Allegheny1600 Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Having just mentioned (in a UK thread!) about the day when I saw a 'Kriegslok' working in the former Yugoslavia, I thought I ought to start this thread as it is a bit different!. The above incident was in 1977 (I was about 12) and my parents were keen 'campers' who used an old Morris BR railway maintenance van converted into a camper-van to travel all round Europe and N. Africa. This trip, we had gone overland to Greece and on route I saw, a Krokodile in Switzerland, fascinating articulated electrics in Italy, 'Swedish'(!) electrics in a depot just over the Yugoslav border from Italy, the 'Kreigslok' on a long freight and wonderful metre gauge Alco's in Greece. My dad's plan was to ferry across from Patras to Tunis but it was so expensive and Algeria and Morocco were at war by then, so we retraced our steps and went to Portugal, on route this time I saw electric "deltics" in Spain and EE class 50's and more Alco's in Portugal! A couple of years later, we actually moved to live in France where I bought a Joueff train set and that was it - I was on my way to becoming a Continental modeller! How about you? Have any of you guys picked up the foreign modelling bug through your travels for business or pleasure, or even if not modelling - simply an interest in railways abroad? Cheers, John E. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 I have mainland european family and my career involved a fair amount of time in North America; as a result I was all set to go with HO for the qualiity and choice on offer, and most likely USA East Coast 'somewhere' when the time was available. (A couple of US colleagues had really impressive layouts with tremendous operational potential which made business trips rather fun.) But just as I was about to take the plunge Bachmann came along with their WD and 16T wagons, and the possibility to do the ECML with RTR gear of average HO RTR standard sang an irresistible siren song... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Yeah, a US holiday in 1994 saw me doing a little research on the local trains beforehand, and coming back with a couple of Athearn diesels....the rest as they say is history...! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted August 7, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 7, 2012 I did come back from my first trip to Aus with a diesel and a couple of wagons. Fortunately for me & my second trip out there the Austrains AD60 was suffering its first 'major delay' - otherwise I suspect I might now be far more interested in NSW rolling stock announcements than those for GW eight-coupled tank engines. Phew, close escape! (and Swiss narrow gauge stuff is fortunately far too expensive) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 I make regular visits across the vast seas the Solent to the IOW and now have an 0 gauge 02 tank built and several LBSCR coaches on order from Alan Gibson. Does that count? JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerces Fobe2 Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 My numerous visits to Boston and Cisco have resulted in me having more than a passing interest in US railroad operations and a small amount of American items and I have being thinking of an US LRV layout - I real fan of the MUNI and T and I think a future project is in my head already! In the interim something with an UK and American theme is planned for Croxley WRD!!!!!! XF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold DaveF Posted August 7, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 7, 2012 My Swiss n gauge layout started after a few days near Lake Geneva in 1978 followed by further visits over the next twenty years. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Family holidays (once we'd escaped from the clutches of Ramsgate!) tended to avoid air travel until it became inevitable. Therefore the first foray abroad was a coach trip to Austria, where the excitement of foreign travel tended to overlook any railway interest (although we did come across the Achenseebahn and Zillertalbahn). The next trips, six of them, no less, were by rail - package holidays organised by Martin Rooks of Victoria and Panorama of Brighton. It didn't take long to kindle/rekindle an interest in railways from these trips. The defining moment was travelling on the Rhaetian railway (there was a shop in Davos with models in the window, but it was closed for the duration of our holiday). The following year we went to Spain and it was during a side trip to Andorra (the country, not the industrial system, unfortunately), I bought a Lima SNCF BB67000 loco and a couple of Joueff Wagon-Lits carriages. As travels started to go further East, the opportunity to buy Piko/Gutzold/Schicht at rock-bottom prices, was far too tempting to pass up - but by then it was the prototype that held the greater fascination (and still does). