JEP "Gare"

David,

That's a very nice piece.  Looks like it is in great shape too. Nice find. Thanks for sharing.

Joe

Hi David,

An outstanding JEP Station! I too discovered French tinplate about five years ago and am totally hooked. These trains are not just trains but true pieces of art. I can't get enough of them myself.

All the best,

Miketg

David,

FWIW, The European lithograph is far better than anything offered on this side of the pond hands down.

Amazing! Thanks for posting.

Mike, I did a search here and see that you have been posting about French tinplate going back a couple of years.  

I got the JEP book, but I don't see any mention of a JEP O Gauge brake van - caboose type wagon to go with the wagons a marchandises that I've been collecting.  I haven't seen one for sale.  Do you know anything about that?  Did French chemin de fer of that era not use brake vans, or did JEP just not make one for some reason??

thanks.

The lithography on the station is quite unique... love the flowers in the window boxes.  Also, the 'glass' window panes are what seems like a metallic silver ink, never seen anything like it in litho.  Nice detail.  The doors of the switch tower have litho signs on them, "danger de mort".  A little graphic for a kids' toy, but true to prototype...

david

This is why I love this hobby.  I find it amazing how stuff like this survived so well for sooo many years.  Great find.  

David,

The JEP brakevan is catalog no 4562 prewar or 4662 postwar. You can see one at the end of the second goods train in this video:

Regards

Fred

Fred, thanks.  With the "cupola" it does look like an American Caboose more than an open-ended European brake van.  But the 4562-4662 was cataloged as a wagon bagages and was sold either as a passenger baggage car or as a luggage van (fourgon) for trains de marchandises.  It has the European guerite enclosure for a brakeman, as many of the freight cars did.  But I don't think it's a proper crew end-of-train brake van (British) or caboose (American)?

david

David,

The JEP Fourgon (which is mentioned as "pour trains de marchandises" by Clive Lamming (he should know) in the JEP book) is not based on any prototype. The word "fourgon" is used in France for luggage vans and for "brake vans". In the case of a brake van it is not the English type (used by the brake man) but the German type (used by the conductor (called Güterzugbegleitwagen)). In continental Europe there was no special car for the brakeman (when there were still brakeman they were sitting in the brakeman hut (guerite)) but goods trains had in some cases a car for the conductor (not all goods trains had a conductor). As far as I understand the caboose in the US is used by brakeman and conductor. The fourgon or Güterzugbegleitwagen also did not need to be at the end of a goods train.

Regards

Fred

Hi Fred,

Your garden layout is truly amazing. Tinplate in the great outdoors plus your knowledge of the hobby is impressive.

All the best,

Miketg

Thank you, that is a helpful clarification.  Just very different traditions.  In the prewar period in the U.S., every freight train that was made would have a caboose added to it; so much so that running without at least something comparable is hard to comprehend.  It would seem that this was not the case on the continent,  that most any car with a guerite would fill the braking function, and there was not the need for or emphasis on end-of-train signaling?  I wonder, is it possible that the caboose became such a big deal in the States because of the longer hauls? Interesting subject...

You may have opened a can of worms there Hojack

Finding European things on their Ebay sites is a goldmine!!! You just need to know a few train words in their language... and Voila!!!!

Great find...... and thanks for sharing!

With eBay.uk, eBay.fr, and eBay.de, you can be like a kid in a candy shop if you like European tinplate.  However it can also be a case of knowing enough to get yourself into trouble and not enough to get yourself out of it.  Be careful to check each listing to be sure it says that the seller will ship worldwide.  Some explicitly say they will not ship to the U.S.A. but if it's buried in the fine print in a language you're not familiar with you can miss it.  Then that is a can of worms!

On ebay.fr I found a JEP/JdeP trainset; the description mentioned: "Très bel état (un peu oxidation) , moteur non bloqué mais ne fonctionne pas" which I translated as: Very good condition (a bit of rust), motor not blocked but does not run. According to the JEP book this set is from 1931. As you can see after some cleaning and oiling there she goes:

Regards

Fred

Fred, that's terrific, tres bel etat indeed.  Such nice clear lithography.  And you sure got it functioning.

But the real question is, what is the marvelous trackside structure at 0:41?  Space needle water tower?  Wow!

david

David,

That is a Marklin 1 gauge water tower. It is weather resistant plastic and I leave it always outside except for the winter; Marklin made these some 30 years ago.

Regards

Fred

Thanks!  It's a pretty amazing design.

JEP also made some litho transformers looking like electric substations; here are some pictures of the two sizes they made; the text on the doors is "Defense d'entrer, Danger de Mort" (Forbidden to enter, Death Danger):

Hojack,

Your layout looks pretty impressive.

Norm

Thanks Norm. It's a lot of fun.  But I'm running out of square inches to put things, it's turned into one of those tinplate layouts that's just so crowded you can't see any of it.  I narrowed up one of my access openings to put the JEP station.

My JEP switch tower has the "Danger de Mort" (danger of death) on the door too; I always thought that was a little grim for a kids' toy, but I guess it might work to scare the crap out of your little sister so she wouldn't mess with your trains... 

david

Just found out I have a tinplate gauge 0 JEP open van ( I hope it is the correct name) with brakemans cabin from JEP. Just see the picture. And if you are interested in it please send me an email, www.blik-en-speelgoed.nl

Rob

Marxists of the world unite - them's fightin' words!  I'll stack up the Marx 3/16ths O gauge tin litho freight cars against all comers...

beautiful litho work.