Reunification Day is nay!

Hi folks!

Reunification day is nay, our girls won the football world championship - time to celebrate!

What engine should I bring along for the big party:

A Gützold (far superior to Brawa´s offering imho, and made in Germany to boot!) class 219, recent livery?



Or, the good , well, anyways, the old days - 1980s Reichsbahn livery?



Or, screw reunification, costly, troublesome - get a Mehano class 66 instead?



Please help me...

It is a very difficult question! I hear that the Mehano 66 is an excellent model, but of course a Gützold is a Gützold...I chose a 219 because you offered it twice which to me means you would prefer to end up with one of them! Also has Mehano yet released your most preferred livery on the 66?

Obviously this is irrelevant if you collect some models for display as well as the layout, but I always try to focus on purchasing complete trains i.e when I saw the Hobbytrain Taurus model in new ÖBB livery, I thought also that Roco was about to release the Eurofimas in new livery so I can make a complete train if I buy with both. Were I to buy lovely steam locomotive like a Semmering 52, even though the recent Minitrix model is very nice and state of the art it would look out of place with all my epoch IV & V models, and I would have to source some suitable coaches. (Located in a hard to find Minitrix set from a few years ago!)

This approach means that I balance the locomotive and rollingstock amounts, (although one can never get enough freight wagons to be prototypical without a sports hall to build the layout in!!) and though of course they are never fixed combinations it is sensible to balance them in order to get maximum pleasure of variety on my layout. Nice though fifteen locomotives look parked in the depot, I feel that it is better if they are used as much as possible like on the real railways, by having a train ready for most of them. Also I imagine that If I want to run the layout on DCC with automated trains I know that I can have a wide selection of prototypical trains available at the same time, without coupling and uncoupling and swapping over. Perhaps the trick here is to have huge storage sidings so that no locomotives remain in their boxes?

I confess to be a bit sad - I have a database with all my models listed in, locomotive and wagons, for each train, however the reason is only so that I know where I need to focus my 'eBay eye' or scour the shops for a few more Shimms or more 2nd class Eurofimas - why does one always have too many 1st and 1st/2nd and restauruant coaches to be prototypical?? Always on ebay one must buy a 1st and 2nd together in an auction - but I don't want the 1st - it suits the collector who wants one of each but...grrr...I am not such a collector!

If one has 20 locomotives and 200 wagons/coaches say then without some kind of record it can be confusing what to buy to strengthen the collection, either for display or for operation.

However the pure collector does not have these constraints on efficient usage, and always there is room for one more top class model on his mantlepiece, so each must decide what is a priority.

I hope that you are able to decide ME 26-06, and are not forced to buy one of each!

Goedel

QUOTE (goedel @ 1 Oct 2007, 22:02) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It is a very difficult question! I hear that the Mehano 66 is an excellent model, but of course a Gützold is a Gützold...I chose a 219 because you offered it twice which to me means you would prefer to end up with one of them! Also has Mehano yet released your most preferred livery on the 66?...

Hi Goedel!

No, imho both Romanian diesels are so "different" from one another, I really see them as two entirely different engines.

The Reichsbahn version is the old version with the licensed POS Romanian MTU motor inside, which tended to either grind to a sudden stop because the hydraulic transmission, motor, or wheel flanges broke down, deteriorated, or fell into pieces (with the motor catching fire on several occasions), and the new version, re-engineered and re-motorized with East German motors and transmissions, and some western parts as well - all of a sudden, the engines are (sort of) reliable!

Class 66 - I´d like one of the Polish engines, if possible.

QUOTE (ME 26-06 @ 1 Oct 2007, 21:30) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Class 66 - I´d like one of the Polish engines, if possible.
One of these?


I found this on the Freightliner website:
QUOTE Freightliner Group is well prepared to begin operations in Poland - in 2006 they invested in brand new rolling stock, including 7 class 66 locomotives and 432 specifically designed wagons. This investment represents the first investment in brand new operating equipment in Poland for over 15 years, and is the largest single investment into Poland by a private operator.

So the passengers in Poland can't be very happy if the coal gets all the brand new locomotives and wagons!! The last thing they got before this was some second hand Austrian electrics (Reihe 1822)...three cheers for communism then anyone??...I thought not.

How similar is the Polish Class 29 (?) to the UK class 66s? Can one now travel from Scotland to Poland without changing locomotive? Borderless Europe indeed...but only for British-loading-gauge diesels and steam locomotives, with adjustable gauge!

Goedel

Thanks for your help... I already have a 232; what I´d want is a 234 (but not the turquoise one) made by Roco...

Look what I got instead... way more beautiful than a 232...







Model by hobbytrade of Denmark. The real thing:



Maybe the 119 will have to wait... I´ll heve to check my credit cars statement, as I ordered this one like, a year ago, along with my yellow and silver one.

Dear All,

If you are looking for some new liveries on OeBB locos (Taurus class), then just wait for the 14 locos which will be painted with the flags of the 14 other countries which qualify for the Euro 2008 (hosted by Switzerland and Austria, next June). With a bit of luck, England will qualify and we will have the flag of St George riding around Austria as of December this year (when the new liveries should appear). See here for lots of photos of the Austrian and Swiss locos at the naming ceremonies :-

Euro 2008 - Austrian Flag

Euro 2008 - Swiss Flag

The livery is a sort of collage of the flag colours and the Euro 2008 logo. Fortunately, the Austria and Switzerland flags are red and white, which blends well with the Euro 2008 logo and the normal colours of the Austrian carriages. I am not sure what they will do with flags of radically different colours. England will OK with the red and white of the flag of St George. It also possible the Georgia will qualify, and they also have a St George flag, very similar to England, but with some extra red crosses in each quarter.

Sorry for dragging this off-topic from the original subject, but I am just hoping that Roco or someone will produce these locos for us modellers.

QUOTE (ME 26-06 @ 1 Oct 2007, 21:30) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The Reichsbahn version is the old version with the licensed POS Romanian MTU motor inside, which tended to either grind to a sudden stop because the hydraulic transmission, motor, or wheel flanges broke down, deteriorated, or fell into pieces (with the motor catching fire on several occasions),

Hmm sounds rather like the original batch of BR class 56 then (and I know they weren't hydraulics)

QUOTE (ME 26-06 @ 2 Oct 2007, 18:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Look what I got instead... way more beautiful than a 232...



Aren't most things way more beautiful than a 232?

QUOTE (John @ 3 Oct 2007, 10:26) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>If you are looking for some new liveries on OeBB locos (Taurus class), then just wait for the 14 locos which will be painted with the flags of the 14 other countries which qualify for the Euro 2008. With a bit of luck, England will qualify and we will have the flag of St George riding around Austria as of December this year

How the hell am I going to justify running a Taurus on my 1970 UK based layout that's what I need to know. (nips back to thread on Dr. Who and the TARDIS at this point for advice on time travel)

Regards