TTDB

I just caught the local and a nice 101 heading north with a full rake of OBB Eurofimas

Hi all we all enjoy the Plattling cam but on patrolling the web today found an new YouTube cam started streaming 12 days ago, search for “Livecam Mittelrheintal” for a live trackside stream

Over the next coming weeks I’m actually going to make a start on my HO layout, I’ve a loft room roughly 12x11.5ft for my use, I was originally a modeller of German TT (hence my name here) but during covid furlough I disposed of this collection and together with an eyesight problem that doesn’t help N or TT I have been gradually building up a collection of DBAG, OBB and a trickle of SBB HO. My time period is roughly 1997-2010 , I do have a couple of more modern trains but most are from the above period, I’m not a real fan of the newer low floor units so I prefer my SBB NPZ to a flirt and have a DBAG 420 rather than a 425. The location of the layout is south western Bavaria , this gives me a good reason to operate OBB and SBB with OBB operating through the area like they do on the Kufstein-Salzburg line ie as a bridge between two parts of Austria via Germany. I will be playing on anyrail for the next few days see what I come up with, I did find a nice storage yard track plan that I’m going to use on one of the 12ft walls as seen here - This gives me far than enough storage for the trains that I have, most of my passenger trains are about 7ft long (6 303mm and and a loco) and I try and keep my freights the same length. As the layout is a tail chaser basically to operate my collection in fixed takes there’s very little shunting , at the moment the only shunting area proposed is a Bohnhorst agricultural grain silo that is rail served, over the next few weeks I will up date about the layout and some stock acquisitions, I have found a couple of superb YouTube channels that have given me some inspiration for the layout.

I had the pleasure of working in Japan for 6 months several years ago, being an avid model railwaymen most weekends I would take a trip for a look around model shops , at the time Japanese didn’t discount the prices or even have sales so once you’d been to one shop with vast stocks of TOMIX and KATO you’d seen them all,,,,apart from the specialist shops like IMON and Tenshodo, now at Tenshodo you could buy a brass train on one floor for anything £1000+ and a handmade watch on another floor for a similar price,,,however lf your tipple was one of the many EMUs in operation there you’d be looking anything from £1000-£4000 ok hand built and fine details but the mechanisms were very basic compared to US and European plastic ready to run.

Don’t forget HAG too in Switzerland the Rolex of trains lol

I agree I don’t understand the following it has,,,,maybe a brand magazine will be next like Hornby magazine ! My 5yr old has a full sound (station announcements,whistle and horn) Marklin Lint in HO I know they were known for shortening trains but this beggars belief and its go the axles of a Ferkel Taxe ,,,,joking aside it’s a superb way to get him next stage into model railways

I know of brand loyalty in the states it’s very common recently most are either genesis or scaletrains , I mix and match all of my standard Regio coaches are Brawa but I do have brawa and Roco control cab cars (as said I will do a comparison tonight) and various coaches from various makers but as you say “my” brand loyalty with my locos is 99% Roco I have one PIKO BR180 and a Jagerndorfer OBB 1163.

Hi all. Watched the Roco YouTube content last night for the 2022 announcements, I see they have announced another OBB 1044 , I already have five all Roco I was tempted by the PIKO model but don’t need another , it looks like a new model but what baffles me is why spend the money on tooling when PIKO have recently released the same model, the same goes for the wittenberger cab car we wait years for one to arrive then we get Brawa, Roco, ESU and PIKO all with a couple of years of each other , I do have a brawa and a Roco and may do a comparison on here, there seems very little left to model that could justify sales to cover production outlay in Western Europe, and I can see (as PIKO have done) more models of Eastern European models coming out,

Many thanks I have sent an email to one of the suppliers asking what he could suggest for the 420 to “AG” the model, he said it depends on region and era ,,,,will have another look ,

As I’m sure youd aware I’m very impressed with the “graded” B-Models container cars, my only problem was a missing buffer on the box and they are send me a replacement all other bits that had become loose or dislodged brake wheels etc were floating around the box and have been re applied with the help of some rocket glue, I was that impressed I’ve just taken delivery of another 2 wagons and another single item with some B-Models RILS covered wagons are on the way, (see another RM Web buying from Europe thread I order in batches below £135 for a reason) Here are the next 2 delivered today also delivered were some more containers including a 26ft tanktainer , I particularly like the reefer very pleased with the price of this . This will is give me a total of 5 of the cars , I’ve got one of the ESU intermodal son order to complete a rake of 6

The are from truck.mo under the AWM label they are very reasonably priced https://www.truckmo.com/awm/container/ the pins on the wagon and the holes in the actual containers don’t line up 100% mostly on the 20ft container , the 40ft are no problem at all. I will make the holes slightly larger on the base so they fit,

My containers have arrived today , just a quick glance and placement to see how they fit, not the best fit unfortunately but some fine tweaking at a later date and I’m sure they will look good, my b-models come with a small bag of “bits” but alas no fitment guide, also found a buffer missing on one of the wagons, I have some old Roco pieces I can maybe fit or get a friend to print me one off ,,,, the photos below are just a quick placement to see how they look, and fit my one photo shows the gap between the tanktainer frame and wagon top.I taken the plunge and ordered another pair of these flats and another 6 various containers

Thanks you have certainly clarified that exceptional price and the box meaning, easy simple repairs I’ve just ordered another pair that’s my lot then and some different containers from truck.mo , as long as the parts are in the box that’s all I worry about, I did wonder what 2nd choice meant but as you say for £43 can’t complain better than £90 for a single KonbiModelle , I think the containers will be here tomorrow will add them and take some better photos , incidentally the b-models do come with a bag of additional parts to add to the models too.

