Would You Model Overseas Railroads?

[Anonymous]

When I was in the Army, stationed in a suburb of Tokyo from 12/56 to 5/58, I witnessed some of the most fascinating railroading in existance then. With just a little steam, but mostly catenary, it was a very complex system of trackwork. Great for one of a railroad bent like me. The rail transportation system (interurban-streetcar) had a color-coded map that showed all local routes-stations for public use with Japanese script above English phonetics that could be put in one's pants pocket. It was easier to get around Tokyo than Chicago and very inexpensive for a G.I. I had a chance to visit all of the yards and terminals in this vast area. Although very interesting, I would only build a U.S. model railroad because this is what I am most interested in and "familiarity breeds content". Jerry K

[Anonymous]

I already do - I have "running" collections in both US-outline HO scale and German N (with a few oddball impulse-buy items like a couple of German HO scale freight cars). I also have a growing collection of British OO scale, though this is mainly older models bought to build a collection (I have Airfix, Mainline, and Replica stock, slowly adding more of all three brands). I also tend to buy occasional Hornby or Bachmann OO scale items on impulse, though as yet I have no suitable layout for running them.

I would definitely recommend the Bachmann OO scale diesel locos to anyone - their Class 37 has working lights, DCC socket, mesh fan grille with seperate fan, and loads of other details for a very reasonable price. The new Hornby Class 50 also looks very nice - not bought one yet myself, but it's supposedly almost silent-running and has a few neat features like opening cab doors and a rotating radiator fan (driven from the motor by a rubber band).

P.S. I'm a little unconvinced by the stories of GG1s running in the UK - they wouldn't fit into our loading gauge for a start, and the "Class 50" designation was used for a English-Electric built diesel-electric loco (this is the one recently modelled by Hornby). Good joke though!

[Anonymous]

I model both US and UK trains on the same board. I can just switch the buildings trains and cars depending on my mood.

[DonaldAgne]

And to add a little to METRO's last post, all the tracks in Japan are narrow gauge, with the exception of the Shinkansen.

[METRO]

On the subject of why there are so few US trains on overseas lines, I would think that weight would have much to do with it. When the Brits tested the GG1 (BR Class 50) it was notied that the locomotive was exceedingly heavy as well as having a wheel grouping that did not work well on the tight curves of the BR lines.

Also the Acela, which is closest in bloodline to a third generation TGV Thalys, it's much lighter than the equipment it replaced.

[METRO]

Hey all!

Just wanted to let you know I ran my first japanese train today, a Nozomi or Shinkansen 500 series. I'm also going to pick up a Hornby Eurostar one of these days for use on my main layout. Hopefully by then they will have a model of the one in that great GNER lettering.

As for all the new members and seldom posters talking on the topic, welcome and glad I could give you something to talk about!

~Urban

[M636C]

ddechamp71,

No, because of clearances there are very few such lines in Europe.

There was a line in Spain (Standard gauge) that used Alco RS-3s for iron ore haulage, but that was later converted to metre gauge with the usual European power. It did have a standard gauge talgo train, from Boston & Maine, and it was hauled by a large Henschel diesel hydraulic switcher.

Foster Yeoman in England have a single close clearance SW1001 at Westbury (and locals speak about the big US loco that is too large to leave the yard).

The Estonian operation is permissible only because Russian clearances are adequate for those locomotives.

In Argentina there are Alco model DL-540 locomotives, basically an RS-11 on three axle export trucks, and some GP40s fitted with A1A-A1A trucks working on ore traffic. But this is because the Argentine broad gauge clearances allowed such big locomotives.

Peter

[ddechamp71]

QUOTE: Originally posted by M636C



And going back about 100 years, the Pennsylvania Railroad imported and ran two compound locomotives, a British (LNWR) 2-4-0 and a French (P-O) 4-4-2.

On the other hand, I'm aware of retrofited ex AT&SF GE C30-7 that are now operated in Estonia, north-eastern Europe.
My question: are there any other example of heavy american equipment that is used in Europe? Is there for example an unknown industrial railroad that should operate 10000-ton trains with imported SD40s at the point?.....

[M636C]

OK, Guys

To meet the immense unsatisfied demand for kangaroo warning signs and the failure of pictorial representation to date, here are some completely verbal instructions.

The sign is a completely standard road sign, and is 29.5" square with slightly rounded corners (maybe 3" radius). The backing is standard bright yellow (Traffic Yellow) reflectorised material, with a 1" black border, one half inch in from the edge.

