Because Mehano, Jouef and Lima make/made one. So why another one.

There is an unwritten golden rule in the MRR industry. “Try always to produce a model nobody had produce before” and “Never produce another similar model of an already successful one produced by the concurrence”.

In the past 30 years this has been more o less the rule (not always respected), nowadays with a weak roco, limarrossi shy in the marker and the strong price war against piko, marklin/trix is releasing models already produced by the concurrence, but it is mostly a market reason.

Marklin TGV?, I don’t think so, German market is by far the most important market for marklin so Why release a model probably nobody in Germany will interested in? But, probably in the future will see real TGVs running in southern german lines, only then german market probably would be interested in TGVs.

Hello:

I have many Lima and Mehano TGV's. The Lima are very nicely detailed, but their weak point is their drive units. They used a very brittle plastic that has a tendency to break. Thus, a lot of gear failures. Also, the motors are not the best. It will be interesting to see how the new Chinese made Jouef (ex Lima/Hornby International) units stand up.

As for Mehano, they have a lower detailing qualitity, but a more rugged drive train. Miniture Wonderland operates a Mehano Thalys TGV in regular service on their Marklin layout.

For both, beware that you need at least R3 curves to operate.

r/mark

The Thalys has been running between Brussels and Cologne for years now and fits right in. Doesn't mean I'll buy one though...

Cheers, p.

Gustavo:

The Thalys and Duplex models are indeed considered TGV's. In fact the Thalys PBA is just a TGV Reseau (tri-voltage) with a different paint scheme. The PBKA has the same trailers, but an improved power car able to handle quad voltages. The AVE and Euromed are the same as the TGV Atlantique, only with 8 trailers vs. 10 and the power cars are slightly more streamlined.

The Eurostar uses similar technology and the 14 car versions are used in France as TGV's.

r/mark

This rule applies for most models... but not for all of them,as you said! It's true that Marklin will never produce a TGV because Mehano makes it. [:(]
But... what about some models such as schienenbus (I remember old Marklin, Lima, Fleischmann, Roco...) V200 (old Marklin, Roco, Fleischmann...)... ???? There is a little group of model with a very hard concurrence, and perhaps many other interesting trains that have never been produced!

Probably the most logical answer would be "the TGV did not yet stop in Göppingen". :-)))

Now, since the agreement and successful acceptance tests, the TGV is planned to run between Paris, Stuttgart, München and Wien - so it shoul also be visible in G. in future! :-)

Regards,
Lutz

Come on you German and French people, admit there is some 'prestige' going on about the 'Train à Grande Vitesse'and its counterpart the 'InterCity Express'

I am also the proud owner of a Märklin H0 ICE 2, so are the Dutch Railways (NS) with their ICE3

possibly a licensing issue, sort of like Union Pacific RR?

Waiter, a Thalys and some Shinkansen please.

These are much more interesting looking than the ICE.

Didn't anyone else hear about that tunnel that connects Tokyo with Munich, Paris, & London? It will have ICE, TGV (all variants) and Shinkansen all ploughing their trade at tremendous speeds.

John