It is highly unusual, perhaps even unique, for subscription premiums to be produced by the magazine's editorial team themselves. The fact that this has been the case with us for a long time is down to the peculiarities of the Spur 1 market, but above all to the many design ideas and projects that we regularly engage with. All subscription premiums have in common their unique production in limited quantities.
The advertising signs, which replaced the Märklin figures that were arguably not only in our view suboptimal, were the first to appear in autumn 2022. Such motifs characterised most railway stations and their immediate surroundings from the early 20th century onwards. In contrast to short-lived posters, the robust, weather-resistant enamel signs lasted for many years, often longer than a decade.
Unmistakable in many photographs, no one had yet thought to authentically (!) reproduce this form of advertising on a small scale – neither in 1:32 nor in any other model railway scale. Arbitrarily compiled advertising images do not count here. We have researched extensively and have exclusively reproduced signs that bore the logo of Deutsche Eisenbahn-Reklame and were the correct format for this purpose. Parallel to the editorial work, the idea arose to produce an attractive subscription premium from these in a small series. The detailed article on this appealing railway theme appeared some time later, in issue 26. A second subscription premium with further motifs followed in summer 2023.
To be continued