The sign is mounted as a diamond, with one corner at the top. The mounting bolts are 6" inward from the top and bottom.

The kangaroo is a leaping kangaroo, basically similar to the white kangaroo on QANTAS aircraft tails (see www.qantas.com ), but placed horizontal with the head and tail at the same level, centrally on the sign. The black kangaroo is 24.5" long from head to tail.

The same kangaroo symbol was used on Australian pennies before 1966, on RAAF aircraft roundels and on the stacks of RAN warships.

If copying it from the tail of a QANTAS aircraft, note that the leg often extends below the tailplane onto the fuselage!

These dimensions are from a real sign on my hallway wall!

No officer, I did not remove it. It was lying face down on the ground, removed officially by someone with the special tools required. I just brought it home for safekeeping. I would be happy to hand it over to any official, with written authority, who comes to collect it!

Peter

[Anonymous]

Hi
Look in the right places and you will find railways that have a bit of every thing from all over the world
Get it all blended right so it looks right you could even create your own freelance colonial line that works that way and would be all steam as well
regards John

[M636C]

To add to Antoine's (atom 1301) comment on foreign locomotives in the USA, the recent electric locomotives for NJ Transit are really slightly modified German class 101 locomotives.

And going back about 100 years, the Pennsylvania Railroad imported and ran two compound locomotives, a British (LNWR) 2-4-0 and a French (P-O) 4-4-2.

There are prototypes for nearly everything, if you look hard enough!

I remember finding two small British four wheel diesel switchers on the docks in Vancouver, British Columbia. Modellers could "adopt" a particular foreign unit (even some US units in Europe) while remaining correct to prototype.

Peter

[Dr. John]

I've been intrigued with Marklin equipment since I saw it demonstrated at a train show. I love their reliability and would not mind using equipment representing Germany or other overseas railways.

I also like the old colorful steam locomotives that once were used in England.

[Anonymous]

Hi

And modelling overseas engine under US colors ???? [(-D]

Check that : http://www.amtrakhistoricalsociety.com/x996.html

Antoine

[Anonymous]

Hi CBQ_guy
If I got it right this is the sign you are looking for
regards john

[Big_Boy_4005]

Hi Lupo, sorry I haven't been around here as much lately. I've been spending much of my time on the Classic Toy Trains forum, because that's where my TYPE of trains are discussed. I'm always checking here, but there haven't been too mant good non scale specific topics lately.

[Anonymous]

Actually, a friend of mine in the hobby got sent to Australia a few years back for his job and he brought me back some HO scale kangaroo figures. I was going to put them on the layout at some point out in the boonies near the road with a yellow sign that says "'Roo Crossing".

Really...

[lupo]

Eliot,
I noticed that too, and IMHO if you look closer at some of these " not so usual " topics popping up onthis forum there seem to be a lot of longtime members with low postcounts coming into the picture!
Cool to have y'all around !!

Lupo

[Big_Boy_4005]

I don't believe this!!! As I am typing this there were

8 members making their first post on the previous page!!!

I have never seen anything like this before!!!

Reichsbahn
railfancwb
K4s_PRR
regiomontano
clark33
tajsbb
dtpowell
EGELLIOTT

[#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome]

Speaking of overseas, this is post 1492 for me, which just happens to be the year in which Columbus first sailed here.

One more interesting tidbit here, Tajsbb and I joined the same day. There is however a slight difference in the number of posts between us. Not that post count matters, 1000 posts and a buck will get you a cup of coffee.[swg]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Sask_Tinplater

Well, for those of you who said that foreign trains look strange, just think about how foreigners think our trains look. Actually, though, there are more examples of North American trains running in other countries than you might think.
(...)

Yes, American trains looked strange to me. In Holland, we have smaller trains and most of them are electric, not diesel. I was not interested in those odd American trains. But a few years ago, I started reading Model Railroader and I saw beautiful American models at the local trainstore. And now I am a big fan of American railroading! I have a (compared to those large American layouts) small layout of the New Haven in N-scale and an even smaller layout in Z-scale. And also a small layout of the NS (no, NOT Norfolk Southern but Nederlandse Spoorwegen = Dutch Railways).

In Holland, we have an (electric) engine, based on a design of Baldwin for the New Haven. This engine has been bult in the 50's and is still running! And what about the Class 66 of EMD? OK, it's appearance is not typical American (more British), but it has been made overseas. In Europe, there was also the Nohab, an diesel engine based on an American design. In many countries you still can find this engine.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AggroJones

Hells no. Forign roads don't have the magic that the USA does. Nope, I'd never model any railroad outside the US and I don't even care about MR articles on forign modelled layouts. Just taking up valuble issue space. I guess some people find that stuff intresting.

