Going to Europe - Germany & Czech Republic

[Ralph]

Those dioramas are beautifully done! Thanks for letting us take a look!
Ralph

[Fluesheet]

No problem Ralph, but it's not done yet!

This next photo was taken at the Heki booth; a maker of scenic materials, structures and such. I have no idea what I was trying to compose in this shot, but I had to keep it because of the extremely serious looking man to the right of center.

   

A LARGE castle. Folks who have been over there know that these kinds of structures are relatively common - and not in the context of a theme park!

   

Neat mountainside diorama, built of course with Heki products:

   

Matt

[Fluesheet]

I was cursed with display case glare at Fleischman's booth. Fleischman is one of the higher end model builders in Germany. Talking about production and assembly with the various makers reps was a pretty good indicator of where the brands fit in the marketplace:
- Parts produced and assembled in China (Brawa)
- Parts produced in China, assembly in Germany (Fleischman)
- Parts produced in a lower-cost European country, assembled in Germany (Marklin / Trix)
- Parts produced and assembled in Germany (Gutzhold - nice models).

Good looking Fleischman 4-6-2

   

Very cool N scale automated layout with a big honking engine terminal. I love the dual turntables!

   

The image is of the Busch display - a good display of interesting structures, vehicles and scenic treatments, though not of the same class as some of the other makers.

This folks sitting down in this photo is where the business got done. The bigger the vendor, the bigger the space provided. The meetings that I attended with my friend were polite, friendly, but fairly focused on the business at hand. Smaller vendors tended to socialize a bit (or a bunch) more. ALL provided some kind of hospitality - coffee, orange juice, water (only sparkling water served in Germany!) and snacks. We didn't sit down with Busch, but the inner circle part of the displays is worth sharing.

   

[Fluesheet]

Marklin had a huge display and had two big pieces of news:

- Confirmation that the company had filed for the equivalent of bankruptcy after one of their major investors (a U.S. investment bank) went belly up. The feeling is that they will survive - it's an iconic brand in toy / train crazy Germany.

- Confirmation that the company will be bringing LGB, who they aquired recently, back to the U.S. after a 2 1/2 year hiatus.

Marklin / Trix produces much of their product in Hungary (German Union labor is apparently very expensive) and assembled in Germany. I've mentioned before on these pages and that of Zealot that I am extremely impressed by the build engineering of Trix steam locomotives - detailed, die cast metal (heavy!) and super easy to disassemble. I love my Proto 0-6-0, but it's about impossible to get into - Trix locos you remove one screw and off comes the boiler, details and all (which, by the way, are mostly press -fit to the boiler, so can be removed easily). Suffice it to say I am a Trix fan.

We met with Marklin early in the visit and I was extremely impressed with Jeff Stimson's, one of a handful of true Marklin employees in the U.S., knowledge of his subject matter - trains. The U.S. prototypes that Marklin will be producing this year are a reflection of his reading of the U.S. market (that's you and me folks). He showed us the new products in Marklin's line, and was very fun to talk to. We also met Ron Gibson - a Walthers employee - who apparently has been knocking around the Garden Railway market for years - who showed us the line of LGB products destined for the U.S. market. Good stuff.

Marklin / Walthers took us to dinner the third night in (my friend has sold their products for a few years) deep down in a cellar with lots of beer, pork, and good conversation. We were lucky enough to be seated at the table of Dr. Gerd Uhlmann, the International Sales Director who regaled us almost non-stop with stories from his first business in East Germany to what to visit in Prague.

Obviously, as a newby Toy Fair attendee, I was mightily impressed by the interest these men, and therefore Marklin, showed in their company and the model market in general. But I digress.

Apologies for the word count - Now, PICTURES!

Display showing the new products, nicely done and more pleasing to look at in person:

   

Marklin had probably the largest layout, with a good selection of steam, electric and some diesel running around on automated routes:

   

   

More...

[Fluesheet]

I'll have to get one of these, if just for the rigid axle count - this is a Trix model:

   

Also a good looking Pacific Type. I'll have to admit that I've become a lot more interested in the look of European steam - relatively small (which I like) and, for lack of a better term, spindly - very light looking - especially thier passenger locomotives. A combination, I believe of their relively small prototype size in combination with very high drivers:

   

A nice BIG steel display - Trucklover should like this:

   

Matt (yet more later...)

[Russ Bellinis]

I suspect part of the "spindly look" to European steam passenger engines is due to the high drivers having spoke wheels without huge counter weights. They are almost like wire wheels or some of the mag style wheels that are popular on cars today! American prototype went over to either boxpoke or disc type wheels with large counter weights that preclude the see through look.

[e-paw]

I am sitting here dripping with envy. I am making it a point to get there one day.I hope you got to see the country side while you were there. Looks like you had a good time.

[Fluesheet]

I hope you got to see the country side while you were there. Looks like you had a good time.

We unfortunately did not get out of Nuremburg - the toy fair took much of the day (all the daylight hours), feeding ourselves and mosying(sp?) around the city took the rest. One of the frustrating things was driving past a freight yard daily in the shuttle bus - but just far enough below track level to not really be able to see anything for more than an instant. I did see a diesel of somesort that at first (and only) glance, reminded me of an Alco RS3. Bah. There was also a railroad museum RIGHT IN THE CITY that was not open we were out and about. If this opportunity repeats itself, that'll have to be rectified!

I also learned of a steam powered narrow gauge railroad in the south of Germany that apparently has been there about almost as long as our Colorado narrow gauges. A future target as well.

We did get out of town in the Czech republic for a day.

