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  • 4 weeks later...

I have been interested in French Railways for a number of years as a result of being a member of the SNCF Society. I have obtained a few pieces of rolling stock and locomotives and have decided recently to jump in and convert an  00 docks layout (ex L&DMRC's Weyford on Sea layout) to HO. A recent article in the SNCF Journal on Dieppe Maritime has inspired me to try this as a basis for a stay at home layout..

Although members of the Liphook & District MRC are interested in a wide range of prototypes French Railways aren't one of them. So I'm on my own on this

I'll try and keep you posted with progress.

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I had similar "problems" with my model club when I was in the UK, but once the layout had been started, there were plenty of hands ready to help even though I did not manage to convert a single one of them from their NE fetishes.

 

Good luck with Dieppe Maritime, it really does look like an interesting project.

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I have been interested in French Railways for a number of years as a result of being a member of the SNCF Society. I have obtained a few pieces of rolling stock and locomotives and have decided recently to jump in and convert an  00 docks layout (ex L&DMRC's Weyford on Sea layout) to HO. A recent article in the SNCF Journal on Dieppe Maritime has inspired me to try this as a basis for a stay at home layout..

Although members of the Liphook & District MRC are interested in a wide range of prototypes French Railways aren't one of them. So I'm on my own on this

I'll try and keep you posted with progress.

I'm delighted you found my article on Dieppe Mme. a source of inspiration. If there's anything else you want to know about it please don't hesitate to PM or email me. The email address is in The Journal. 

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  • 2 years later...
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Should Have a TGV/LGV subforum  :)

Hello pboeast,

 

If you would like such a subforum (or any other subforum wihin other appropriate forums) the way to go about it is to send a PM to Andy Y - he's in charge of such matters around here. He'll look at whether there is a sufficient quantity of posts on the suggested subject.

 

Perhaps you could start a TGV/LGV thread, and see if that takes off. (I for one would be interested to learn what the forum members have to offer on this subject). Should such a thread generate sufficient length and 'offspring' threads, Andy would likely agree with you about a subforum. Until then, I'm ready to learn more about TGV and LGV in a new thread.

 

Dave

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  • 1 year later...

Well, I think this is the entrance? Hope it's not the exit... I'm Tony, in the states, and hate to say... been into HO on and off like most... since 1965... so please go easy on me. I still love - and  model, the wide stacked American wood burners, and the 1800's in general. My layout is 3 ovals in an 11 by 19 room, with return loops on the first and 3rd level, the mid level is rather dark and just a few scenes- that always looked more  'European' than American. Top level has an old 'Bridge on the River Kwai' and 2 or 3 wooden trestle kits to make one 3 feet long and 1 foot tall. A snow covered Canadian village... yeah, made with mostly European prototype buildings... but they are to remain as is. The lower level is double tracked and with a roundhouse/steam facility? And a passenger station made from halves of a lawn mower grass shoot of never used clear plastic- never will forget the glass covered sheds like York? In my rucksack travel days...agh... so with all that track and confusion- that level will probably be finished in and stay -French/UK/Euro scenes. Yes, I will admit, Bert Lancaster has A LOT do do with it, and being a 2nd war buff helps.. So I'd like to model France in the 1930's (+/-) BUT... the models I took home in excess luggage -30 odd years ago... are very dissappointilg now they are finally on the tracks... Hornby, Branchline... Jouef.... oooooh. Luckily, Rivarossi never disappoints in any model does it? But in my book, they were very limited in French/ Euro prototypes. So I am thinking of -re-powering- old shell on 'good running chassis?' the bad running old timers, and .... OK, North America had NMRA and Kadee couplers, and a very few others to worry about. seems every euro model maker had a better mouse trap- and what a bear to convert most! Is there an option to make this easier? And any tune up tricks for the Jouefs that stall on ANY set of points? Thanks for putting up with me, and thank you for any help in advance! Tony

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  • 2 weeks later...

