As far as I
remember, I've
always enjoyed trains, as much the real ones as the
models.
When I was a kid, in 1967, I've had the
opportunity to freely order a Märklin catalog.
I've dreamt a lot of time, checking
with a pencil the preffered models as to simulate a big purchase.
The prices were in excess for my parents, so I kept my dreams in my
catalog.
Here is a today's pic of my
first Märklin catalog:
I've had for Christmas the HO
Jouef "train-auto-couchettes" starter set.
Less expensive than Märklin - but great moments of play.
Due to our small two-rooms house, and
the lack of place, I was spending time
mounting and dismounting the tracks on the floor.
Around 1969, My father offers me a small but wonderful
N-scale layout with the tracks placed
on a wooden board which could be slid under the bed.
The train was composed of an american 0-8-0 steamer
"Indiana Harbor Belt" numbered "102" and a set of six
american freight cars. The
brand was "Atlas" made in Italy.
Here is a today's pic of the
Atlas catalog:
I was really surprised of the
quality of the train. Although it was two times smaller than
my Jouef train, it was enough heavy to never derail, and has a great
level of detail. The steamer was running great.
Here is a today's pic of my
first N-scale train:
It had electric turnouts and
the switches to control them were shaped as the real ones in a signal
box.
Here is a today's pic of the
turnout switches:
These buttons had however a
problem, they remained stuck from time to time, leading to burn some
of the turnout motors.
We had to move in an apartment where I
had my own room. So,
in the early seventies, my parents helped me to build a more consistent
n-scale layout (1m x 1.8m) with lots of details,
houses, mountain, and so on.
As the Atlas tracks were from now on
uneasy to find, The choosen brand for the tracks was then Arnold Rapido.
I stopped n-scale train modeling at the
end of the seventies.
Meanwhile, in the early seventies, I had
found a HO Märklin starter set in a general store, a small supermarket.
It was just before the new year. The
product was on sale because it had not been sold for Christmas. Ac
current for train, was already a marginal standard in France, in this
time. So I bought the starter set for the equivalent of
a few Euros. I let it sleep during long years, waking
it some times to check that it always worked.