[nkp_174]

Matt, this is great stuff. I had the pleasure of a Eurorail pass and a couple weeks a few years back. It was great fun. Comparing notes with my father, we are convinced that the train interest pecking order is:
Americans<Brits<Germans<Japanese. While I'm not a big fan of Japanese trains, I can understand the Brits and Germans...many fine railroads.

I picked up a Bachmann 2-10-2 in Austria...only to discover after the fact that it was a tender drive locomotive
At least it looks great. I should have nabbed an HOe 0-6-2t instead...it would look better with a short train. I had the sense in Britain 2yrs ago to purchase a small engine and a short string of cars.

I would suggest that when you go back, check out Austria and Switzerland. I found Austria...especially Vienna, to blow the rest of Europe away. Some decent steam museums there as well. Innsbruck is close to the Zillertalbahn and there are a couple others as well. Most of the well known LGB prototypes were Austrian or Swiss (the Stainz is Austrian...the 0-6-2t is Zillertalbahn). Zillertalbahn ist sehr gut: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqLDEV_p7rc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqLDEV_p7rc</a><!-- m -->

Michael

[Fluesheet]

I would have enjoyed doing some rail travel while over there. After we arrived in Nuremberg, we looked into taking the train to Prague, but we ran the risk of running into return flight issues if we didn't execute the itinerary as it was. We had one business meeting in Prague the first day we were there and asked for ideas for a day trip that involved rail - they (a man named Stefan Gasparin - a maker of Co2 powered motors - and his friend / translator) suggested going to Vienna, which sounded very cool. Three hours they said. We later spoke some folks at the hotel about it and they immediately poo-pooed the idea. 4.5 - 5 hours; apparently Czech trains are slow, relatively expensive, and not very reliable from a schedule stand point. Dang. Sounded too iffy for a day trip, and would have been too little time actually in the city. I'll take your advice and make my way there if I get this opportunity again.

Re: tender drives, I found several makes at the toy fair that used these on HO steam locomotives - I did not expect that. One of the makers I was most visually impressed with (Gutzhold) was one of them. I think the lack of a gearbox, etc. was probably one of the reasons I liked the locomotives - they had a nice, light look. I was impressed with how smoothly the mechanism was, considering it had no motor to mask any binding.

Another maker - I think it was Fleischman, supplied some power to the locomotive's drive wheels, but most of the power was via the tender.

Very odd compared to what American modelers are used to / expect.

Matt

[nkp_174]

I I'll take your advice and make my way there if I get this opportunity again.

Re: tender drives, I found several makes at the toy fair that used these on HO steam locomotives - I did not expect that. One of the makers I was most visually impressed with (Gutzhold) was one of them. I think the lack of a gearbox, etc. was probably one of the reasons I liked the locomotives - they had a nice, light look. I was impressed with how smoothly the mechanism was, considering it had no motor to mask any binding.

Another maker - I think it was Fleischman, supplied some power to the locomotive's drive wheels, but most of the power was via the tender.

Very odd compared to what American modelers are used to / expect.

Matt

It took me a while to figure it out on my 2-10-2! Unfortunately, it isn't so great now. I personally like the idea of both the locomotive and tender being powered. I can't stand gearboxes that are visible...but I prefer them to visible worm gears (need puke smiley here). I'm going to hide the gear tower for my On3 2-8-0 in the firebox above the #4 drivers. I'm doing the same thing with the 1:20.3 Colorado Central Cooke mogul that I'm working on as well.

Here are a few pictures I took to wet your appetite for Oesterreich...


Innsbruck


The Zillertalbahn's 0-8-2, Jenbach.

Vienna:

The Vienna town hall...Weiner Rathaus


The State Opera...Weiner Statoper


Schonbrun Palace...the Hapsburg's equivalent to the Bourbon's Versailles


The subway (U-bahn) station near Schonbrun


St. Peterskirche near St. Stephens


Near St. Stephens


The Hofburg...the winter palace of the Hapsburgs and site of the Viennese castle. Home of the Lipizzaner stallions, the finest crown jewels outside of London, and the Holy Roman Emperor hardware.

Oh, and the street cars (S-bahn) still use many ancient wooden cars.

Michael

[sgtcarl1]

Michael:
Loved your photos!! It made me "homesick" for Austria, and Garmisch-Partenkirken (sp?) Und Vienna! Ach du lieben!! Ist mir gute!!

[nkp_174]

Michael:
Loved your photos!! It made me "homesick" for Austria, and Garmisch-Partenkirken (sp?) Und Vienna! Ach du lieben!! Ist mir gute!!

danke!

Ich nicht besuchte Garmisch-Partenkirkin, aber ich gern Patcherkopfel hab. Wein ist sehr wunderful! Ein fahrkarte a Oesterreich, bitte!

auf weiderschreiben!

Michael

[Fluesheet]

Heljan

Heljan displayed two steam locomotives each of Norwegian and Swedish prototypes. A little better looking than German locos, but not as good looking as *modern* French steam (completely subjective, of course). I would think the inclined cylinders would have been a little harder on track (thrust hammering) - possibly this diverted enough energy into the rail and away from rocking couple to be a good trade off. I don't think this would have worked with American sized cylinders, though that is pure speculation.

These locos are produced and assembled in China.

   

Heljan has long worked with Walthers, and anyone who gets a model railroading mag or Walthers catalogs will recognize this:

   

Matt

[Fluesheet]

Micro-Metalkit. Beautiful brass locomotives - these photos don't do the locos justice. The vendor is the older gentleman behind the loco in the first photo, and communication was somewhat difficult. I did gather that these follow normal brass electical pickup - loco one rail, tender the other, excepting the tank locos.

Those tank engines (along with the mega axle count loco in the first photo) were captivating. Should have gotten some closeups.

   


Just realized I mis-sized this one. And I like it better (and I guess I have the closeups now) ...