Welcome Tony.

 

Stalling - add extra pick ups on the loco wheel and run wires back to the motor

 

Poor running - look at replacing the motor and mechanism - iProd is your friend here.  http://www.iprod-ho.com/

 

Thank you Andy. And I just checked out the site. I would need about 300 euros worth of motors, I am certain they will make the loco operate smoother- quieter? But, I think for now I will keep working on the pick ups.. I won a used 242tank on ebay, permenently coupled to a US prototype gondola, so he had 4 extra contacts, at a good distance - still runs as dismal as the same tank I have with only the drive axles.I am thinking the flanges are too deep for say Atlas or Piko switch point flange ways. So the tire loses contact?  And as I swap out original axles for Hornby spoked wheels on whatever car needs them, I am amazed some of these cars can take any maker's switch points. Electren's flanges don't even come close to the notches on an NMRA gauge! I take great pains to make the Hornby axles fit my cars, they certainly do the trick, and look impressive. So I am going to experiment with machining down the driver flanges, try some additional pick ups, THEN come up with some euros for what's left....   

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  • 11 months later...

Belle Époque Layout

 

I'm surprised there isn't more activity, nor anything very recent, around French railway modelling in general, not just on this thread.  I've just visited my friend Philip who has an O gauge layout featuring French rolling stock of the 1880s, '90s and early twentieth century.  Here are a couple of pictures, and the link to more is below:

 

fullsizeoutput_83f.jpeg.ec588a7a9234f0c959c0c646eabb5405.jpeg

 

 

fullsizeoutput_841.jpeg.a31af65d42ea85552004c683082b4167.jpeg

 

 

fullsizeoutput_844.jpeg.fa11e46445a1fbdf2d76c894fa8493fa.jpeg

 

More here:  https://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/index.php?/topic/354-the-dorking-garden-railway/&do=findComment&comment=19537

 

Edited by Dorkingian
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20 hours ago, Dorkingian said:

Belle Époque Layout

 

I'm surprised there isn't more activity, nor anything very recent, around French railway modelling in general, not just on this thread.  I've just visited my friend Philip who has an O gauge layout featuring French rolling stock of the 1880s, '90s and early twentieth century.  Here are a couple of pictures, and the link to more is below:

 

fullsizeoutput_83f.jpeg.ec588a7a9234f0c959c0c646eabb5405.jpeg

 

 

fullsizeoutput_841.jpeg.a31af65d42ea85552004c683082b4167.jpeg

 

 

fullsizeoutput_844.jpeg.fa11e46445a1fbdf2d76c894fa8493fa.jpeg

 

More here:  https://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/index.php?/topic/354-the-dorking-garden-railway/&do=findComment&comment=19537

 

Thanks for these Andrew . I've also looked through the images you linked to in the Garden Railway forum and Phillip's layout is a wonderful evocation of La Belle Epoque; It rather reminded me of Dennis Allenden's articles. The station platform shots are particularly atmospheric.

I assume the caption "The engines were a mixture of État and Paris-Orléans (the near 4-6-0 showing hints of British design influence)" was meant to be tongue in cheek as it is of course one of fifty locos built for the C.F. de l'Etat by the North British Locomotive Company in 1911-12  using Peter Drummond's Highland Railway "Castle" Class design. The P-O 230 (4-6-0) 1798 behind it was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in June 1900, one of a class of thirty locos that, built in Philadelphia, were naturally nicknamed "Chicagos" by the P-O cheminots .   I've a feeling that Denns Allenden built 0 scale models of both of them but I'll check.

Update

I was slightly mistaken. Dennis Allenden did build an 0 scale model of a Baldwin but it was one of eleven 220s (4-4-0s) six simple and five compound and very "wild west" in appearance, ordered from the Philadelphia company by the C.F. de l'Etat  in 1899 before it absorbed the larger but financially struggling CF de l'Ouest  in 1908 . 

