Köster Construction Sets

Köster was a construction set to make mainly railway models. In 1947, the company Gustav Köster of Meinerzhagen, Sauerland, produced railway construction sets under the name Köster. Parts were manufactured by INA-Vertriebsgesellschaft Möws & Co GmbH Rheinmechanik (Duisburg-Ruhrort). Despite his originality Köster did not have the expected success. In 1949, after Köster's bankruptcy, an attempt to revive manufacturing failed and in 1951 after the last specific railway parts were used up, manufacturing ceased. The firm Press-, Stanz- und Ziehwerk of Brachelsen-Aachene, recycled the stock of remaining standard parts (strips, angles, screws etc.) in a small construction set under the name of GLORIA.

The Köster railway system consisted of three main sets: N°80, N°81 and N°82.

Set N°80 allowed the construction of five 0-scale wagons and an electric locomotive without an engine. The manual proposed 11 models of freight wagons. It seems that this set could be separated into four small sub-sets 80-1, 80-2, 80-3 and 80-4.

The set N°81 enables the building of straight and curved rails to achieve an oval circuit: four straight rails and 12 curved rails with electrified brass central rail. These rails, of good quality, are however impractical because there is no system of splices and each section must be bolted to the previous one which makes the construction of the circuit very tedious. No other element is planned on this network, no points, no crossing, no buffer stop ... etc...

The No. 82 gearbox contained the 20-volt motor to drive the locomotives, a 20-volt AC transformer and the specific parts to complete the assembly of the engine in the loco. The engine did not have a reversal lever, but if you use a DC transformer, you can easily add a bridge of four diodes to make a reversal of power; something unthinkable in 1947 when the diode bridge would have required at least three wagons to contain it.

During this short period, 1947-1950 there were two periods that it is very difficult to dissociate. A nickel-plated period and a green and brown lacquered period. Apart from the parts, the boxes also have two types of illustration.

Manufacturer / Distributor

Gustav Köster GmbH, Meinerzhagen/Westf, Germany

The MCS document for this system is shown below. It can also be downloaded to your computer if desired here

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Pages from the 'Other Systems Newsletter' which contain information on this system are shown below. They can also be downloaded to your computer if desired here

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The report can be zoomed into, made full screen or downloaded as a pdf document by using the controls provided

Below there are various manuals/leafets which can be downloaded by clicking on the appropriate image.

The Köster manual
(Added 18/10/2018)

Various photos of the Köster construction system
(Added 09/12/2018)