britishcolumbian

Thanks for that info, it gives me some leads to follow up on - I know very little about French railways beyond the superficial, and that Kandó Kálmán designed an electric locomotive for PO (which I'd love to build a model of one day...). They really are a pretty locomotive... but express trains might not be all that suited for a vignette-type layout - but just putting together (i.e. building) an accurate train for the locomotive to pull at club meetings/shows might be a worthwhile way to showcase what is actually quite a beautiful model, too. Here's a pic of it just after I got it (just before putting everything in storage before coming to Ghana), in front of the four SNCF wine barrel wagons I have, they're old BTTB stock. Which don't really fit other than that they're also French...

Right, I forgot about that... forgot that the Railjet and GySEV locomotives are multisystem. They do work all over Hungary as Floyd is based in Hungary, don't know if they go over into Slovakia, Romania, or Serbia, though. The Bulgarian ones are, I believe, an entirely different company than Floyd, and they don't come up to Hungary, but I don't know anything about their operations.

I have an État 230 (230-976, ex DRG BR38.2) from Beckmann in 1:120, and got to thinking about it... can anyone shed light on where these operated, and what they did? There's no guarantee I'll do anything, but got to thinking perhaps I can do a French module/vignette suitable for it...

Yeah, if one's willing to repaint and such, there's plenty more that's doable - I have Israel, Cuba, and Korea on my "maybe one day" lists. Cuba could get you a very interesting mix, use a Roco M62 and a resin kit of an Alco FA for your mainline power, an ex-DR railbus, the 1937 AAR standard steel boxcar and other NA kits for your passenger and freight stock. Turkey could be another interesting possibility, same with Lebanon and possibly Syria... if I'm not wrong, Turkey did receive a variety of British steam locomotives, which were run alongside German types, too. The Nohab is definitely not a new tooling, and one that I think it's safe to say literally everyone involved in Hungarian TT owns or has owned at one point or another, but I think it (and the V36) have been tweaked a bit over the years. So still a serviceable model I think, something one could do something Lux or Danish with, for sure. Especially Lux, since there has been a bunch of RTR goods stock released, and could repaint DB Silberlinge for CFL...

Also locomotive reliveries - I have one (Beckmann ex BR38 in État livery), and the V36 in SNCF livery that's been released off and on since BTTB days. There was also a Michelin railcar as a resin body or as a built-up kit, in the late 90s or early 00s, but I suspect the total production of that was in the tens, not the hundreds. There's also been a smattering of Belgian, Luxembourgish, Danish, and Swedish equipment over the years, mostly as livery variants of NOHAB diesels and various passenger and freight stock. A few Italian livery variants, and an E444 (I think) as an etched brass kit...

Well, the Hungarian market is big enough for it to be worthwhile for MTB to tool up a locomotive type that, with the exception of ten units sold to Greece, were used only in Hungary (and occasionally running across the border to Slovakia and Romania). I suspect if MTB were to tool up an 86, they'd be expecting the bulk of the sales in Hungary (and maybe Austria, as Floyd has/had running rights there too), with any UK sales as the cherry on top. Class 59 ran in Germany - could also be a possibility. Not sure about the 56 being too likely, there were only 2 or 3 that went to Hungary. I think probably the 86 is the most likely.

I still have to wonder if that was conceived around acquiring what work Mehano had begun on a 1:120 scale Class 66...

On this - specifically UK RTR brand - you may very well be right. But it's insular thinking: you're ignoring Continental manufacturers, some of whom may see the failure of other UK brands to get involved as an opportunity to expand into a new market for themselves.

Well, I think we can't know yet either way how Hornby will react, as there hasn't been anyone of significant size declare their intention to enter the fray since Hornby came in. I agree with you about the utility of multiple suppliers without duplication, though. And a Merchant Navy is fairly high on my own wishlist...

If Hornby follow Tillig's model, then if a small company starts getting too much of a threat, they'll buy them up and just add their product to the range. Quite a few of Tillig's range were acquired this way - the DB 218, the DR V60, the E18 electric, several steam locomotives, a number of goods wagons... at the same time, though, there are/were quite a few other companies that didn't sell themselves to Tillig like that (I'm thinking mostly Beckmann and PMT as big enough to be a threat, but never sold out, whether out of conviction, or because they felt financially stable enough to say no, I don't know). I think it all depends on how territorial Hornby want to get with the scale.