 

Allenden did build a model of an Etat "Castle" but this was in H0 scale and based on a Lilliput P8 chassis. According to him these locos were identical to the Highland Railway's "Castle" class locos apart from a slightly widened cab, a slightly taller chimney, solid cab rails and a Westinghouse brake pump. In his article in the July 1975 Model Railways  he did though question why, at such a late date, the French railway would have ordered a simple, unsuperheated loco when superheating and compounding were in vogue in France and with a narrow firebox unsuited to the available coal. It is true that they had all been scrapped by 1938 which, by French standards before dieselisation, was a short life for a steam loco.

 

 

Edited by Pacific231G
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  • 4 months later...

Hi.

 

I'm also surprised by the lack of activity here.  Anyway, maybe that can change.

 

Whilst i have a substantial German collection, my interest in French rail started with acquiring a set of Rivarossi Fleche Dor coaches and then looking for a loco to suit able loco.  I then got a three car set of NORD coaches by LSModels.  Both are era II.

 

I have since expanded my 'French' collection with several blue CIWL carriages from LSModels and a handful of old France Trains PLM coaches.

 

R37, LSModels and REE are all producing PLM express coaches this year, for those that are interested.

 

REE are doing a range of locos in 2 and 3 rail variants.  Finding inexpensive Era II locos is the main challenge for me.

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  • 7 months later...

Some of you may have seen this, but a full report of President Macron's announcement on promoting the use of railways, made on 14 July, has just been made available in English (by Today's Railways - Europe, to whom all acknowledgements).

 

In summary, 

 

a) relaunch of overnight trains - little detail as yet

b) re-opening or safeguarding minor lines (little detail available on this - largely left to Regions and SNCF to propose)

c) relaunching rail freight - doubling of rail's market share by 2030

d) domestic air routes to be eliminated in favour of TGV routes - no timescale for this as yet

 

Additionally, he promised that the government would step in to help SNCF through the COVID crisis. Again, no detail on what this support means, but SNCF had already predicted an additional 4 billion euros loss due to this.

 

Jean Castex (the new PM) also announced the resurrection of the rolling highways (Autoroute Ferroviares) project, from Calais to Sete, and from Cherbourg to Bayonne. But these plans already existed and have just been delayed. But, more importantly, Castex also announced the waiving of track access charges for Freight for the rest of 2020, and that they would be halved for the whole of 2021. Castex is, luckily, a bit of a train nut, having written at least one book on the matter.

 

There are also plans to re-vamp Fret SNCF, with the appointment of a new chief.

 

Much more detail on all of this in the September issue of Today's Railways - Europe.

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This can only be a good thing for the French railfreight sector, which has been subject to 20-30 years of absolute sabotage by successive governments. A lot of local lines and services have also disappeared or been severely reduced since the spread of the TGV network in the 90s which has impacted and almost killed off some rural / semi-rural communities (our very own Beeching cuts).

 

A few lines have been rebuilt in the past couple of years such as Nantes - Châteaubriant which was completely dismantled in the 80s, but there needs to be more progress to reconnect towns and allow people to do away with city living, particularly in the current climate.

 

Regarding the lack of activity here, could it be that a number, although by no means all of us, are active on French sites and therefore don't necessarily see RMWeb as the first port of call for French modelling? This would reduce the already limited number of people who frequent these parts. It's certainly my case, I don't know about others.

 

I'm sure we can come up with some new content though. I might do a little thread on the 35-year old Jouef "biquette" ("billy goat", or in technical terms a BB 1-80) that used to belong to my grandfather and that I resurrected and converted to DCC last week.

IMG_20200829_203309781_HDR-01.jpeg.1379663698f83b57a200dbab3d6a71ea.jpeg

 

 

Edited by jivebunny
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On 30/08/2020 at 21:44, Mike Storey said:

Some of you may have seen this, but a full report of President Macron's announcement on promoting the use of railways, made on 14 July, has just been made available in English (by Today's Railways - Europe, to whom all acknowledgements).

