Going Continental…

DougT

DougT

Western Thunderer
It appears that I am currently heading down a European rabbit hole, or more specifically une terrier de lapin. Over the last few years I have become increasingly bored with the UK railway scene and am beginning to find the same with my modelling; this is in distinct contrast to my interest in the French scene which has resulted in some pretty regular trips to photograph and sample the remaining loco hauled passenger service (My profile pic has the Strasbourg to Basel line in the background!). Space and cost are also playing their part which is probably inevitable when modelling O gauge from a terrace house! Anyway, the random purchase of a ROCO bb22000 and 1 or 5 Corail coaches in HO appears to be getting the modelling juices flowing again and a couple of baseboards have followed.

I’m doing a lot of research into French model railways looking at existing layouts (some are absolutely stunning) as well as suppliers of the requisite infrastructure equipment, the important element to me is that whatever I build looks right - which means that concrete sleepers with the words DowMac on them aren’t going to cut it!

So as part of my research, I’m looking for any advice on how and where to get hold of prototypical French HO scale track, signals and OLE. Who makes this stuff and where to get it, and any advice on the best way forward down this new and exciting modelling pathway including any good resources/websites etc that may help.

As they say, I’m all ears, and many thanks in advance.

Doug
 
Yorkshire Dave

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Oh dear...... the slippery slope of SNCF :)

25kV AC or 1,500v DC or both? Sommerfeldt are one of the OLE suppliers and for 1500v DC you can use either their Dutch or Belgian range - depending on the region - and for 25kV AC you can use H section masts.

However some 1,500v DC OLE is available here Caténaire 1500 V SUD‑EST 2 Portiques parapluie 2‑4 VP

For 25kV I found these Caténaire - Decapod

At first glance for track, the closest to the SNCF 2-bolt chaired flat bottom rail will be either the Tillig range or Rocoline - both are code 83 and follow a German prototype with ski chairs.

For signals - Signalisation, Pièces et décors, Échelle HO | Loco Diffusion and this Signalisation ferroviaire : les fournisseurs

While researching it's worth building a glossary of search terms as the English (or German) is not necessarily the same in French. From my own experience I tend to do t'interweb searches in the native language (mostly German for my HO DB).

Catenary - Caténaire - Oberleitung
Track - voie ferrée - Gleis
Signals - Signalisation - Eisenbahnsignal

When searching - échelle HO is a useful term to add e.g. Signalisation SNCF échelle HO

Hope it helps.
 
DougT

DougT

Western Thunderer
Dave

That is remarkably helpful, many thanks.

I’m undecided on the region I want to base this on, and therefore the voltage system - hence the bb22000 purchase! I’m very tempted on DC as that allows me to obtain a cc6500 or two, but the catenary is very different and I don’t want to make too many allowances between reality and fiction. The Sommerfeldt catenary looks excellent.

Thanks again.
 
Overseer

Overseer

Western Thunderer
Probably too early for what you are thinking but Peco code 75 bullhead track is accurate HO scale (9’ long sleepers) and would look good for one of the French railways which used bullhead track.
 
Northroader

Northroader

Western Thunderer
Bullhead track was traditionally on the OUEST and MIDI lines. Anything going back to 1900 you’re quite welcome to visit my thread over on the other place.

www.rmweb.co.uk

“BEYOND DOVER”

PLEASE NOTE: THIS THREAD IS INDEXED. NEAR THE TOP OF PAGES 1, 11, 21, 31, YOU WILL FIND THE PRINCIPAL ITEMS FOR THE NEXT TEN PAGES LISTED FOR YOUR HELP. “MECCANO” MAGAZINE. Let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start. A long time back, I was taking the Meccano Magazine. (An...
www.rmweb.co.uk www.rmweb.co.uk
 
Roger Pound

Roger Pound

Western Thunderer
Doug,

Whichever electrical system your chosen region uses, the SNCF has many dual and multi-voltage classes which are at home with either system, which does enable a good choice of types. When I modelled the SNCF (many years ago - everything has long gone) I chose Region 3, SNCF (Ouest). The fact that Jouef, who were perhaps the major supplier of French models in the UK at that time seemed to specialize in Ouest steam prototypes and these took my fancy. Steam haulage was common-place at that time.......

Strangely, my last visit to France was to Caen, deep in the Lower Normandy district of what was the Ouest. That was about fourteen years back now and at the time Class BB26000 Sybic locos seemed to handle most long distance services. Other classes such as BB15000 and BB16100 were also seen on various passenger workings. Diesel of class BB63000 were employed in the yard and intermediate services were by BB67000 types and various emu and dmu units.

Naturally, you will follow the scene and time period that appeals to you - I trust you will enjoy the project as much I, who found the SNCF to be totally absorbing for a number of years until I was enticed away to another scale..... but that is not a matter for this thread! I hope that my memories may be of some help in your decisions.

Roger.
 
DougT

DougT

Western Thunderer
Roger Pound said:
Doug,

Whichever electrical system your chosen region uses, the SNCF has many dual and multi-voltage classes which are at home with either system, which does enable a good choice of types. When I modelled the SNCF (many years ago - everything has long gone) I chose Region 3, SNCF (Ouest). The fact that Jouef, who were perhaps the major supplier of French models in the UK at that time seemed to specialize in Ouest steam prototypes and these took my fancy. Steam haulage was common-place at that time.......

Strangely, my last visit to France was to Caen, deep in the Lower Normandy district of what was the Ouest. That was about fourteen years back now and at the time Class BB26000 Sybic locos seemed to handle most long distance services. Other classes such as BB15000 and BB16100 were also seen on various passenger workings. Diesel of class BB63000 were employed in the yard and intermediate services were by BB67000 types and various emu and dmu units.

Naturally, you will follow the scene and time period that appeals to you - I trust you will enjoy the project as much I, who found the SNCF to be totally absorbing for a number of years until I was enticed away to another scale..... but that is not a matter for this thread! I hope that my memories may be of some help in your decisions.

Roger.
Click to expand...

Thanks Roger, that’s really interesting. My interest in SNCF was sparked in the early 90’s when my father lived in Paris and we used to go to Gare du Nord for a few hours (my word the cc40100 was a fabulous beast) or drive out into the depths of VSG, but the flames didn’t really take until an Interrail trip in 2022 heading Calais>Paris>Strasbourg thence into Switzerland and Italy and back via Nancy to Paris Est with a random out and back to St Quintin (From GdN) whilst waiting for the Eurostar connection! Since then I think I’ve been back 9 times and have two more trips in the diary this year with another two in gestation! It is to my intense frustration that the flames didn’t take at least 10 years earlier and sadly I missed all the fun on the Saint Lazare routes by a couple of years.

This means that my principle areas of interest on the 25kv network are either the Mauberge services (no longer loco-hauled as of Sept last year) or Grand-East, or on the mixed AC/DC lines that AURA services operate on in the Lyon/Chambery/Grenoble/Annecy corridors. I’d quite like to do something that is reminiscent of the places I have photographed, albeit with a potential time warp back to pre-2010 just to be able to run some of the more interesting loco types! That said a 26000 on an Intercités service is a thing of beauty too!

IMG_0038.jpeg

I guess ultimately rule 1 applies..
 
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