Torben Plagborg & 9V trains in Blocks magazine

[Dav1d]

There was an interesting article about Torben Plagborg in the 90th Block magazine telling his story at LEGO and the introduction of the 9V trains.

A few items are of particular interest:

In the mid 1980's when the future of trains were in doubt, in his his own time he built 25 different locomotives to show managers from all over the world that interesting trains could still be made.

They spent a lot of time developing larger radius curves, but in the end because children's rooms all over the world are not too big they had to stick with the current radius.

He wanted to make trains as realistic as possible, others wanted the opposite, fortunately he won. (You can tell when he left with the imaginary 4559 Cargo Railway & 4565 Freight & Crane Railway).

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Edited April 11, 2022 by Dav1d
typo

[zephyr1934]

This would be Mr. 7777 Torben Plagborg, father of the golden era of the gray age. Further information can be found in this older thread and at least some of his sets on BrickSet.

 

That date for transitioning to more imaginary trains makes perfect sense. Imagine what would have happened if they had produced wide radius curves in the early 90's.