Dear All

I am trying to model A German Hamburg - Milan Autozug which would go over the Gothard pass. The actual service does not exist but as I am modelling the Gothard pass, I thought this consist would be interesting. I have bought the Marklin 42999 set as the autozug piece :-



It would be usual for SBB to attach a few extra coaches to the train while it travels through Switzerland, I would imagine the train would be passing through the Gothard section during the daytime, arriving in Milan about 12:00 and not using the new Base Tunnel, but the old route.

I am after recommendations as to which Marklin SBB coaches I should get to run with the Autozug set.

Thanks

Tim

I had given this a lot of thought. There was a Swiss only Autotrain which ran from Zurich Altstetten to either Naples or Bari (different years) with SBB sleepers and couchette coaches and FS car carriers. There was a DB Auto Train that used to run from Hamburg to Loerrach (north of Basel).

There were also a number of night trains running from Northern Europe to Italy through Switzerland. The trains would typically arrive in Switzerland in the early morning and then transit through the alps in daytime.

For many years, I had been trying to find a consist to fit my 4268 SBB Couchette (Eurofima type). Most recently, I had added this coach to my 42724 OBB/MAV consist along with the 26.4cm Roco 44358/45156 WLABmh of the SBB.

This would probably be a good suggestion for a coach to add to a train with the 42999 as a base. The Swiss couchettes (blue with white stripe) were used in international trains and would fit.
The other possibility that I had in my collection would be the 42696 NS couchette coach, which would fit if the train was running from Holland to Italy.

So, my final recommendation would be as follows:

Lok - 42696 Bcm NS - 4268 Bcm SBB - 42999 Bcm - 42999 WLABm (1) - 42999 WLABm (2) - 42999 DDm
It could either be a night train from Holland to Italy running through Germany or Switzerland or a north-south night train composed of segments coming from Germany and Holland that were combined in Basel for the run south through the alps.


Using older models (4168, 4150-52, 4182) is complicated, because those models do not have close couplings and have either the long or shorter couplers and/or centred or off-centred bogies.

As I stated before, Roco had a model of the WLABm175 in 26.4cm, both in DB and SBB liveries.

If you wanted to extend it further, or find an alternative to the NS and SBB coaches, you could simply add a DB 4292 Bm234/235 and maybe a FS 4189 Bz instead. The 4240 WLABm166 might be an option if you wanted a little more variety as the roof colour is different than the ones in the 42999 set. The FS Az and Bz coaches (gray) from the Riviera Express might be other options. Other possible couchette coaches would be the SNCB (4274) or DSB (42691/92/93), although I don't recall the DSB ones running south of Basel.

I hope that this helps.

Regards

Mike C

If a train was part of a regular schedule, say, departing Basel between 10 and 11 AM, with the regular stops in Luzern, Arth-Goldau, Bellinzona and Chiasso, it would likely have SBB coaches added at the open end of the train (not the car carrier end) that would run through to Chiasso on the run south and the train might replace the normal Regional or Intercity train for that hour on the schedule.

So, you could technically add an EWIV A 4215 (or Eurofima 4267), a couple of EWIV B 4216/42162) or 42163 and maybe even a 4217 or 42173 restaurant for the domestic part of the run.

As most people are limited in the number of coaches they can fit into a consist, you sometimes have to make compromises.
You could model a night train instead of an auto train and drop the car carrier. You could eliminate one sleeper or you could just vary the consist a little each time you use it to change things up.

As the 42999 is Era IV, the only FS coaches would be the 4189 or the ones from the Riviera Express sets (Era III markings).
I don't have the 42999. I would love to have the DB couchette in my collection.
I have the 42696 NS Couchette, with the 4268 SBB one, with a 4240 Sleeper and a 4292 DB 2nd class coach to which I have added the 42163 SBB Bpm and the 4267 Eurofima Am. for my night train between Holland and Italy from around 1990.

I have since focused on a 282mm version of this consist, with the Trix 23414, the Maerklin 43874 WRm and DB coaches Aum and Bum in blue and green. So far, the SBB couchette is the only night train coach in the new scale length.

In exact scale, I have a much wider assortment of coaches to make a north-south or south-north night train.

Regards

Mike C

Thanks, I thought would have been some kind of Service like that.

Tim