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Having just mentioned (in a UK thread!) about the day when I saw a 'Kriegslok' working in the former Yugoslavia, I thought I ought to start this thread as it is a bit different!. The above incident was in 1977 (I was about 12) and my parents were keen 'campers' who used an old Morris BR railway maintenance van converted into a camper-van to travel all round Europe and N. Africa. This trip, we had gone overland to Greece and on route I saw, a Krokodile in Switzerland, fascinating articulated electrics in Italy, 'Swedish'(!) electrics in a depot just over the Yugoslav border from Italy, the 'Kreigslok' on a long freight and wonderful metre gauge Alco's in Greece. My dad's plan was to ferry across from Patras to Tunis but it was so expensive and Algeria and Morocco were at war by then, so we retraced our steps and went to Portugal, on route this time I saw electric "deltics" in Spain and EE class 50's and more Alco's in Portugal! That must've been some trip! I'd say that the Swedish electric was some way from the Italian border, the ASEA built locos being confined to the AC lines (Zagreb and points SE), whereas the lines nearest the Italian border had passed from Italy and hence retained the 3kV DC system. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bingley hall Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 My first rail specific 'overseas' trip was to the Hof in West Germany during May 1973 to see the last of the 01 Pacifics. In October the same year, with money from my first job upon leaving school in my pocket, I picked up my first N gauge locomotive, a Minitrix 01 purchased second hand from the small model shop on the walkway up to Norbury station. Subsequent trips to West Germany inspired purchases of a Fleischmann 012, 038 and 094 and a Roco 044. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 My first visit to N. America in 1970 was for about ten weeks on a student exchange when I spent a lot of time in small towns in Maine and Vermont and saw a lot of (very) long slow freights going through them. Later in the trip I travelled around the USA and into Canada on Greyhound buses and the roads seemed almost always to be a hundred yards or so from a railroad. I managed to fit in a trip on the Rio Grande Zephyr from Grand Junction to Denver. When I got back to the UK and travelled from Gatwick to London I couldn't believe how tiny the trains were. That trip definitely inspired my first layout as an adult a few years later to be an American switching layout. My interest in American railroads did wane but in about 1980 a flight promo by the newly formed AirUK led to a weekend trip to France with my then girlfriend. I hired a car at Le Touquet and we drove down the coast where we came upon a rusty and clearly long disused 020T (0-4-0T to you) steam loco. This was acting as a physical billboard sitting at the buffer end of the station at Le Crotoy on the Baie de Somme. It was well out of season so nothing was running but there was stock around. I found this almost intact metre gauge system enchanting especially the quayside at St. Valery that in those days had a lot more mixed gauge track on it and visited all its stations. That started a fascination with French raiways expecially secondaires that has lasted ever since. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allegheny1600 Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 That must've been some trip! I'd say that the Swedish electric was some way from the Italian border, the ASEA built locos being confined to the AC lines (Zagreb and points SE), whereas the lines nearest the Italian border had passed from Italy and hence retained the 3kV DC system. Thanks Eddie! All I can remember was parking up for the night in a town and taking a walk with my dad, from some part of our journey we could see down into the depot! It was evening so all of these 'Swedish' electrics were lit up under the depot lights! Thinking back, I have no idea how I knew them to be Swedish - never been to Scandinavia, at that time I had very little literature but somehow I 'Knew'!!! It certainly wasn't my dad as he only knew about boats! Cheers, John E. P.S. Yes! It certainly was a trip and a half! It probably took something like from about September 1977 through until say about April/May 1978 while we were away from Blighty! My old man didn't worry about school inspectors! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supaned Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 This has certainly struck a chord. I've been fortunate enough to travel around most of Europe by rail (having free passes is a big help) , and there has been inspiration found in most places - my first interest was (and to an extent still is) Germany , but the present day scene with lots of multiple units no longer appeals as much . Since then , I've been further afield and they all give me ideas , the key issue is deciding exactly what and where to model - and in a lot of cases , much as I'd love to model a certain prototype, the models are simply not available in any form - so I end up in a constant state of indecision. That said , I keep on travelling :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Thanks Eddie! All I can remember was parking up for the night in a town and taking a walk with my dad, from some part of our journey we could see down into the depot! P.S. Yes! It certainly was a trip and a half! It probably took something like from about September 1977 through until say about April/May 1978 while we were away from Blighty! My old man didn't worry about school inspectors! I'd be interested to know which town it was - I tend to associate these locos with Zagreb from widely-spaced visits there, but of course there must be other places where they could/can be found. These days I think that would be called a "gap year"! I thought my first car/camping trip was ambitious (ferry to Hamburg, three weeks covering East and West Germany, Austria, Hungary and home via Ostend), but rather modest in comparison. While in East Germany my mother (sitting in the front passenger seat) got a severe telling off for speeding (2 kph over the limit!) - they were rather sheepish when I got back behind the wheel... