Wow ! Some quality showing up in this thread lately
@Arne those stations are to die for , and what a diverse selection of "One Car Wonders" from @Robert S. Butler ( who coincidentally has the worst OGR forum name to quote LOL .. I always forget the . after the S !)
Beaut condition later French Hornby from @Don McErlean too!
I have nothing as nice a condition myself to offer , but I did pick up a couple of rarer Hornby items , one I already had one of, but the other I didnt .. so it all works out ... its part of my " He who dies with the most toys wins " Strategy I think ?
Anyway .... Der Hornby Mitropa Schlafwagen + Speisewagen ( sleeping and dining cars)
These were produced as export only for the "Continent" ( Europe ) and thus were known as the Continental Sets . The cars themselves were produced in England , but they owe their form to the tooling recovered from Hornby's failed attempt to break into the US market in 1927/8 . Hornby U.S.A. made different Pullman variations to the std UK ones and were released as Washington and Madison named cars . These were also made in the UK from the recovered US tooling ..
However the Mitropa set marked a departure for Hornby with the addition of "gold" shiny base tin , onto which the further litho colours were printed ,I suspect this was a legacy of USA stock as well .. over time this has proven to be a bit of a weak point as the gold base tin sheets turned out to be shockers for corrosion and thus it is incredibly rare to find any of them in mint condition . They were produced around 1930/1934 . As these have "drop-link" couplers it is likely they are they earlier versions .