 

In summary, 

 

a) relaunch of overnight trains - little detail as yet

b) re-opening or safeguarding minor lines (little detail available on this - largely left to Regions and SNCF to propose)

c) relaunching rail freight - doubling of rail's market share by 2030

d) domestic air routes to be eliminated in favour of TGV routes - no timescale for this as yet

 

Additionally, he promised that the government would step in to help SNCF through the COVID crisis. Again, no detail on what this support means, but SNCF had already predicted an additional 4 billion euros loss due to this.

 

Jean Castex (the new PM) also announced the resurrection of the rolling highways (Autoroute Ferroviares) project, from Calais to Sete, and from Cherbourg to Bayonne. But these plans already existed and have just been delayed. But, more importantly, Castex also announced the waiving of track access charges for Freight for the rest of 2020, and that they would be halved for the whole of 2021. Castex is, luckily, a bit of a train nut, having written at least one book on the matter.

 

There are also plans to re-vamp Fret SNCF, with the appointment of a new chief.

 

Much more detail on all of this in the September issue of Today's Railways - Europe.

 

Bullet point D is  bit of non-news. Nearly all domestic air routes have already disappeared due to TGV.

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6 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

Bullet point D is  bit of non-news. Nearly all domestic air routes have already disappeared due to TGV.

 

Not sure about that... Even despite the current drop in demand due to Covid-19 there are still 28 flights a day between Marseille and Paris, 12 between Bordeaux and Paris, 8 between Nantes and Paris, and that's before you look at flights between cities that are both on the TGV network but require a change of trains.

It's particularly irritating from an ecological point of view when you consider that Charles de Gaulle airport has its own TGV station that can be served by trains from all four corners of the country to get you straight to your international flight...

 

Alan

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11 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

Interesting. That looks to me as though air routes have revived a bit since early TGV days.

 

Yes, I think the advent of low-cost air travel will have had something to do with increasing the popularity of planes vs trains, even though these flights tend to be operated by state / national airlines rather than EasyJet and the likes. Certainly in the early / mid 90s it was considered a bit daft to take the plane on a route where the train was an option, with internal flights setting you back 2000 francs one-way (about £200 back then, which is about £400 in 2020 terms...)

 

Alan

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Bonjour,

 

Can I join in? I'm about 2 miles from the Ligne 4 classique, that has about 4/5 daily trains between Belfort and Paris (or as they say round these parts, la ligne Paris - trou d'Bâle). We have a local station about 5 miles in Jussey. The station has been recently refurbished - new roof, new clock - joy! Hélas, no stopping trains whatsoever and none since late the 60s. I am of the view that there is a need for a return of local stopping trains to encourage the use of the wider SNCF system simply because once you're in your car to undertake a 20/30 mile trip to one of two 'local' stations, you may as well head on to the motorway and continue your journey.

 

There doesn't seem to be quite the same fervour here, as there is in the UK, regarding the maintaining of existing lines and the re-opening of others - why is that? Lack of competition because of a nationalised rail service? Too much 'love' of one's car (though the motorways are bl**dy expensive - €120 tolls from here to Pornic return)? Trains not at convenient times (we lost our 10am up train to Paris a couple of years ago)? Too much money and investment put into the TGV network to the detriment of the classique and local lines?

 

My thoughts, messieurs.

 

BTW, nice layouts shown above - unfortunately I'm mainly GWR/BR(W) and UK modern, despite having a ton of continental stock inherited from my father - oops.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip (or should that be Philippe :)?)

 

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Re airline competition for TGVs, some observations.

 

I use (better said used) Lyon St Exupery airport on a regular basis commuting from Germany each weekend.  Some flights (Lufthansa and some Air France) were direct, others (exclusively Air France) were via Paris CDG.  In some cases the second leg from Paris to Lyon (the city, not the airport) was by TGV.  There was little difference in the point to point timings.   The switch to rail indicated to me that the Paris - Lyon flight was full.