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Claude_Dreyfus Posted August 9, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 9, 2012 Although I had dipped my toe into the water about 10 years previously, it was May 2008, and a trip on the Bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto that got me into Japanese railways...and prompted a large scale sell off of my sizeable British N gauge collection, replaced by a nice selection of Japanese trains! A visit to Vietnam last year, with its very French style stations and sempahore signalling, sowed a few evil thoughts in my mind though... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsforever Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Once I had a dabble in USA narrow gauge ,Sandy Lakes inspired by books and the kits available but came back to BR Midland region. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNCF stephen Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 When I went on my first holiday to France ( and my first holiday in 7 years) I went to a model train fair in Limoges where I purchased an N Gauge Minitrix locomotive and a few wagons. I thought they might be prototypical but I later discovered they were nothing like anything that has run in France. However at that time I decided to stop collecting Modern British stock and going for French stock. If I had known at that time how little French N Gauge there was I might have changed my mind but I am glad I have persevered, I have learnt a lot about the SNCF and modelling. I am now modelling a railway station that is about 4 miles away from where we stay in France. I don't know about anyone else but I model overseas because I like the escapism it gives me when I model! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jjb1970 Posted August 11, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 11, 2012 Japan, the first time I traveled on Japanese trains was a revelation, it isn't the speed either that is impressive but the absolute reliability and punctuality, the immaculate condition of trains and the very professional attitude of staff. The railways of Japan in my opinion operate at the limits of what it is possible to achieve and is a truly magnificent service. When I got into their n gauge models 20 years ago the models were also a level above any other n gauge although I think that other n gauge has caught up for the most part. I also became interested in German, Swiss, French and Scandinavian models at least partly as a result of travel, although it was also partly because British OO models of the 80's and early 90's were frankly embarrassingly bad when compared to what was expected of models for the German and Swiss market. When I first got into Japanese n gauge their n gauge models were several levels better than British outline OO in every way which isn't a very good reflection on the OO of the time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 I was interested enough already to build a Kitmaster Gr 835 0-6-0T* when the kit first appeared, but travelling to Italy to meet my future wife's parents introduced me to the Italian railways and then acquiring a second hand Rivarossi version of the same thing around 1975 for a fiver led to the start of a collection...... Later, living in Italy and seeing a Lima MZ DSB diesel in a shop, I just had to buy her and then of course she needed a train...... I've still to visit Denmark but hope to one day. * I actually saw one of these (or maybe the similar 830) shunting the harbour at Genoa in the late 70s - unfortunately no camera! Despite what was said in the heavily biased TV programme on the last days of steam, Britain was not the last major European country to eliminate steam traction, but the first. (For instance I do have (poor) photos of 141Rs in operation in the Loire valley in 1969. This is about the best/least bad.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldgunner Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Not an overseas modeller by any means, but seeing a Kreigslok and a Class 64 at the NVR, along with a trip to Hamburg and Miniatur Wunderland (I have family there) I've added a taste of Germany to my preserved layout (Greslington). My next trip will involve another jaunt to the little model shop in Wedel. Also 'spotted' ICE and ICE-3's at Hamburg Hbf, causing me to fall in love with them! