The MTH OCEM cars: A mini-review

Continuation:

  6.  The "RPO" car has neither lighting nor any interior;  as not much can be seen inside, this is understandable.

  7.  On my "official test incline", which isn't much of a grade, the RPO will roll from standstill, as will, though not as much, the Rheingold cars;  the remaining OCEM cars don't, but they're "thinking about it".

 

    Initial impression, Executive Summary:  If you liked MTH's 'Orient' cars, you'll like these, and the two sets do complement each other in assembling realistic train formations.  I was very disappointed that they did not have the close-coupling feature or removable roofs, however.  As usual, YIMV !

 

Best regards, SZ

 

Thanks for the photos..

Thanks for the pictures. We should get our cars for our customers today or tomorrow. Indeed, these cars were built after the specifications of the Orient Express cars. The reason is that products for the french market come with original couplers and products for the german market come with Lenz couplers.

Regards Stefan

Some additional comments on these cars:

 

  8.  The "RPO" [ that's also MTH's term for it, too ] is packed without the steps attached.  Two different versions are furnished, either carbody or truck mounted.

The instruction booklet says the truck mounted must be used to operate "on a O-72 radius [ sic ] curve", whatever that means, and says the body mounted steps require "a much larger radius curve", but doesn't quantify it, and I haven't taken the time to find out yet.

 

    9.  The 0019 [ earlier era ] passenger cars have the windows in the car ends, as was common between the wars.  This 0026 set has the window frames, etc present, but the glass area is painted over, as if a piece of steel plate were installed on the inside instead of the glass.  This sounds like it would be reasonable even if it wasn't done on the prototype -- I really don't know.  Later rebuilds had any evidence of the window removed, and if one wished to do that that would seem 'easy' to do.

     If my 0019 set, preordered 2.5 years ago from a different vendor, ever shows up, I'll illustrate the differences.

 

  10.  There are no electric train heat jumpers, but only one of the cars [ the RPO ] is lettered as having electric heat.  Given the era, and when/where the cars are "based" per the lettering, it would have been a nice touch, but this is a comment, not a complaint.

 

   11.  I thought the rivets on the carbody sides were done very well.  To me, and this is strictly an opinion, the rooftop rivets [ holding the batten strips ] should be smaller, since they are less prominent in appearance -- and wouldn't have a real 'structual' duty.  The prototype photo that I've used is not of an OCEM RA type, but of the next FL generation, which were still of riveted construction but with flush heads, but does show the roof construction well.  When the car was photographed in the mid seventies it had recently been upgraded, hence the new exterior-mounted window frames.

 

  12.  Also notice in the prototype photo what appears to be a lagged steam line at the lower side of the car;  these are angled down from the ends to a low point near the centre of the car.  MTH has provided this line, but it treated it more as air piping [ see photo of model ]. 

 

Edited to add:  13.  I thought the side door of the BD could have had more depth to its recess [ see photo ] -- but there may be a mold technical reason why it doesn't.

 

But enough of my overly critical eye -- they're nice cars.  Please buy a set or two, so MTH will make more European coaching stock.

 

Best, SZ

 

Stefan, I think MTH is making a mistake taking that approach.  In my opinion, MTH should view French prototype items, or at least the rolling stock, as having European-wide sales potential, not "a French market" vs "German market".  The reason is simply in the numbers, and hence in the $/euros: 

    The French market is much smaller than the German one;  even a poster on a French forum stated that the the number of members of the Spur Null group [ eg, most 'serious' 2 rail 0 gaugers in German speaking lands ] is 10 to 15 times the size of the [ French speaking ] Cercle du Zero membership !!

    Further, German-speakers are more likely to have a home layout, or at least a layout capable of using MTH products to date.

    I realize there is the 1/45 vs 1/43.5 issue -- but if a model is 'usable', and unavailable in the "correct" scale [ depending on your scale-religion, of course ], then the model is purchased anyway;  no doubt some of these OCEM cars will end up in Switzerland and 'the Busch countries', as they should. 

 

BUT:  Again in my opinion, MTH could increase its sales by making the product more appealing to those buyers outside France by

   1.  Providing Lenz-compatible couplers -- if only for the close coupling feature.

   2.  Packaging sets that are attractive to such prospective buyers:

          A case in point is the inclusion of the RPO car in the existing sets;  since RPO's are very rarely seen outside of their own country, there's a detriment to buying the set right there.  A better solution might have been a second A3B5, but lettered as a couchette -- something that would be 'at home' even in, say, Austria.*

 

Building French prototype models that ALSO will sell well outside France should be MTH's goal -- the two markets need not be exclusive.  Just my opinion, of course.

YOMV !

 

With best regards, SZ

 

Edited to add:  Well, that was a pretty poor "example" !  Not only weren't there any AcBc "Visable Rivets" cars built, but SNCF or anybody else didn't operate 1st cl couchette accomodation into Austria, at least in the early 60's.  So maybe just a second AB, but in the newer livery.