Are you into European trains?

Here's my Graham Farish N scale "Scots Guardsman":

Spoked wheels, separate handrails...quite nice actually.

Bob

Any body have one of these they would like to sell or trade?  

My in laws bought me the SNCF diesel while vacationing in Italy. Another locomotive in Lima's O scale line was the FS E444 "Tartaruga." I'd like to get my hands on one of those.

Bob

Hi Chris,

they are not that hard to find on French Ebay. There's a red one too (the French diesel).

In HO Lima and Jouef have a nice range in both French and Italian. They are not expensive too. Older versions are rather toy-ish, and their motors not that good.

Still, the looks are fine I think.

Kieffer

Not at all into European Trains.

No

Dave, these items were gifted to me from a friend in Australia. He got them from someone who found them under their house.

There were four old-style Sydney suburban car models kit-made (?) with cast-resin shells, roofs carved from wood, improvised frames and running gear. The resin bodies were in poor shape and mostly broken and cracked. I salvaged two for display. One unit had a powered truck in it, apparently from a 4-wheel switch engine.

There's a Bachmann F unit painted to resemble Victorian Railways. Some English Triang coaches are painted (badly) to somewhat resemble Australian stock. My international collection!

Bob,

You don't have an e-mail address visible in your profile, so I'm posting this here.  Have you seen this?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LIMA-0-GAUGE-FS-OVERHEAD-ELECTRIC-LOCO-FLYING-TORTOISE-/370757372886?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item5652dc8bd6

Ed

Hi, Ed.

I hadn't seen that one. Thank you very much for letting me know.

Regards,

Bob

Bob,

My e-mail address is in my public profile.   Send me a message then I'll send you some additional info about the available E444 'Tartaruga' locos.

Ed

Chris, I have this loco, I kit bashed the body, onto a Lionel EP5, perfect fit, added Even LED's, now it is a TMCC with sounds!

Here is my newest piece, the French Hornby #21 Bordeaux Station. I was quite surprised by it's size. Have not tried it, but I think some smaller standard gauge trains could pass through the opening.

Steve

Here's a O scale Rivarossi model of a DB (German Federal Railway) diesel.  I have a couple of these.  I believe it's a Class 216.

Never liked them. With the exception of the high speed passenger trains, I find them bizarre looking. I'm sure the rest of the world would probably say the same of North American trains.

I just ignore that section of the MTH catalog. There are a lot more interesting trains to spend my money on.

Interesting station, Steve. Those European train-shed stations should have some airspace in them!  

This one in Rodez, southern France.

Hi Elliot,

being a Euro: nope, I don't think US trains are bizarre looking. Doesn't mean I like 'em all. Some modern prototypes are too modern looking to me, too 'edgy'. A trend modern European trains are having too, looking like Lego trains.

I just like bright colours and contrasts, many European trains don't have that.

Never liked that crimson, and all that black and red trimming of Euro steamers.

Neither the obligatory green. Some people say it has to do with the climate, there might be some truth in it, certainly for the Northern European area.

And I like the graphics on US trains, especially the cars. You don't see that on Euro freighters, and if it's never very exciting.

BTW US engines were not that unknown here. There were quite a few US Army engines on Euro tracks, bought or leased (not sure) after the war. Even saddle tankers, well on the continent that was surely an exotic. Belgian railways even had a US class, the engineers called them Jeeps!

Regards, Kieffer

(I don't feel offended by comments on Euro trains, please go ahead!)

here's the saddle, from the US army. Belgian Railways had 63 of them, named class 57

Kieffer

The Southern had some ex-US army tank locomotives too. These were brought over during the war, and were mainly used in Southampton docks. They were known as the USA class.

here's the jeep, Belgian class 29, US made. To my knowledge there were 300 of them.

The EMD SW1001, sporting the very familiar North American end cab yard design, hard at work in the UK:

Bob

Like Mike W I have mainly American O scale but for nostalgic reasons (and when I had more cash to invest) I bought the LMS Duchess and LMS passenger crimson cars and the Chapelon Pacific with the Orient express passenger cars

I have just come back from Australia where I rode Puffing Billy a preserved loco and train

It really doesn't matter to me US/UK/Europe/Asia , as far as I am concerned the Steam locomotive is a world heritage

The extra bonus is that the LMS Duchess is still running, see photo

Although Lima's coaches are not scale length, unlike the equally ancient ones by Rivarossi, they are a good representation of the prototype, and will suffice until something better is available.  One by Lima and one by Rivarossi shown here.

Ed

I hadn't noticed it before, but these bear a resemblance to New Haven's "American Flyer" coaches:



---PCJ

Another of my Graham Farish by Bachmann steam locomotives, 60163 "Tornado":

Bob

Here's a video of the SW1001 with a blast of the horn a few seconds in:

Bob

That would be a fairly easy one to make a model of.

Here's an interesting two part video. When Hanson SW1001 120, "Whatley Endeavour" required extensive work to repair accident damage, the locomotive had to be transported via roadway as its dimensions are too large to travel over the national railway network. 

Bob

Are you into European trains? Nothing personal, but no. With very few exceptions FWIW, I'm not especially fond of most diesels either. If there was a scale speed version of one of those high speed jobs I might be interested.

Gilly

As it is shown leaving Eastleigh, I would presume that this is after it has been repaired at the works there.  Also, it looks as though it has just been fully re-painted.  

Correct. In the video, the repairs have been completed and the locomotive is beginning its return trip home. The damage was sustained at the cab end. I believe it was involved in a runaway incident of some sort.

Bob 

Looks like they did some work on the exhaust pipe, some box.

I grew up near the harbour, as a kid they told you to stay away from anchor cables and so on. Some guys on the video are really having guts I think.

According the accounts I read, the repairs on the SW1001 had to be performed in a building not normally used by railway equipment on account of its size. Due to the locomotive's larger dimensions, it could not be accomodated in an exisiting bay so other space with an opening of sufficient clearance had to be identified. The locomotive was moved in and out of the building via temporary trackage.

Bob 

You bet, I've been a Merchant Mariner for over 30 years and I've seen many cables snap under load.  Very dangerous.  I once had a 1" steel cable part and miss my head by inches.

How did I miss this thread?

Hands down YES!!!  You can probably blame it on Thomas, with plenty of additional exposure as a kid through books and documentaries that focused heavily on British/European trains. They are the only scale O gauge trains I want.  At the moment, all I have is the Lionel's Shakespeare Express, but I hope MTH continues to offer the European stuff they currently have, because it will probably be a looooong time before I can purchase any of them.  There are also several ETS items I like.

In addition to the popularly petitioned LNER A4, I'd like to see the Prussian P8 4-6-0, German BR52 "Kriegslok" 2-10-0, Austrian 310 2-6-4 and/or 380 2-10-0, and the Hungarian 424 4-8-0.  And some European line side accessories would be nice, such as appropriate track bumpers!!!

Aaron

Sorry...just not into European trains...and I was born there!  I like the big, rough steam locomotives and the sleek, diesels of America circa the 1940's and 50's.  Trains across the pond just have never spun my needle.  Matt

Lots of foreign ho trains at www.reynaulds.com. O scale has a long ways to go to approach all these choices.

That's where I buy most of my Marklin HO these days.