 

Lyon was I think the second major hub in France.  A whole series of flights would arrive from around Europe and internally within France during about 45 minutes to one hour and then an hour or so later would fly back from whence they came.  Then 2-3 hours of relative calm.  Then start over again.  Many on my Germany flight were flying on to Toulouse ( Aerospatiale workers).  There were many short haul hops and they seemed very well patronised.  

 

One of the points made to promote St Exupery in their advertising was its excellent high speed train links to Marseille, Paris, Milan....  Did it not occur to the marketing man that this was an airport and all of those destinations were served by flights?

 

The major drawback of St Exupery was that it was exclusively TGV, high speed served.  Those arriving as opposed to transiting predominantly wanted to get onto the local train network - which was an expensive half hour tram ride away.  

 

The relative timings door to door are interesting,

 

Flying - 7hr 30 best time when connecting to  TGV at Lyon airport for the final rail leg.

Rail - 8hr 30 Thalys and TGV with sometimes a need to cross Paris from G d Nord to G d Lyon, then local train.

Drive - 8hr - except during the worst of holiday periods.

 

Relative costs (for the main stretch)

Flying - 99€ return which rose to 125€ with passenger flight taxes

Driving - three tanks of fuel two being taken in Luxembourg at a substantial discount €150 plus wear and tear on the car.

TGV - 250€ plus.  

 

That I think tells you why flying is (was until C 19) so popular.

 

 

 

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On 03/09/2020 at 23:38, Andy Hayter said:

Re airline competition for TGVs, some observations.

 

I use (better said used) Lyon St Exupery airport on a regular basis commuting from Germany each weekend.  Some flights (Lufthansa and some Air France) were direct, others (exclusively Air France) were via Paris CDG.  In some cases the second leg from Paris to Lyon (the city, not the airport) was by TGV.  There was little difference in the point to point timings.   The switch to rail indicated to me that the Paris - Lyon flight was full.

 

Lyon was I think the second major hub in France.  A whole series of flights would arrive from around Europe and internally within France during about 45 minutes to one hour and then an hour or so later would fly back from whence they came.  Then 2-3 hours of relative calm.  Then start over again.  Many on my Germany flight were flying on to Toulouse ( Aerospatiale workers).  There were many short haul hops and they seemed very well patronised.  

 

One of the points made to promote St Exupery in their advertising was its excellent high speed train links to Marseille, Paris, Milan....  Did it not occur to the marketing man that this was an airport and all of those destinations were served by flights?

 

The major drawback of St Exupery was that it was exclusively TGV, high speed served.  Those arriving as opposed to transiting predominantly wanted to get onto the local train network - which was an expensive half hour tram ride away.  

 

The relative timings door to door are interesting,

 

Flying - 7hr 30 best time when connecting to  TGV at Lyon airport for the final rail leg.

Rail - 8hr 30 Thalys and TGV with sometimes a need to cross Paris from G d Nord to G d Lyon, then local train.

Drive - 8hr - except during the worst of holiday periods.

 

Relative costs (for the main stretch)

Flying - 99€ return which rose to 125€ with passenger flight taxes

Driving - three tanks of fuel two being taken in Luxembourg at a substantial discount €150 plus wear and tear on the car.

TGV - 250€ plus.  

 

That I think tells you why flying is (was until C 19) so popular.

 

 

 

 

I think those comparative costs will have changed somewhat since the advent of the widespread OuiGo system? Of the 10 daily TGV journeys to Paris from my local station, 6 are now OuiGo only. (There used to be only 7 daily, direct trains before OuiGo started - there was, before Covid, likely to be an 11th).

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Ouigo (which was not a viable option when I was travelling) is brilliant for single trips, but not if you are making connections, so the answer is to build in a substantial safety margin for the connection, which makes the train the slowest option and for a weekend away/at home untenable.  In my case it would not have reduced the Thalys component of the costs either.  

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