Are you into European trains?

With my budget woes I'm glad MTH is taking a break and going into other areas. If it sells more power to them.

Well my Dad is just a bit into Euro stuff. All Swiss meter gauge here.





As for myself, trains from the Eurpean makers have always been a bit too expensive - given the exchange rate and higher prices in Europe in general. The MTH offerings are a chance to get into European O scale at US prices, so I'm in.

I feel I've broken into the whole European thing by my first purchase of a European passenger set . It has nice detail and is a smooth runner and I feel it's a great addition to my layout.
Everyone should have a Hog Warts set
It's the one and only Euro set I'll have theres just to much American stuff I don't have yet

David

hello guys and gals.....
NO, i was born american and i will stick with american trains.
the woman who loves toy trains
Tiffany

I have the Shakespeare Express and the Hogwarts Express.
That's all the European I plan to have.

I am tempted also to purchase a LMS steamer and passenger cars from MTH. Although i don't feel MTH is in quite the same league as Lionel, I have found the continental profiles they offer very attractive. When in London I have seen a number of trains from Honrby and Dejan, But the are OO or two rail O. I also think, my opinion only, that MTH has misjudged the market for these European profile trains and will scale back or cease production of them soon, making the present offerings something of a collector item. This is only my opinion, but I must say their trains do look very good. I have collected Lionel NYC items, and LGB from the mid eighties.

I also have the Hogwarts set an I plan on the Halloween 2 cars set and that will be the end of it. As Tiffany says.
NO, I was born american and I will stick with American trains.

I do not have bad feelings for those here that do. Enjoy them.

Yes, I have foreign HO and N scale equipment. I also have a Lima two rail O scale SNCF diesel which my in-laws purchased for me in a train store in Italy. I also have a few pieces of Paya tinplate.

If MTH starts making those impressive Italian electrics, I'll be in European three rail O gauge in a big way!

Bob

I gained some familiarity with European/Asian railroads by way of involvement with them through train simulators (most add-ons are either European or Far East--we seem to shun simulators for the most part over here).

I don't know if I can term my interest being "into them", but I did get the Hogwarts' set (and all the add-ons available so far), and I have the SBB Cargo electric on order (it'll be pulling US equipment like a demonstrator). Maybe my interest is best termed as having an open mind to something "not from over here".

Presently I don't have the storage space to host a real collection or representative sample of MTH's European equipment, but I could make room for a high-speed trainset and perhaps a London Underground train if they ever came out.

---PCJ

BigRail:

I have purchased some of the MTH European steam engines in the last few months. My first European MTH premier was the Gray Chapelon #20-33888-1 with the matching Blue Orient Express passenger cars. Its one of the Last Proto-2's Mike made. Its a great engine, and it smokes great. It gave me a chance to brush up on my French.

The second one I had to have was the big SNCF EST 241-A-65 #20-3406-1. Its a class 241A steam engine, and my favorite of the two. The real engine is used in France on rail fan trips, there are vids of the engine on U-tube. It is on display in the French Railway museum. I luv the black paint job with the red pin stripes on the smoke deflectors. The engine has a lot of gold brass trim as well. The proto-3 sound is very crisp, much better than proto-2, and no battery to charge . Both engines have that classic french whistle. What I like is that the engines are so different than my others. The black EST 241 Loco has great low crawl speed with DCS, and it puts out perfect smoke rings one after the other. I am waiting for the matching passenger car set to come in at my LHS.

I did not purchase the new German steam engine, all three came in at my local hobby shop, Imperial Train Co. The green one is beautiful, the black and red, and the blue one are also nice. I think they also still have the grey French EST 241.

Two European sets are enough for now. I would say all three of these European steamers are great MTH engines and worth the price. Right now I am very hooked on Lionel Legacy engines, the new K-4 is the best. My dollars will go there. My new Legacy CAB-2 system is just great, it makes the Legacy and Vision line engines perform like no others. If you are looking for something different to run these 2-MTH engines fit the bill in the steam dept. It doesn't bother me that they look and sound different, I just enjoy something different running from time to time.


Luv passenger trains

Vic

I think they're neat. I'm not a big fan of them but I might consider one down the road.