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 I was interested enough already to build a Kitmaster Gr 835 0-6-0T* when the kit first appeared, but travelling to Italy to meet my future wife's parents introduced me to the Italian railways and then acquiring a second hand Rivarossi version of the same thing around 1975 for a fiver led to the start of a collection...... Later, living in Italy and seeing a Lima MZ DSB diesel in a shop, I just had to buy her and then of course she needed a train...... I've still to visit Denmark but hope to one day. * I actually saw one of these (or maybe the similar 830) shunting the harbour at Genoa in the late 70s - unfortunately no camera! Definitely an 835, of which FS still had 45 officially "on the books" as late as 1979, and they could be found shunting at many locations in the late 'seventies. The similar 830 and 851 locos had disappeared before this. If you're happy to repaint that MZ (I suspect not), then aren't necessarily restricted to Denmark - the class having been scattered to Norway, Sweden, Spain and even Australia (though the differences in body details and cab windows might restrict your options). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted August 16, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 16, 2012 As per the OP, Kriegsloks were part of a teenage folklore for me. There was an article about the DB in Trains Illustrated, some time in 1960, although I got it secondhand about a year later. It stated that the 52s were now virtually extinct in Western Germany - the plate frames being high maintenance - but implied they were still extant elsewhere. A love of the esoteric, the rare and the endangered seems to fit very well with our hobby. So once my travel facilities included the Continent, in 1967, off I toddled to Graz and snapped a few, including 52 8000. The pics were lousy, on a Brownie 127 in November, but I had mentally ticked that box. My first trip abroad, in August 1966, had been by road - 4 blokes in a Hillman Imp with full camping equipment - and we did reach Dubrovnik! En route I saw modern DB electrics in the Rhein valley, elderly DB electrics in Munich, signs of the Salzkammergut Lokalbahn in - you guessed it - the Salzkammergut (Austria for anyone who doesn't know) and some Jugoslav narrow gauge. On the way back, via Venice and Switzerland, we saw several Ae6/6s in Ticino and a DB 23 somewhere near the border with Luxembourg. All of this confirmed a liking for European models, and for some years I dabbled in German & Austrian HO. My liking for US HO came about not as a result of a visit, but a railway exhibition, or actually two in short succession in 1971 - the Capital Model Railroaders' layout, with big mallets and menacing early hood diesels really worked. Much of my present layout space is consumed with Rock Island and Rio Grande, therefore. The US On30 thing, which is present in the form of a number of structures and a few locos and stock, has yet to be formalised as a layout, but ideas based on Ophir, Colorado, for which I now have most of the structures half built, continue to develop. Lastly, France, which despite being the closest country in Continental Europe, and my having always lived in SE England, was probably about the 10th country that I actually visited! And we had lived here for 6 years before a visit to my local preserved line, the Transvap, introduced me to the SNCF Picasso railcar, of which I now have several in HO, as well as a few cousins. Again, structures are being built, and a small layout will emerge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin1985 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Rather strangely, my dad's love of Volvos led to many family holidays involving the old Harwich to Gothenburg ferry route, and weeks deep in the Swedish countryside! I completely fell in love with the country, and I think really came to become interested in Scandinavian railways as an "excuse" to model the scenery! The mention of AESA locomotives in Yugoslavia reminded me, there does seem to have been quite a strong relationship between SJ and the Yugoslav railways (and certainly the successor in Croatia). I've seen several SJ Y1 railcars, and even coaches still in blue\red livery, running around in Croatia with simple HR decals over the top (normally totally obliterated by graffiti, mind). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Hale Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 This is odd, after almost a lifetime spent modelling the Railways of Germany, I turned my back on a forty year obsession and decided to build a layout based on the line that I see from the conservatory. I still maintain my links with Germany, visit friends and administer the RoG Forum etc. but moving 'home' has completed the circle and I find the challenge to create the South West mainline to be very satisfying. Tim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 16, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 16, 2012 I have various items upstairs as a result of foreign trips. A White pass an Yukon train of a Bo Bo and 10 coaches after a visit on a cruise. And a deep love of the Union Pacific which results in 2 O gauge locos which occaisionally appeared on my British layout to the delight of younger spectators and the disgust of one of my operators. Sadly Cheyenne Shops in 7mm will never appear, i don't have a house big enough to contain the roundhouse, and Lancaster Green Ayre will never become Hermosa Wyoming but the thought is always there. I even researched availability of GE U8B's after a visit to El salvador but haven't actually bought one. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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