Go American roads! [^]

Hi
Do not pass go do not collect $200 Breep Fail
All model railways have that magic you speak of just ask their owners.
All of my railways have and allways will be what you call overseas railways.
The US Railroads are nothing special just a different version of the same thing.
They have no more and no less magic than any other kind. of railway.
Bigger is not necaseraly better.
Particularly if you don't have room for it.
regards John

[Anonymous]

Yes, I model a "foreign" RR, the German Reichsbahn in the mid-1930s. Great steam engines with "Wagner" smoke deflectors, black locos with red running gear, lots of quite interesting passenger coaches, and very interesting (and different) freight cars. Lots of quality stuff available from Roco, Trix, Fleischmann, Piko, Liliput, etc. Operation includes a fair amount of passenger traffic. Of course, even the Reichsbahn had a diversity of "regional" and distinctive locos (Prussian, Bavarian, Saxon, etc.) So my Bavarian trains come in from the south and the Prussian & Saxon trains from the north. Trackwork is Peco & signals are Veissmann. Only "reservation" is that we who model the Reichsbahn need to keep the livery pre-1940 to avoid the Nazi stuff. Even though the stuff is available, I personally do not own and would not run Reichsbahn trains with the swastika for the same reason that US prototype modelers would not have a 1940s train station in the South with "colored" and "white" waiting rooms. So, expand your horizons - it's a big and interesting world-wide hobby.

[leighant]

I put a photo of my 1971 Berlin layout on Railimages.com so I could share it.



Kenneth L. Anthony, Corpus Christi TX.

[pab-windmills]

I am in the process of designing and building a model RR for my son and me. It will include a New England line and a Swedish (because of my heritage) line. I plan to weave them together, with bridges, etc, but they will each have their own tracks, as the Swedish line will probably be based upon Marklin. Overseas lines open up an entirely different range of locomotives, "goods cars", structures, electrified (ie, catenary) lines, etc. There a a lot of overseas mfrs that offer high quality equipment, some of which you can find at auction. Go for it!

[railfancwb]

A few new-made standard gauge locos have been imported from China. At least a few narrow gauge locos have been (re?) imported from South America and other places. A RR in Maine -- Belfast & Moosehead I believe -- imported a whole steam passenger train from Sweden if memory serves. The Cripple Creek & Victor, a 2-foot gauge tourist road in Colorado, operates foreign-made steam over an old wider (standard?) gauge right of way. And a number of locos were reimported from Hawaii when the plantation and common carrier lines were closing down. Charles

[CBQ_Guy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Favrefan04

My wife is from Australia, and we are planning to build a combination American/Australian RR.

Actually, a friend of mine in the hobby got sent to Australia a few years back for his job and he brought me back some HO scale kangaroo figures. I was going to put them on the layout at some point out in the boonies near the road with a yellow sign that says "'Roo Crossing".

Really...

[Supermicha]

@ Egelliot:

Many spanish models are produced by electrotren (http://www.electrotren.com), an old spanish company.

[K4s_PRR]

Sure, why not? I have quite a bit of British locomotives & stock in storage. I bring it out to display at my local library during Model Railroad Month. I may build a small terminal in the future.

[Anonymous]

i am modeling mexican railroads is greats
fernando torres monterrey nuevo leon mexico

[Anonymous]

As someone on the outside (England) looking into the USA, I find that most americans regard foreign as being in another state. 70% of americans don't have a passport because there is no need to leave the USA. We europeans need passports if we want to spend our vacations in sunshine, it rains a lot in England.
Foreigners scare americans, the foods differant, they drive funny little cars, and we don't always share the same values. As am enthusiast for American modelling I am regarded by other modellers as a pariah. I can understand why many americans would regard someone building a Japanese layout in a similar vein.
Good luck to those of you that want to build foreign, after all it's a hobby that we do for fun.

[Anonymous]

YES - here in UK, my attic is full of ACL, SOU, SAL, and old-NS model trains in H0, I used to collect them whilst on business trips to Raleigh, NC. Tje point is, I sold all my UK trains in the 70s. Until recently, the 1950s chassis design of a central motor, cardan shafts to gears on trucks was smoother the favoured pancake motor you might even find in the three axle tender of a UK steam locomotive. They had to change. So for me it was the operability of the US model trains that influenced me then. .