Does Anyone Model/Run European Trains?

By the way, the crooked window strut has been fixed and I need to purchase one more gas pump. Miketg

Yep,  Mth coronation, Lionel kinlet hall, lgb mogul and a Bachmann emily. O, G, S, Ho.

I LOVE TRAINS. Any trains.

MTH SNCF 150X

Does Marklin Z gauge count?

Milepost48 posted:

That's petty cool! 

Um...kinda....."The People's Porsche"

O Gauge Bug-In #1 never stopped. About 80% of my layout vehicles are vintage Euro builds; mostly VW; some "modified" for race  Note the blue Tonka Kübelwagen/ "Thing"? 

And this toy caboose is under gauge but works. I always thought it looked like a curved European roof vs N. American. I wish I could find another bobber set from its maker (who?).

Hopefully, some day, an early Italian Ganz electric or Mountain Crocodile will bite me and I'll be able to say "@#%© yea I do"....then I can think about a Garrett or German steam.

ogaugeguy posted:

Does Marklin Z gauge count?

Only if you post a picture

Just to inform you, if you are a really extreme European train modeler, that there are many ways to model and to run European trains in O gauge (3-rail ''coarse'' scale) and in O scale (real scale in Continental Europe 1:45). Here are the possible options which can be combined on your European layout:

1. tinplate and vintage toy trains (Hachette, Paya, Merkur, Hornby, etc.) [seen in toy museums]

2. low budget train models from the 1980ies (Lima, Rivarossi) [look in old catalogs]

3. downloaded STL files, probably re-scaled, 3D printed and assembled train models, examples...

   a. Swedish electric locomotive https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2274141

   b. Russian electric locomotive https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:567332

   c. Dutch freight car https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1609559

   d. German electric locomotive https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2004062

4. high quality train models (Lenz, Kiss, Demko, MTH) [visit their web sites]

5. design yourself in 3D CAD (I use OpenSCAD www.openscad.org) the bodyshell of your preferred model of  exported or license-built U.S./Canadian diesel locomotives, such as ALCo, GM-EMD, GE, MLW, etc., which have operated or still are operating on the European continent. For the motorization just use ready robust mechanism from MTH (RailKing or Premier). In other words: you can play European model railroading with American motive power. Here is a list of possibilities for your inspiration...

   a. hood diesels and switchers

       ALCO RSD-1 (Russia)

       ALCO DL-532B/RS-8 (Greece)

       ALCo DL-535S (Spain)

       ALCo DL-543 (Greece)

       ALCo RSC-3 (Portugal)

       GE UM-10B (Spain & Greece)

       GM GL-12CU (Spain)

       GM G-16 (Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, etc.)

       GM G-22U (Slovenia)

       MLW MX-620 (Portugal)

       MLW MX-626 (Serbia)

       MLW MX-627 (Greece)

       MLW MX-636 (Greece)

   b. heavy end-cab diesels

        ALCo DL-500A (Spain)

        ALCo DL-500C (Spain & Greece)

        ALCo DL-500S (Spain)

        GM ME class 1501-1531 EMD 16-645E3B (Denmark)

        GM NOHAB (originally in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, later also other regions)

        GM J-16CW (Spain)

        GM  J-16CW-AC (Spain)

        GM MZ-1 / JT-26CW (Denmark & Spain)

        GM J-26CW-SS/HEP (Spain)

        MLW MXS-627 (Portugal)

Probably there are much more examples, but I got tired to list them down. Any way, to conclude, you don't need always to buy ready-to-run and off-the-shelf models to run European trains and certainly you don't need always Alpine nor Central European theme. Mediterranean or Scandinavian does it just fine.

This is a nice, encouraging list. I have long 'adapted' Lionel's Thomas the Tank Engine line to represent more prototypical-esqe British outline engines,

GCRailways posted:

Here are the videos I said I'd post:

 

 

 

 

As a bonus, I will include this clip from 2012 of the Shakespeare Express:

 

Uh..... what holds that first train on the tracks?   ; D

I had a Marklin HO catalog when I was a kid that I would flip though all the time. Never got any but I always liked the European models.

