a full stop. All that with the push of one single button per loco resp per car. The tower was lit with specialty Phillips fluorescent neon tubes. It was a smashing success! LGB instantly ordered 4 more towers. One sound tower was permanently displayed in San Diego LGB of America building, a second unit in the display room at the Toy Building in New York.
 

Klaus, as in Do Not Fear- Klaus is Near, retired from Lufthansa in 2001, moved to the USA, established Massoth Electronics USA in 2006 to provide Massoth products as well as LGB parts to the American LGB fan. The very LGB fan who had just learned that the old LGB in Germany had gone bankrupt. Klaus worked diligently and with great success in providing a product with strong, longstanding ties to the LGB trains. He built a brand. And he built a market where the American LGB fan found a new home.  After 5 years it was time to secure this home for the future. New and better products had entered the G-Scale market and LGB had found a new home at Märklin. Klaus had become known as "Famous Klaus" - the one who knows LGB products inside and out. Now he needed to offer these new developments to the American LGB fan
 

Klaus established TrainCraft By Klaus, LLC in 2011. Here Klaus provides everything an LGB train fan might need: LGB restorations, repairs and installations, spare parts, motors, decoders -  and for the commercial customer long-lasting POM treatments. Klaus now focuses on restoring, repairing, increasing LGB loco values. Offering decoders that are of superior quality, mirroring today's advances in decoder technology. Klaus appraises and evaluates LGB trains and layouts, utilizing his vast knowledge he accumulated over 35 years with LGB as well as working with the formidable Klaus Baumann who is of immeasurable value for everyone who loves LGB
 

Klaus has added on to his sophisticated workshop machinery responding to an ever growing need to manufacture spare parts no longer available from LGB/Märklin nor from the market. When his work involves artistic craftsmanship he issues certificates of the work performed. Klaus is the embodiment and warrant of keeping and maintaining the Old German LGB standards.
 

All of his work is in complete compliance with LGB standards - holding true to his own settings in quality, workmanship, and craftsmanship. The very same standards that Klaus has been setting over the course of the last 40 years... and still going strong!