Plus remember Anatole Mallet was a Swiss engineer and without him we wouldn't have articulated engines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatole_Mallet

Just a little in HO:



So far, no one has done these Class 66s in O. N, HO, OO, G but not O yet.

No, no interest at all! But to each his own.

Ironically, I have done more train travel in Europe than here at home, especially since I have made many trips to Europe on business. So I have added one European train to my layout.

I've picked up a Lionel Hogwart's engine (for less than $100) that I plan to repaint and add a few more details to it. I also picked up a MTH Premier LMS passenger car set to run with this engine. IMHO, this gives a pretty nice set for about $450.

Jim

I sure do. I like trains, period. I think that it is interesting to learn about other places and not limit myself to the 15 miles around where I was born and grew up.

I have vintage German trains from Marklin, Bing and Bub. British trains from Hornby, Exley, Leeds Model and Bassette Lowke. (Walt Disney had a huge B. Lowke live steamer at his house that you can now see in LA at Griffith Park.)I have repros of Spanish Paya. New ETS from Chekoslovakia. A repowered drugstore plasticrap German steamer that looks like the Bavarian Pacific MTH offers now instead of batteries it is Lionel PW powered. Some Japanese tin subways and a new tin trolley from Austrailia.

More in line with the rest of you I do also have the Lionel Thomas the Hogwarts the Shakespeare and some MTH Brit stuff. I think it is fun to keep up the search.

I do both American and European model railroading but I tried unsuccessfully to keep European only to Marklin HO and U.S. railroading to Lionel and MTH O. However, MTH's offering of the French Orient Express steamer and coaches were too great to pass up as was the recent Bavarian steam loco. These engines along with the Orient Express coaches more than met my expectations and I believe their prices are extremely competitive with European O manufacturers. Great job, Mike, keep it up!

If MTH can make it in Europe more power to them even at the expense of producing US models on a temporary basis. I cannot imagine that between Lionel and MTH that the American O gauge product lines are not saturated. If MTH's financial position is strengthened by finding new customers overseas this is likely to bode well for producing requested American O models. Also, exports of MTH products helps the balance of payments in terms of the US economy.

What I don't understand is MTH's going into HO as Lionel did unsuccessfully many years ago. To me, modeling in American HO is a challenging, if not totally frustrating, way to enjoy this hobby unless you like constant model train wrecks.

quote:

To me, modeling in American HO is a challenging, if not totally frustrating, way to enjoy this hobby unless you like constant model train wrecks.

Since the HO side of the hobby is significantly larger than O gauge I would guess a lot of folks don't agree with your assessment.

Good point, Bill. When I came back to this hobby I tried them all and found for me (clearly a personal view) Marklin HO and Lionel and MTH O were the easiest to model in and overall the most satisfying from an operating standpoint. It is great that there is such variety available to modelers in the U.S. and now (thanks to MTH) we have European O in the U.S. at a relatively reasonable cost (compared to those offered by European manufacturers). (By the way I really like your layout and the railroads modeled. Thanks for sharing the videos on youtube.com)

While I have no European Trains, I very much like the look and style of them (except some diesels). Would love to own some in any gauge.

Who, me?

I would be: were it not for the 1:45 scale and the lack of a Williams style "lifetime, return to factory warranty." Either is a deal killer, regardless of the color of the box.

I have been into European O scale since the early 80's when I bought some Lima O Scale at a toy store in Zurich, Switzerland. I have been hooked ever since. I have lots of Lima, Rivarossi, Pola Maxi, Elletren, and items from various European small run producers. I bought the MTH Orient Express cars and have the Rheingold on order. I have taken the full leap into Lenz O Scale and am very impressed.

On the othr hand, I love to collect and operate Lionel postwar and early MPC.

So I guess you can have the best from both sides of the pond. (Plus a very patient and understanding wife.)

All the best,

Miketg

If I lived in Europe, I would be into European trains. For American trains, I tend to prefer what I have seen in my railfaning. Which is 1970's to present day northeast railroads.

Just the Lionel Hogwarts Express here at the moment. Although I like our homegrown trains our layout is US outline.

