[ferroequinologist]

Most of you who follow my posts here will know I mainly do D&RGW live steam but one of my interests is French trains so I have acquired over time few 1:32 scale Aster live steam French loco's and on this short video is my Aster 232TC.
As it's a manual controlled steam loco (via hot fingers) it was hard to tame the speed as no sooner had I got it running slow, it raced off as soon as I started filming every time.
I hope you all enjoy the video and those who have seen my previous ones you will recognise the station (sorry depot) area as where the Los Pinos depot usually resides, all I do is remove the 1:20 scale D&RGW buildings and replace with the 1:32 scale French buildings that I think look convincing even though I have never been to France and only have a few French railway books to refer to.
This MLS forum has been good for me as I have learned a lot from many people and especially from Simon (du-bousquetaire to everyone here) for French trains and he put me onto the Marklin bogie coaches and sourced the decals for the same that are on this video, to take them from German types to French ones that were war reparations after WW1.
Anyway I hope you all enjoy something a little different from American trains with this short video.
Russell

 

[boilingwater]

Russell,
very nice consist and video—as usual—even without the usual D&RGW show. Do you have a “French section” in Colorado or is this a spur off your US mainline track?

 

[ferroequinologist]

Ha ha good one 'boilingwater', it seems I do have a "French Section" as the engine shed and coaling stage on my layout suits all scales and prototypes at the moment. Actually I run Isle of Man trains and Australian local "Puffing Billy" trains so I am getting another station building made that is a local one that will also suit the Isle of Man trains.

 

[du-bousquetaire]

By the way, and while on this subject, there was a rule on French railways dating back to Napoleon the third I beleive, that stipulated that wood bodied trains have a baggage car between the engine and the train, and also at the rear end of the train to isolate somewhat passengers from the engines coal in case of derailmaent or cornfielfd meet.

Aside from that folks in the US interested in French railways might like to know that I own a photo of a Chapelon pacific on the NORD doing a semi fast St Quentin- Paris express in 1938 hauling precisely a rake of those ex Prussian non corridor bogie coaches. I cannot print this photo here because of copyright laws as it was printed in a long gone French magazine. So Chapelon owners who don't know what to put behind it can indulge in this. Powerful prestige engines where often used in France on locals which required lots of power to constantly restart locals after every station stop, yet make good time. There is also a photo of the 232 U 1 being runned in after shopping on a stoping train with non corridor 4 wheeled cars.
Cheers.

 

[ferroequinologist]

Thanks for the info on the baggage car placement Simon, I must get around to building one I have some poor resolution plans for an OCEM One that I could work with as I really need some baggage cars.
I saw that image of a Nord Chapelon pulling the ex Prussian bogie cars so I do run my own Nord Pacific with that rake occasionally. I'm being lazy at the moment and haven't started the OCEM passenger car kits yet, but that's my next build.
Russell

 

[boilingwater]

Russell,
What Marklin coach numbers are you running? i have some that look very similar except I need to run them fast enough that you can’t notice that they are German cars and not SNCF….

Sam

 

[David Leech]

Thanks Russell, most enjoyable.
Is the 232TC the loco with a strange combined throttle/blower lever, or something, that is probably not that easy to control?
Cheers,
David Leech, Canada

 

[du-bousquetaire]

Russel : I have all the drawings you would need also to consider the Marklin six wheeler baggage as somme were handed over after the WW1 Armistice as reparations (The Germans really destroyed the Nord and Est systems with the schienenwolf. + all the bridges blown up while retreating on both sides) Just send me an E mail off list.

David : I made up some lettering from SNCF lettering diagrams using photos of HO and N scale cars in French livery as reference for the numbering. I suppose it would be nearly impossible to find data on their numbering now. I have the film so transfers can be purchased from my transfer firm in Paris for around $50. making Nord transfers would be more difficult.

 

[ferroequinologist]

Boilingwater: I can take a couple images of the letters & numbering for the coaches for you and send them on a private message if you like.

David Leech: the 232TC is difficult because of the need to remove the roof to get the controls that I changed from that awful system where the blower and regulator were on the same lever.
Go to this old post of mine to see what mods I did to this loco Modifications to an old Aster but it still is hard to control speed as the axle pump pumps in quickly to the small boiler and pressure drops and by-pass adjustment on the run is tricky but is heaps better than before.

Simon: I will contact you via a private message here as I have lost your email address. By the way I love your new layout with those magnificent curves.
Russell

 

[ferroequinologist]

David Leech, re my above message to look at an earlier post, I just realised that post was before I modified the regulator/blower control to both operate separately. The images below show how I kept the same housing but put a separate regulator in from the top to seat a tapered spindle on the original casting using a long spindle that allows a steam space for the original blower control to work. I know for the regulator the steam flows "the wrong way" on the spindle taper (not from the pointy end) but it works well. To get at the control wheels, especially for the water pump by pass, I made a pump handle with spigots in the ends to engage the hand wheels, less burnt fingers and easy to to do on the run.
Russell