French 3 rail O scale Hornby BB 8051 loco and cars

That's a beautiful set. I have a couple of Hornby Orient Express cars, and its been suggested that this locomotive would be appropriate power for them. I'm not sure. However, your set makes a great looking consist.

Very cool Eric. Where did you pick those up?

HI

John they are in very reasonable condition but for me the fact that a child had fun with them is great, they have a few marks but given that they are early 50s I am very pleased and it runs great, I have been told by the Hornby French dealer that they can easily pull 3/4 cars including orient express cars ! they have metal wheels with no tyres but it can negotiate my inclines but only just as I am not running at full power.l

They are rated at 20V AC but I am running mine at 17V or so with no problems

Mike I picked them up on eBay just thought it was a nice set and worth a punt, all I have had to do is put on 4 new couplers and motor brushes and some oil on the gears which made a big difference, they are very Meccano in construction as you would expect. interestingly modern HO Fleischmann 6519 brushes ones fit perfectly, see you Monday night at the Christmas dinner

Ted, you have a cool layout. On second thought, my OE cars would look good with that loco. I'll have to look around for one!

John, I'm not sure Hornby ever made an Orient Express set per se.  I believe the two cars you have are, on the left, the dining car (voiture restaurant) from "Le Train Bleu" (or "Riviera Express") set; and on the right the #2 pullman from the "Golden Arrow" (Fleche D'Or) set.  

Although there was a Hornby plant in France, these large "Bogie Coaches" continued to be made in England for export to France.  (I believe Eric's box cab and coaches were made at the French factory.)

The Blue Train set came with either a brown Nord engine or a red PLM engine, both French railways.  The Fleche D'Or came with only the brown Nord engine.

I have the two Hornby cars for "Le Train Bleu", the Calais-Mediteranee Riviera Express, (the other car is the voiture-lits, sleeping car) and I'm looking for a loco for them as well.  The set orignially came with the brown French Nord steam engine that Hornby made in 6 volt before they switched to 20 volt.  Hard to find. Really, any Hornby Nord livery steam locomotive would work nicely for either the Golden Arrow or The Blue Train.  (The SNCF BB8051 was more of an urban commuter box cab, not really intended for the big long-distance coaches.)

Eric, nice spacious layout!  I picked up an old Lionel type R transformer because it can be hooked up for 20 volts to run my BB8051, but I have a somewhat primitive O gauge layout and I use 1121 switches than are powered from the track and the higher voltage blows out the lights.  I'd have to segregate my switches somehow to do much 20v running.  Great fun.

Thanks for the information, Hojack! The only comment I have is that the Fleche d'Or car does indicate "Fab. en France" on its end (see second photo), and my recollection is that the Train Bleu car does also. ( I need to go down and take a look.) This is not to say that they weren't made in England but marked as made in France as a marketing ploy for the French market, of course.

I appreciate the info as to locomotives and appropriate trains very much.

Here is the BB 8051 double headed for fun

These trains are very crude but a lot of fun, built like Meccano (Erector) the Wagons-lits car has illumination which consists of a bulb stuck up the middle of the bogie (truck) with a pickup on the end of the screw fitting, simples Ehhh

They only have one pickup so its a miracle that the train can pass over the MTH switches but they do !

Lots of Shake, Rattle and not so much Roll  !!!

Very nice!  Doubling up really makes an impressive train.  Thanks for posting that!

Masoner,

   Man you picked some great Tin to start out with, fantastic Train!

PCRR/Dave

This is a Hornby Orient Express set, it was not top of the line

Wow that is fantastic, I never thought I would ever see one of these, my uncle bought me one of these when I was 5 years old 

Thank you for posting picture

Eric, That set must be really old then...................HO HO HO !!

Only kidding!

MIKE

Yes, French Hornby (not Liverpool) made Wagons Lits bogie coaches in the 1930s.  These

looked just like the No.2 Special Pullmans but were labeled Wagons Lits and carried the

Wagons Lits crest. Watch out-- there are repainted No.2 Special Pullmans out there pretending to be the hard to find French Hornby Pullmans.  Here is a photo of the hard

to find French Hornby "Voiture Fleche'D'Or".

Wow, that is a fantastic pre-war coach

In average condition with the box you can expect to pay upwards of $400 for a genuine one of these, so I am not surprised there are fakes out there

Thanks for posting picture

lewrail,  Nice golden arrow.  I see the difference between it and the No.2 pullman.  Thanks for posting.