My B-Mosels Sggmrss 90 have arrived , nice details and the packing from Van Bliervet is second to none a lot of quality foam that can be used in layout construction ,,thr models are of a high quality metal with excellent printing my own concern is a number of details (that can be fixed rather than post back to Belgium) have come loose of the wagon, this does include a snapped buffer and some rocket glue will resolve that all this with as mentioned the excellent postal packing (maybe from previous problems?) I do shiver to think how they would have been if just wrapped in bubble wrap, hopefully my container loads should be here tomorrow

Thanks for these photos I’m bidding on one at the moment to work with my OBB domestic coaches, there were some Lima models available at a reasonable price but always the thought of spare parts .

Thanks for the information, interesting as it seems many Eastern European manufacturers have yet to migrate production to China , I know some of the smaller German resin manufacturers are getting things cast in Ukraine

Thanks John I’ve been to Arcadia a couple of times very nice staff there , I keep thinking a drive to Frizinghall too one day, I got a few of the Roco HUPAC well cars just last week from ContiKits will look at a few more in couple of weeks I’d like a rake of 12 , the price of the in loaded wagon from B-Models shop isn’t that bad at €49 then I get my containers from truck.mo the cheapest I have seen in the AWM range, I think IGRA may have made a mistake by using plastic where everyone else has gone the metal way, not sure about the Mehano I remember when they were new must be 20yr ago now don’t know if they are in the present range lots have disappeared like the Belgian locos and the type 41 DMU

Thanks for the reply and the information about the IGRA models, I will wait and see what the B-Models are like and maybe order 2 more sets if pleased with them, I’ve pre ordered one of the ESU sets from Lippe, thr IGRA product where is it made China or Eastern Europe? I do like the look of the KombiModels but I’ve seen them on eBay for £90 for a single wagon and can’t justify paying that much and I can’t find a retailer who stocks them. The Rocky Rail look nice but again all seems quiet on their products I know Paul at Rocky Rail personally but haven’t spoken to him for a while,

Hi all, started to dabble in my HO again I’m modelling mostly DBAG and OBB but I’ve one Swiss loco Roco rail pool 186 (73653) I normally set me upcoming layout in 200-2010 period so this will be an exception, I’ve orders some container flats the only ones I could find unloaded from B-Models and a few containers to go on them, I’d rather choose my own than the many that are offered loaded. The last time I dabbled in HO and again I was building up an intermodal train ADE had just introduced some unloaded intermodal cars and Kombimodel were just starting their business , on a look about the web both seem to be pretty scarce now , kombimodel have a decent web page but are they still in business? I know the models were expensive but highly detailed , the ADE were reasonably priced for what you had but apart from a couple of second hand items not to be seen, am I correct in thinking that there is the one casting shared by several marketing names like the Hero’s, Railtop set up as there seems lots of duplicates ? thanks

Very true after all nothing operational apart from DCC has really changed in 35 years, and the Czech border is now history and interesting history I remember the Czech was is T679 loco being used? Likewise CM are any of the layouts they have featured say 30 years ago still about? Brian Harraps ZOB comes to mind with his Bo-Bo-Bo variant of the OBB 1044 ,

I’ve sweet CM for sale in a US shop once and in Jocadis in Belgium , when ever I go abroad I try and buy a domestic model rail magazine and besides MIBA I must say none are on par with CM but then again the magazine that I may buy on the Ramblas will be 98% RENFE as a MIBA is mostly DB/R where as CM is worldwide , I agree they can only publish content that they receive , one name sticks in my mind is Len Weal the photographer, Model Rail did a European supplement a few years ago with a nice Italian coast layout modern image , I wrote a couple of articles for a magazine Modern Railway Modelling about 14 years ago one was about my 1/80 Japanese HO and the other about GM locos in Europe I had written a third and the publishers pulled the plug, Nigel Burkin now does Rail Express modelling section,

Many thanks the only item that’s will need doing is my Roco 420 S-Bahn unit I will have a look as see what’s about

Not quite sure think he did, the one I’ve found has a very interesting article on a DB/CSD border station there was also Auchaux think this was Andy Hart of the SNCF society layout , it was nice to have a European magazine I like models from all over the world but Europe is my main interest CM sometimes has a large US presence , but on the other hand I did think it was Rhb fan club magazine once!

When I was a student nearly 40 years ago I had a Saturday and summer job in one of the UKs leading HO stockist namely Just Continental, at the time our biggest competition in retail mostly for Roco was Howes and Victors, all three have now gone from the high st (are howes still trading?) this was at a time before the single market and most UK Continental modellers sourced from the UK I can’t remember who was importing Roco at the time it may have been part of Beatties empire but we used to get ours from a German outlet, This is at a time when a Roco loco was £29 , we sourced very little from the uk importers , there was paperwork involved but we often had products before the UK importer.

Rummaging through some boxes the other day came across some 34yr old Euro Model Rail Revue magazines made some interesting reading , Roco had just introduced the first 1/87 303mm coaches and some excellent layouts and photos, pity it didn’t last perhaps quarterly may have been better, anyone else remember this publication?