sncf231e

The France Trains brand was founded in 1967 by Mr. Albert Millet, an enthusiast of everything related to rail. Its objective was to provide enthusiasts with a whole range of French passenger cars covering a wide period and representing the golden age of the great expresses. I have a number of France Trains carriages and present them in a video: Regards Fred

Picture of the Märklin Flying Scotsman from the IMA fair in Dortmund: Regards Fred

I received a new (old) Elettren tinplate car and looked to see if it could run with a JEP NORD Pacific. I think it's a good combination. The video also shows part of the amazing interior of Elettren cars. Regards Fred

Before the channel tunnel between France and England was opened there was only one passenger train that travelled between France and England: the Night Ferry or in French Le Ferry Boat de Nuit. This Wagons-Lits train ran every night from London to Dover were the sleeping cars, with (sleeping) passengers were transferred to a ferry sailing to Dunkerque. In Dunkerque the sleeping cars were fetched from this ferry and ran in a train to Paris. Of course every night there was also a train in the other direction. In October 1936, almost 90 years ago, the Night Ferry had its first run between London and Paris; its last run was in October 1980. The history of the Night Ferry and the rolling stock used in this train is subject of the book Night Ferry by George Behrend and Gary Buchanan (ISBN 0 901845 13 2). The 25 Night Ferry sleeping cars, which were able to run in France as well as England, were specially built for the Night Ferry in two batches and owned and operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et Grands Express Européens or CIWL. They had the numbers 3788 to 3805 and 3983 to 3989. Correct models of these cars, which were assigned the CIWL Type F, should of course wear one of these numbers. The original cars were much smaller than other CIWL cars since they were made to the English clearance gauge. Of course models of these cars could be sold in Britain as well as the continent, however the scale difference, especially 00 versus H0, makes this again difficult. The English kit manufacturer Westdale made a kit of the type F sleeping car in 0 Gauge with a scale of 1:43.5. I have four of these with different numbers which make up a reasonable length Night Ferry train at the correct scale to be pulled by French or English locomotives. Regards Fred

On the facebook pages "Collecting Toy Trains - Train Collectors Society" someone came with the answer: it is 3-rail track from the Belgian manufacturer ELEC. I looked in the ELEC catalogue and it indeed looks like ELEC track. I have an ELEC train set, but that was only the train, no track. So I ran it on Hornby Dublo rails: ELEC only made trains for a couple of years around 1946. Only one catalogue is known. Before they made/used this metal track they made track with a wooden base on which the three rails were isolated. The forward and reverse was then done by powering either the left or right running rail and the central rail. Regards Fred

Today the tulips were red: Regards Fred

I asked the maker of the https://spur00.de/ website (the most knowledgeable person on H0/00 from around the world) and he does not recognise it, but will dig into his archive. Regards Fred

The Japanese company Doyusha made copies of Lone-Star models in plastic, a.o. a Princess. Regards Fred

I assume you mean JEP; with JEP postwar metal based H0/00 gauge rail the middle rail connectors are not assymetrical like in the picture at start of the thread. And the JEP Mignon rails of the twenties are also different:Regards Fred

I do not recognise it. Note that there were many manufacturers of 3-rail H0/00 gauge trains with tinplate rails (not just Märklin and Dublo), see here: https://spur00.de/ Regards Fred

Darstaed made in the eighties a range of coaches in the style of pre-war Märklin 0 gauge. Here is a train of the CIWL Darstaed coaches with French tinplate locomotives running in the garden: Regards Fred

Buy Märklin, not Hornby, and your heirs will be happy. Regards Fred

The NYC Hudson: Regards Fred

Yesterday BR, today an LMS double heading: Regards Fred

My brake van does not have opening doors: Regards Fred

Regards Fred

Using two video cameras, a fixed and an handheld, I captured the competition between a BING and a Märklin 0-4-0 Tinplate Clockwork locomotive. Guess who is the winner 😉 Regards Fred

I wonder whether my brothers and me have ever been happier then with our Märklin H0/00 clockwork train: Regards Fred

Here is another video of the Gr. 691, this time with the Italian version of the baggage car: Regards Fred

Count Antonio Giansanti Coluzzi, the founder of the Swiss model train company and importer Fulgurex, was a great lover of the CIWL. When he started to represent the Italian train maker Elettren in the late forties/ early fifties, he asked them to make a series of tinplate CIWL cars. They made a Pullman car, restaurant car and a sleeping car and for the baggage car they made a repainted version of their Italian version of their baggage car in CIWL livery. I had all but this baggage car, which I found recently. So now I can run a correct CIWL tinplate-style train in the garden pulled by an Elettren Italian Pacific locomotive. Regards Fred

These were not as special as the NORD version; until WW2 6-wheel flat cars were used and after WW2 4-wheel cars. I just forgot about these cars when making this video. Regards Fred

The Bavarian S3/6 never pulled the Rheingold; when the Rheingold was pulled by an "S3/6 type" this was already a Deutsche Reichsbahn Baureihe 18. My Rheingold train is also not correct (but because beautiful). Regards Fred

I had a smaller one and found this week a larger version; so I played trains on the floor : Regards Fred

I was lucky, in both cases no serious unreparable damage was done 🙂. Regards Fred

And clockwork trains should not be run too fast: Regards Fred