Hi bobsr,
I have a fondness for VB trains (along with other French manufacturers such as SMCF, PMP and Jep, which I collect).
One VB item, a fourgon, or qeue de train vehicle for freight trains is shown here on my layout, the VB is the brown car.
It is made of metal, and was designed for 3 rail.
In many cases, VB and other French brands from the 50/60s sell as expensive as new articles made today.



I also collect VB 3 rail track, which is is high quality in both design and manufacture. But it is hard to get.
This track goes with my Hornby Dublo 3 rail (English), because it is completely compatible.
It also allows me to run 2 rail trains on it.

It is most likely that your unknown make is SMCF. Your "wrench" is certainly the F. The C is the 3/4 circle which encloses the SFM.

regards
Kimball

baby trains catalogue might be of interest sorry for the quality alan plymouth

alan plymouth

Hello Kimball,

Yes, the 7 passenger cars are SMCF! Thank you for enlightening me! They all have the same mark stamped on the bottom. Other posters that followed have also identified them and sent some pictures from literature at the time.

Looking at your photo, I have 2 in black color of the same two wheeled VB freight car (# 23 in the 1952 or '53 VB catalogue I have) that you show running.

All these posters have been very helpful, so I will take some pictures of all these cars and post them "for the record," and may even take the advice from Dr Eisenbahn and see if there is any interest from anyone to purchase them, before all the 70 and 80 year olds expire! (Myself included!)

Thanks again!

Hello Marcus,

Thank you for your posts and literature links. Yes, as you probably have seen now, the passenger cars ARE SMCF as you suggested. I have looked mine over, and agree they are really well detailed and solid.

I will also take pictures of the 7 SMCF passenger cars I have, and also the 8 VB freight cars and add the link. I have to find the box with the VB track so I can authentically set them "on the rails".

I have been to your part of Germany many times, had relatives in Reutlingen many years ago, and still represent two German Companies in N America, one near Baden Baden and the other near Reutlingen. Have been lucky over the years to travel all over Europe and spend some time in Stuttgart. I toured the Porsche Factory in Zuffenhausen in 1969 when I was in Europe for 30 days R&R fron Vietnam. Also went in uniform for a tour through E Germany (nothing had been done with some bombed out buildings since the war, even by 1969!), and drove to Bayreuth
to check out Wagner's stomping grounds (also got a speeding ticket in a VW on the way there!). And they didn't have any "spy cameras" back then!

I also have a train story. I had a lot of Marklin as a kid, and drove by a railroad switching center, where they still were using steam locomotives. I recognized them as I had the Marklin models. So I stopped and ran up next to the fence and watched them making up trains. And I will never forget when one went by very close and all the soot that come out of the smokestack also came down all over me! Aah, the romanticism of steam rail travel! Funny the things you remember. But it was really great to see and HEAR the real engines running (but I could have done without "feeling" them)! In earlier decades, everyone would have been aware of that possibility.

I also went to the 1972 Olympics in Munich as a spectator. The world was a very large place back then. No cell phones or computers. It was a very international feeling to be sitting with people from all over the world speaking different languages etc., and rooting for your own countrymen, but very happy for them as well if the people next to you were from somewhere else and their people did well. But in hindsight, it was really the beginning of terrorism as we now know it, with the killing of Israelis that happened in the Olympic village that year. No one could quite believe that situation, especially happening in Munich. Are you old enough to remember all the "Olympic blue" Mercedes Limousines that were all over Munich moving around the Olympic VIP's? It was also the first year of the "New U Bahn" in Munich. I and also went to the Dressage and saw Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in the stands. Great stuff.

I stayed in a Pension during that time and one morning all the local workers working on a road project came into the bar at10:00 AM during their break, and had a beer! That was very different from anything Americans were allowed to do. Drinking on the job! Gotta love it!

Thanks again for your help and comments to identify the passenger cars.

Best, Bob