The MTH Duchess is very nice but I keep seeing US items I want to add to my collection at that price point.
A nice little British outline tank engine by MTH or Lionel would definitely get on the layout.
How about one of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_pannier_tank

Regards
Nick

Interesting thread. There seems to be quite a few from "over there" that like trains from "over here".....I am the other way round - all my O gauge is "from over there" and I don't see that changing!!

I have quite a bit of British outline in 00 (ho to you) and thats enough for me - I just like big American locos!!

Each to their own.

MIKE

I really do like the European trains, but other then the Harry Potter set I have not bought any as yet. The problem is every time I have the extra money to spend I'm always drawn to the American product.
I guess if I ever get all the items I grew up wonting I will make the big jump.

Nothing European in O gauge (yet), but I have a fairly large collection of Marklin HO and some European Large Scale.

About the only reason I don't have any European models in O is that I have more sharply focused my O scale interests in recent years and am determined to stick with my choices.

My feeling this is a really niche market for most of us, but, here is a link with some incredible knowledge about them.

The purpose of this English speaking group is to share and further knowledge about no longer manufactured trains from the start of industrial toy train production in the late 19th century to date.

Classic European Trains
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/...European_Toy_Trains/

If you have an interest take a look.

Yes, I have the MTH Chapelon (black) and the 3rd Rail Flying Scotsman (green, three cylinder).

Ever since I saw a link of this forum of the G Scale KM1 engine (German railroads) I have been trying to get one. The only dealer in the USA doesn't stock them (because of price) and the Canadian train store had two different models, were both defective. The models which are hand built always are in limited supply.

Anyone have any ideas on how to get one in a reasonable amount of time?

How bout our members from across the pond?

Also the Swiss AM-Trackers from the York meet had an exception layout set up running Euro models.

Thank you.

I have Maerklin gauge 1. My emphasis is on Northern Europe. I run them on Aristo track outdoors. I wish MTH had developed 1.32 scale (gauge 1) for their Euro trains, instead of O gauge. They do have 1.32 scale for American trains. Mark

Whenever I hear of inventing the Steam Locomotive or Steam Boat I think of "JOHN FITCH" of Connecticut.

quote:

Originally posted by GARDNER:
Whenever I hear of inventing the Steam Locomotive or Steam Boat I think of "JOHN FITCH" of Connecticut.

Funny I think of Robert Fulton of Lancaster PA. In 1809 the Fulton Steamship cruised the Hudson river.

As far as toy trains collectors many European companies made toys for US manufacturers. Bing made tin lithographed cars for Ives and other items for American Flyer. Dorfan was the American offshoot of the German co. Fandor. In the 1970s Pola made scale train cars for Lionel. ETS made some small inspector cars for MTH. So there is more crossing the world than some think.

NO ... not at all!

The Hogwarts set is as European as I plan to get. Got that cause I like the HP movies.

We've got the Hogwarts Express in H0 & 0 and some LGB steam & traction /with catenary.

If finances permitted we would definitely add a few of Mike's European steamers and passenger sets to our roster! Also a Crocodile. They are quite interesting looking as I am not very familiar with them so they are 'new' to me. The older passenger cars are simply beautiful and have a special charm all their own. I guess I really like TRAINS and would convert most of our O gauge equipment to Large Scale if we could! Too many trains and not enough time...

Am not a Harry Potter fan but admire what Dave Allen did with his Hogwarts locomotive!

I have some trains by pre-war Hornby, Bing, Bassett-Lowke and Leeds, and an ACE A4 set from 2000 or so, as well as some tin litho buildings by Bing and Hornby. I don't have any of the current stuff by MTH or Lionel, although I admire much of it. Most of my stuff is American outline, and some is even American made!

I didn't get into Lionel/MTH to cuy European stuff but now that they are making it I have been buying - well had to get the Duchess and the Chapelon and......

They are really great looking models (and prototypes) and, since the 2012 catalog is a bit thin I am tempted by a Swiss Crocodile.

The MTH UK LMS passenger coaches are incredible value for money compared to UK/european manufacturers' equivalent items and the UK is beginning to take notice - I think!

Waiting for my Orient express add-on cars......