Guys, I'm just starting a brand new layout with the goal to model the Jungfraubahn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfrau_railway). Focusing on the Lauterbrunnen, ¤¤¤¤¤e Scheidegg line. Being here in the Mid-West US, I've got 1 million sources for American models. What are your best sources for European locos and rolling stock, buildings, etc.?
I would think to look to Kato and Tomix/TomyTec, and Marklin for potential power and maybe some structures, also catenary if electric. As far as European style bldgs, coming to mind immediately is Faller and Noch. A browse through Walthers, either catalog or web site, will reveal a lot more manufactures that have European prototype.
K l e i n e Scheidegg, interesting, the word K l e i n is blocked on this forum, wow Peter, Paul & Mary
That particular no-go is an unfortunate side effect of people continually trying to skirt/test the retailer discussion policy. And in that light, for any who have retail outlets to refer the OP to, we would ask you to PM him those, in order to avoid potential violations.
problem is not finding sources. problem is finding sources who have a multi-language website, who ship overseas, who speak english. most hobby shops over here are german only.
Awhile back I was beefing up my collection of German models and found it was easier to cruise the foreign eBay sites (www.eBay.de, for instance) and look for sellers that ship worldwide. In a lot of cases, it was (for me) less expensive than buying from a distributor and there was a lot more variety. If you don't speak the language, Google has pretty good translation tools. Good Luck! -Mike
Although beeing french I'm not a specialist in european prototype (model)railroading, but as far as I know Marklin doesn't produce any N scale. Best european N scale could be found with Kato and Minitrix.... Dom
No, Marklin has no N scale, and makes no structures. And Kato does some European (like Swiss models), but Minitrix and Fleischmann are the best option for rolling stock. You should also check for Piko. Tomix has no European stuff. Structures: Faller, Volmer, Kibri, they make typical German and Swiss houses. Maybe you can check UK dealers?
You are looking for a specific prototype, that would be hard to model in scale. not impossible, but you are likely looking at doing all scratch built models with Z scale mechanisms for power. I often look at vendor sites to see what is actually available. A lot of models are like ours with limited releases. Tee usa or reynaulds have good online catalogs. No links, just google those names. I am into european trains and do a lot of searching to find out info. What region of switzerland is your prototype in? You should consider that they speak swiss, french, german, and italian, depending on what region you are looking at. A little practice with a translator and cut and pasting translated lines into a search engine also helps. Someone else mentioned ebay de. It does't take long on there to learn basic german words that help with searches. This is one of my favorite sites for images and info: http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix_frameset.html I don't know if I've seen meter gauge trains for N scale. I am sure you can find models for this line in HO scale, but you are looking to do N scale which is not likely to offer much in that prototype.
Ah, I overlooked the fact that you want narrow gauge. That will be difficult in N scale. I only know Aspen Model, but they don't have Swiss prototypes. I think you want the impossible...
Is this something to consider? http://www.katomodels.com/n/allegra/ http://www.katomodels.com/n/glacier_exp/
Sometimes difficult to accomplish when the identities of certain e-tailers/retailers are censored even in PMs - or did this issue get fixed?
It's always a dilemma when you find something that suits your interests, but then it is not easy to model in the same scale. It seems like there is a lot of Swiss prototype in HO narrow gauge, and also more products such as signals and track. So what is the bigger draw for you, doing N scale, or doing that particular line? Are you a serious scratch builder, or would you rather have something easier to get up and running? For myself, I have realized by limits in time with model railroading, but your decision is purely your own.
Any updates to your layout? I am in Europe and trying to learn as much as I can about European railways while I live over here.
Here are my few thoughts about this project: The Lauterbrunnen area is truly nice and is to my point of vue very interesting to model. my inputs : - you are looking for a line with metric gauge. In Nscale , a real metric line would use z scale rail. N scale trains with metric gauge are expensive and hard to find. - another option is to go with the kato mountain trains (MGB or glacier express ). Those train run on normal N gauge track. That's not prototypical but it's an acceptable compromise. - concerning catenary poles, try sommerfeld Finally, HAVE FUN! Take care Envoyé de mon GT-I9195 en utilisant Tapatalk