BetaNuSigmaPhi posted:

Just to inform you, if you are a really extreme European train modeler, that there are many ways to model and to run European trains in O gauge (3-rail ''coarse'' scale) and in O scale (real scale in Continental Europe 1:45). Here are the possible options which can be combined on your European layout:

1. tinplate and vintage toy trains (Hachette, Paya, Merkur, Hornby, etc.) [seen in toy museums]

2. low budget train models from the 1980ies (Lima, Rivarossi) [look in old catalogs]

3. downloaded STL files, probably re-scaled, 3D printed and assembled train models, examples...

   a. Swedish electric locomotive https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2274141

   

   b. Russian electric locomotive https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:567332

      

   c. Dutch freight car https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1609559

       

   d. German electric locomotive https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2004062

   

4. high quality train models (Lenz, Kiss, Demko, MTH) [visit their web sites]

5. design yourself in 3D CAD (I use OpenSCAD www.openscad.org) the bodyshell of your preferred model of  exported or license-built U.S./Canadian diesel locomotives, such as ALCo, GM-EMD, GE, MLW, etc., which have operated or still are operating on the European continent. For the motorization just use ready robust mechanism from MTH (RailKing or Premier). In other words: you can play European model railroading with American motive power. Here is a list of possibilities for your inspiration...

   a. hood diesels and switchers

       ALCO RSD-1 (Russia)

       ALCO DL-532B/RS-8 (Greece)

       ALCo DL-535S (Spain)

       ALCo DL-543 (Greece)

       ALCo RSC-3 (Portugal)

       GE UM-10B (Spain & Greece)

       GM GL-12CU (Spain)

       GM G-16 (Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, etc.)

       GM G-22U (Slovenia)

       MLW MX-620 (Portugal)

       MLW MX-626 (Serbia)

       MLW MX-627 (Greece)

       MLW MX-636 (Greece)

   b. heavy end-cab diesels

        ALCo DL-500A (Spain)

        ALCo DL-500C (Spain & Greece)

        ALCo DL-500S (Spain)

        GM ME class 1501-1531 EMD 16-645E3B (Denmark)

        GM NOHAB (originally in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, later also other regions)

        GM J-16CW (Spain)

        GM  J-16CW-AC (Spain)

        GM MZ-1 / JT-26CW (Denmark & Spain)

        GM J-26CW-SS/HEP (Spain)

        MLW MXS-627 (Portugal)

Probably there are much more examples, but I got tired to list them down. Any way, to conclude, you don't need always to buy ready-to-run and off-the-shelf models to run European trains and certainly you don't need always Alpine nor Central European theme. Mediterranean or Scandinavian does it just fine.

The Great Northern TMY was painted for a movie shot in Sweden by Danish director Lars Trier many years ago. It was run for many years after in that colour. I dont know if it still running. There was another Loco a Swedish T43 painted in GN colours for the same film and its still running in those colours.

In N scale I've got a Dapol SR Q1 Class 0-6-0 (love the brutish austerity forced lines) and a handful of covered and open wagons. In O/0 gauge, I've got a Hornby  0-4-0 wind 'em up tank and an open wagon.

The UK styling, to me is much more attractive when compared to the European stock.

SteamWolf posted:

 

The UK styling, to me is much more attractive when compared to the European stock.

I agree

Regards

Fred

Good morning everyone, 

Just thought I would add a couple of Fotos of some recent builds, seems I am in a building mode the last couple of months. The first is an open ended Langenschwalbacher DB coach built from an EMA kit with detail parts from Klaus Krapp. The second is a simple Austrian flat that I picked up at Giessen last year and added an Austrian military load to.

Miketg

This arrived in the mail last week:

An Italian "ES444", made by Rivarossi in the early 1970s, I guess.

Odd looking thing...

Mark in Oregon

Great locomotive Mark. Now you need some Rivarossi full length passenger cars to go behind it! Miketg

If anyone knows where one could aquire a British Rail Class 23 (Baby Deltic), I'd be most appreciative.

Deuce posted:

If anyone knows where one could aquire a British Rail Class 23 (Baby Deltic), I'd be most appreciative.

who is the manufacturer? Heljan or who else? I know an O gauge collector, who owns the longer 6-axled British Deltic...

BetaNuSigmaPhi posted:

Deuce posted:

If anyone knows where one could aquire a British Rail Class 23 (Baby Deltic), I'd be most appreciative.

who is the manufacturer? Heljan or who else? I know an O gauge collector, who owns the longer 6-axled British Deltic...

 

Yes, Heljan. Was find able to find a UK hobby site that had it in OO gauge.

Miketg posted:

Great locomotive Mark. Now you need some Rivarossi full length passenger cars to go behind it! Miketg

There are four choices for Continental European passenger coaches...