I more or less agree with you, though may be sooner than 2027, if the scenario involves a British type in use on the Continent, since there's a market for the model to begin with; the Hungarian market, for example, is big enough to produce for, but small enough that when something is produced, it sells out fairly quickly, as many people will buy something just for being Hungarian. Something that's UK only? Yeah, definitely on the later side, than the sooner.

I've been saying this re MTB for a while. They're the company that seems to be most willing to tackle new markets - they were the first to produce a Romanian locomotive, now more recently have released a locomotive 99% exclusive to Hungary (M41, there were maybe a dozen exported to Greece, hardly a model railway hotbed), and of course they produced the first RTR locomotives of North American outline in TT in over 50 years. With MTB's focus on central Europe - Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary - the British market is a natural to get into on the side, given there are several British locomotive classes operating in those countries with private/open-access railway companies. I wouldn't in the least be surprised if the first British outline electric locomotive in TT will come from MTB.

Exactly. Tillig even managed to coerce Roco - a giant of the industry - to give up on the scale for a while. It wasn't until the duo of Kuehn and Piko came on scene very determined to break Tillig's effective monopoly, that the situation finally changed. But Tillig do still see TT as their scale, so I still think that sooner or later we will see them jumping into the British pool.

Thanks for sharing those. I have to say, it looks pretty much the same now as it did when I first visited in 1999...

In TT there are almost only German (and now British) steam available RTR (plus German designs on other railways) - aside from the old HP models from the early days of TT which were US, and one Russian design (Class Ye, I think?) which was done by (IIRC) Peresvet. Aside from those suitable for my YPM plans, I'm rather hoping that in the fullness of time we'll see models of British types that showed up on the Continent, too...

I love this train and I have nebulous plans to one day build it in TT, along with a DeRoI electric of Sentetsu... more likely than those, though (though not *immensely* likely), a small Sentetsu steam locomotive or two for a small shunting layout... or I may go narrow gauge, there were a lot of intriguing narrow-gauge operations in Korea before 1945, particularly around Haeju there was a very extensive network belonging to the Chosen Railway...

Noooo Canada is not America. North America yes, "America" no... don't call a Canadian "American", the polite façade will fall away and the hockey player is liable to come out...

PMT have a couple of things that are of interest to me for another project (namely the Hungarian Eas cars), didn't know about their powered bogies, though. It'd be good to get more precise dimensions of them to figure out what those HOm units might fit under, maybe some of those might work for some other bodies that Lincoln Loco offer...

I got it in a sense as an "inheritance", when one of the members of our local TT group passed away, and his trains were left to us to divide amongst the membership. I chose the VT135 specifically for conversion to an AC Railbus.

I've only been here since October, and going home end of July. I don't think many people here at all have heard of model railways in general...

Thanks for that! It'll be several months yet before I can reach out to him, as I'm in Ghana until the end of July, and then once back home will need to actually find where it's stored (all my non-TT stuff is packed away... somewheres).

Perhaps seeing that others are doing something Bosnian, I may end up digging out my nearly-finished kitbash of a Fleischmann ÖBB 1043 into a ŽRS 441-700... just needs painting and decals. Its been sitting in this state for... about 15 years now. It was the decals that kept me from finishing, since I had no way back then to get them made. Still don't know how to draw them up, but there are more such services available now than back then.

No, you're definitely right... but it's better than nothing... there is a good amount of stock for eras 4 through 6... but a dearth of power. There's the Beckmann État steamer I have... a V36 good for post-ww2 period... and a TRAXX in silver and green era VI... but now Tillig seem to have an 040TX, so a second post-war engine: https://www.tillig.com/eng/Produkte/produktinfo-72014.html But your point is still true, yeah. Can you make a French scene of any sort without some form of Nez Cassé?

ACME also make some Romanian electric locos that also were used by JŽ and its successors... if they do the 4 axle ASEA electric, that one is used in Bosnia by ŽRS and ŽFBH... buuuut I don't think the area around Tuzla is electrified; when I was last in BiH in 2009, the Doboj-Tuzla route was still non-electrified... I seem to recall a company making some of the Goša wagons in HO, not ACME but another I think based in Switzerland?

The windows of the E-Jets remind me of DC-8 windows.