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Where to Start?


Sulzer

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Hi,

 

After a recent holiday to South France I have become interested in railways in France and I'm keen on learning as much as possible about the subject! I want to add some HO SNCF diesel and electric models to my collection but the problem is that everything is VERY expensive compared to British models and I'm 14 and don't have much money...

 

So how do I start? I have a low budget and I'm looking for anything up to maybe £60 or £70 at the most to start my collection.

 

Thanks in advance,

Calum.

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Hi Calum,

 

I'm afraid that's the nature of the gauge, it's even massively expensive in France, although you can still bag yourself a bargain.

 

Ebay is a chance for a bargain on stock, and keep an eye out at exhibitions.

 

I don't know if your in the area for it, but drop into Gaugemaster (Ford, West Sussex) and have a look around, guys in their are helpful and happy to help.

 

Lastly, and this is just an observation, Roco, Piko & Jouef make alot of French stock, however, Jouef have a 'Junior' line, which i think is similar to Hornby's 'Railroad' line. (Jouef is Hornby International)

 

Hope that gives you some insight.

 

Sam

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It's a nice little model (one of the better ones in the old Jouef range)- the prototypes went out of main-line service in the 1970s/early 1980s, though some were sold on. I recollect RATP (who operate metro and rail services in and around Paris) had several. I think that, during their SNCF days, they were mainly used around Normandy- a search on Google for "SNCF Locomoteur C61000" might throw up more details.

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It depends if you want to have running engines or static locos. I know that there is a magazine/model series that has been released in France for HO gauge featuring Michellin Railcars. The first was a Picasso and it was sold for about €10. Therefore if you look on www.ebay.fr you might get lucky and get one of those there for a good price.

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I've picked up a number of items on E-Bay pretty cheap but warning if you want to get stuff be prepared to spend a lot of time watching your items as bidding can become frantic. It's suprising how much intrest there is for SNCF stuff. I've managed to pick up a number of locos for the £40 region, coaching stock is a bit harder. Try http://www.goofbay.com/ and set up the E-Bay Sniper, you enter your E-Bay item number you want to get and you can set a bid to be placed right at the death, if you've an idea for prices then give it a go sometimes you win sometimes you lose (I've been after an original Thalys set for ages!)

 

Also check out the web constantly for bargains, Gaugemaster, also the hobby Shop at Faversham http://www.hobb-e-mail.com/. Also going back to E-Bay try www.ebay.fr this is the french portal and has a lot of stuff although you will need to check if the seller posts.

 

Only problem I have is the langauge, fortunately Google has a translation app :-)

 

Also check out http://romilly-trains.over-blog.com/ good inspiration.

 

Enjoy your new hobby, I'm pretty new to it all and am in the planning stage still for my layout (construction on hold till I move), once you start amassing your stock like me you'll be hit with your next problem.....

 

 

mmmm how do I construct Midi style overheads?

 

I digress, don't give up!!

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  • RMweb Gold

Unfortunately I live at the other end on the UK (Scotland) from Gaugemaster, but I had a look on their website and found this: http://www.gaugemast...4345/HJ2216.jpg

 

It's junior line like you said and seems pretty reasonably priced at £33.50 and doesn't look too bad either. Is it worth buying?

That looks like a good price to me. Here is a leading French box-shifter's offer, which seems a bit more when the £ is at 1.26 euros. http://www.jura-modelisme.fr/locomotives/locotracteur-diesel-c61041-livree-vert-a-bandes-jaunes.html
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  • RMweb Gold

Unfortunately I live at the other end on the UK (Scotland) from Gaugemaster, but I had a look on their website and found this: http://www.gaugemast...4345/HJ2216.jpg

 

It's junior line like you said and seems pretty reasonably priced at £33.50 and doesn't look too bad either. Is it worth buying?

 

It's been a very long time since C61000 was on SNCF. RATP (Paris RER Line A) had a few until more recently but I think all now gone.

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  • RMweb Gold

Unfortunately I live at the other end on the UK (Scotland) from Gaugemaster, but I had a look on their website and found this: http://www.gaugemast...4345/HJ2216.jpg

 

It's junior line like you said and seems pretty reasonably priced at £33.50 and doesn't look too bad either. Is it worth buying?

 

It's been a very long time since C61000 was on SNCF. RATP (Paris RER Line A) had a few until more recently but I think all now gone.

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  • RMweb Gold

Calum, Consider joining the SNCF Society. Quite a few members in Scotland who could give you help and advice.

 

By way of diesel shunters, a better option would probably be the Roco Y8400. It is a more modern loco and has been available over the years as part of a cheap starter set. Good runner with compensated chassis and diecast body. If you want a slightly bigger shunter, the BB63000 by Roco is also a good option.

 

There are various versions of the BB67400 diesel locomotive. More recent productions mean that you can pick up the old Jouef ones quite cheaply and it is not that bad a model.

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  • RMweb Gold

 

mmmm how do I construct Midi style overheads?

 

 

Probably the most difficult modelling task known to mankind!

 

On double-track, you will need to lay tracks to scale centres or the proportions of the gantries ("ogives") will look all wrong. But that means no sharp curves.

 

Single-track is slightly easier but even so curves can not be too tight.

 

But that is nothing to the wires themselves. People often say that catenary is a succession of straight lines between each post/gantry (with zig-zag on the straights). Not on the Midi it isn't. They managed to have catenary which is curved. Calculating the correct tensions to do that in HO would be a real achievement and probably needs fully operational counterbalance weights etc.

 

Main lines have mostly been upgraded with standard 1.5kV kit. For that you could use JV (wires a bit thick) or ScaleLnk.

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