1st choice: German coaches with 10 or 12 compartment windows from past millenium Rivarossi plastic mold production in full length scale 600 millimeters long (approx. 23", you need O-72 or better O-80 curves) http://www.tcawestern.org/rivarossi.htm

2nd choice: German coaches with 9 compartment windows from past millenium Lima plastic mold production in reduced length 530 millimeters long (approx. 20", , you need O-54 or better O-63 curves)

3rd choice: Orient Express coaches from modern MTH plastic mold production in full length 540 millimeters long (approx. 21", according to catalog information you need O-72 curves) equipped with  Lionel/MTH or ACE/Darstaed or Lenz couplers alternatively (https://mthtrains.com/sites/de...ction/20ps11680i.pdf)

4th choice: quasi-Eurofima-type coaches from my own modern tinplate production in reduced length 420 millimeters long (approx. 17", have been tested on O-72 curves) equipped with multiple coupler variations (Lima/Rivarossi or Lionel/MTH or ACE/Darstaed or whatever), as you can see on the following videos...

Those passenger cars are gorgeous. I am going the 'other way' - just found my first Hornby tinplate clockwork train set (#20 goods train) that I will use to create its own little layout of a rural branch line.

The Heljan O Gauge (2-rail) are sold in Britain through Howes Models in Kidlington, near Oxford.

I visited them last year when I was at Oxford University for a month. I remember posting some photos in Friday Photos, around late June 2016.

Their website is  https://www.howesmodels.co.uk/

The link to their Heljan page is

https://www.howesmodels.co.uk/subcat/Heljan%20UK

While not on their website, they often have shells with small blemishes, broken parts, etc. I would send them an email .

Most of the engines run about $700 US + shipping + duty.

Lad

BetaNuSigmaPhi posted

2nd choice: German coaches with 9 compartment windows from past millenium Lima plastic mold production ....

 

 

Actually the Lima coach is a model of an Italian coach, though with a few simplifications / modifications, notably changing the roof ventilators to the German pattern.  The trucks are also simplified representations of the trucks for that car too;  regrettably Lima used them under all their 0 coaches, even the British ones.   See attached page from a mid sixties Fiat railway vehicle catalogue.  

Best regards, SZ

Steinzeit posted:

BetaNuSigmaPhi posted

2nd choice: German coaches with 9 compartment windows from past millenium Lima plastic mold production ....

 

 

Actually the Lima coach is a model of an Italian coach, though with a few simplifications / modifications, notably changing the roof ventilators to the German pattern.  The trucks are also simplified representations of the trucks for that car too;  regrettably Lima used them under all their 0 coaches, even the British ones.   See attached page from a mid sixties Fiat railway vehicle catalogue.  

Best regards, SZ

Nice picture, do you have any book title or ISBN number? Of course, in my O gauge collection I have also Swiss and French Lima coaches. Lima used two different types of trucks (something like vintage Orient Express style and modern style, I don't remember exactly) for the O gauge passenger cars...

BetaNuSigmaPhi posted

Nice picture, do you have any book title or ISBN number? Of course, in my O gauge collection I have also Swiss and French Lima coaches. Lima used two different types of trucks (something like vintage Orient Express style and modern style, I don't remember exactly) for the O gauge passenger cars...

-  The book is titled "Fiat Materiale Ferrotranviario";  it was published by Fiat as a catalogue for general information of their rail products since 1945 to the publication date, whenever that was, as a marketing tool;  it was Fiat Publication [ "Stampato"] Nr 2134.

-  I have been collecting Lima 0 gauge since about 1979 and have a fairly comprehensive collection, and I have never seen a Lima 0 gauge passenger car in this range  that was not factory-fitted with these trucks.  I have however seen these vehicles with other trucks substituted for operation on tinplate track [ although just substituting Lionel postwar wheelsets in the Lima truck frames works equally well ].  I am also aware that over the years there have been modellers who have made for sale alternate sideframes for the Lima coaches, for example the SNCF Y24 type for use under French vehicles.

-  If you do an internet search for "  Carrelli FS tipo 24  " you should find a nice dimensioned diagram of the 'Lima' truck as well as other Italian bogie types.

With best regards,

SZ

Steinzeit posted:

BetaNuSigmaPhi posted

Nice picture, do you have any book title or ISBN number? Of course, in my O gauge collection I have also Swiss and French Lima coaches. Lima used two different types of trucks (something like vintage Orient Express style and modern style, I don't remember exactly) for the O gauge passenger cars...

-  The book is titled "Fiat Materiale Ferrotranviario";  it was published by Fiat as a catalogue for general information of their rail products since 1945 to the publication date, whenever that was, as a marketing tool;  it was Fiat Publication [ "Stampato"] Nr 2134.

