Tonight, I was sitting around home due to my recovery from having my knee "scoped". I still don't understand the whole mouthwash on the knee thing , but getting back to the topic at hand, I was watching a few old videos that I got from TEE USA a while back. The first one, Gotthard cab ride followed an Express train from Lucerne as it headed south along the Gotthard route arounf 1993. The second was a more descriptive video of the Gotthard route from around 1986.
It was nice to see some classic consists, ranging from Re4/4I with lightsteel coaches and steuerwagen to International Expresses and ICs made up of DB TEE/IC coaches and/or FS Eurofima, red-gray or gray rolling stock.
The Stuttgart-Zuerich-Gotthard-Italy trains with their combination of DB, SBB and FS stock were very colorful and interesting, as were the ICs made up of red/beige and blue beige DB TEE/IC coaches, most pulled by Re 6/6 in their original green livery. This got me thinking about my recent acquisitions (43858 and 43927) sets and how nice these coaches are going to look behind the green Re 6/6 from the 37320 Set.
I certainly hope that Maerklin will release single Bpmz 291 coaches, to complement the set, or release a dedicated Roland or Tiziano IC Set as this is a very nice consist. To complete it properly would require an Apmz coach with the modernized steps and the windows opposite the WCs removed, as well as a 1:93 model of the Avmz 207 Eurofima coach.
I was surprised that the Apmz from the 43858 did not already have these modifications, as had been suggested by the press material.

I consider myself very lucky to have been able to obtain a few RailTop SBB Steuerwagen (Pilot coaches) which I can use with my 39420 and 39421 to recreate the Lucerne-Goeschenen and Airolo-Chiasso Pendelzuege seen in the video (Re 4/4I - Baggage - Lightsteel B - Lightsteel B - ABt Steuerwagen). For those who did not get the RailTop model, you can also use the Maerklin 43410. A ncie version with red front is available from Hemut's Hobbies in USA which corresponds to the 39421. You could also go with the lightsteel ABt small production model, made by AKU Modellbau in Switzerland, which goes for around 450 CHF.

One other train that I intend to recreate is as follows; Re 6/6 followed by SBB Bpm (1972) in orange (LSM 47220), FS Baggage in orange (ACME), several FS Eurofima Az and Bz in orange (Roco) and then completed by a DB Bm 232 and ABm 225 in blue/beige (LSM) or Bm 234 (Roco 44746) and BDm (Roco 44749).

You can view the selection of videos from TEE USA at tee-usa.com under DVDs. If anybody knows of other DVDs showing consists from the 1970s and 1980s, please let me know. Most of the Re-Os videos are very nice, but are almost exclusively post 1995, so Era III/IV consists are not included.

Regards


Mike C