-  I have been collecting Lima 0 gauge since about 1979 and have a fairly comprehensive collection, and I have never seen a Lima 0 gauge passenger car in this range  that was not factory-fitted with these trucks.  I have however seen these vehicles with other trucks substituted for operation on tinplate track [ although just substituting Lionel postwar wheelsets in the Lima truck frames works equally well ].  I am also aware that over the years there have been modellers who have made for sale alternate sideframes for the Lima coaches, for example the SNCF Y24 type for use under French vehicles.

-  If you do an internet search for "  Carrelli FS tipo 24  " you should find a nice dimensioned diagram of the 'Lima' truck as well as other Italian bogie types.

With best regards,

SZ

Thanks for the valuable information.

In the vintage Lima catalogs we can find depicted coaches, which may (or not) be missing from the collection:

page 77-81 catalog http://mmiwakoh.de/Eigene%20Webs/PDFLima1976.pdf

Here is the original truckframe with plastic wheels of an O scale full length Rivarossi passenger coach, which can be replaced against heavier massive metal and diecast parts...

Full length coaches are good for shelf display or to operate point-to-point on a modular layout, but for suitable for oval layout with narrow curves.

BetaNuSigmaPhi posted

Thanks for the valuable information.

In the vintage Lima catalogs we can find depicted coaches, which may (or not) be missing from the collection:

page 77-81 catalog http://mm.........

Lima did produce all of the 0 gauge items shown in that catalogue -- I have them all.  However, because they produced many -- perhaps all, I never checked -- of the "same" models in HO and/or N, they often used the illustrations of those models in the 0 gauge catalogue section. [  I know, it's difficult to imagine a reputable manufacturer / importer doing that.........  . ]   A good case in point are the 6671 /72, which have Y24-ish trucks under them in the illustrations;  other examples are refrigerator cars with ribbed sides.

Hope that helps.

Best, SZ

I do have a couple of the Rivarossi cars:

These both came with the "V215". I can only guess they were part of a set (#7000, I believe).

Very pretty, LONG (23 3/8" over diaphragms), and I only wish they had come to me with the interiors.

I find this era (1970s) of 0 scale Rivarossi models to be very nicely done. The locos run smoothly and are very quiet, and the freight "wagons" are also nicely detailed. They are superior, in my opinion anyway, to the Lima line of the same vintage (although the Lima freight cars are perfectly adequate, just a bit less detailed...)

Mark in Oregon

I am running O scale MTH 2-rail European trains now. Great stuff,

John

Is anyone going to the big German 0 scale show in Giessen in two weeks? Miketg

When I first got into G scale I was already an o scaler. I had considered modeling American with G, but it made more sense to use G for strictly Euro modeling, as I already had a fair amount of American equipment in O.

That said, I started out all over the map with G scale, but now I try to focus on the RhB and the HSB, so I can run steam and electric.

So for me it's O scale for American prototypes, and G scale for Euro.

Trainman2 posted:

When I first got into G scale I was already an o scaler. I had considered modeling American with G, but it made more sense to use G for strictly Euro modeling, as I already had a fair amount of American equipment in O.

That said, I started out all over the map with G scale, but now I try to focus on the RhB and the HSB, so I can run steam and electric.

So for me it's O scale for American prototypes, and G scale for Euro.

Me and myself we play with European rolling stock in O and G...

...here is the proof: bodyshells of two 3D-printed Romanian end-cab diesel engines to be painted in Greek colors...

Oooo, they need a serious amount of work!

Big Jim posted:

Oooo, they need a serious amount of work!

Model railroading (...or railroad modeling?) is a hobby for the working class  

I'd love to find a couple of cars in O scale narrow gauge (Oe, they call what in the US is called On30) for German prototypes.

As I model a RR operating unit during WW2 on a stateside line, I think it'd be interesting to throw a European car into a Army train, painted in OD green or black with Army markings, much like they actually did near the end of the war and afterward at Ft Eustis, VA. It'd make for an interesting wrinkle in an op session...

I prefer my LGB 1:22.5 Austrian, Swiss and German meter gauge models. The original LGB was made of a high-grade BASF polymer called Luran-S, which is very durable under extreme weather conditions. The paints were also high quality UV resistant. The Richter family knew how to build them right. The Hungarian LGB does not use Luran-S, so they are different products than the German production at Saganer Strasse. They do, however, look and run well, and I have some of the Marklin LGB.

How many run the original German production LGB?

BetaNuSigmaPhi posted:

Big Jim posted:

Oooo, they need a serious amount of work!

Model railroading (...or railroad modeling?) is a hobby for the working class  

Whistle while you work   Otherwise you're just a model collector