European N scale

[jbonkowski]

I'm thinking about getting some European N scale passenger equipment.

Are there any opinions on who makes good European passenger cars?

I look online but don't find any high resolution photos, usually just drawings, so it is hard to identify the well detailed/high quality brands.

How are Minitrix, for both passenger and stream engines?

Jim

[jbonkowski]

Upon further review it appears that I would have to turn down the wheel flanges in order to run on my club layout, which uses Micro Engineering code 55 track.

Replacing the wheels on the passenger equipment and the tender is trivial, but I don't think I want to dismantle such an expensive steamer.

Could the engine flanges be turned down without dismantling?

Jim

[peteski]

Take a look at the range of products at few U.S. based sellers of European models:
https://www.tee-usa.com/index.html
https://www.reynaulds.com/
Problem with these is that they do not show live inventory status (and many items are either out of stock or will arrive in the future).
This one has some brands of European models:
https://www.nscaledivision.com/

Then there is a vendor in Germany, with live inventory.
https://www.dm-toys.de/en/index.html
They communicate in English and will take PayPal and Bank Transfer for payments.

I have dealt with all the vendors I mentioned and I generally happy with them all. My favorite is DM-Toys.

As for the flange size, you probably won't have problem with Micro Engineering, especially if it is their early flex track.  The Atlas C55 track has high spikes which are incompatible with many older and European models.  But generally, most recently produced European models have slightly smaller flanges.

[Skeebo]

Having lived in Germany and visited several other times, (although not wanting to collect European), I did want a German passenger train as a souvenir. I found Fleishmann passenger trains to be vastly superior to any of the other European brands. I would say they are much better than Micro trains. Minitrix I would put on par with Lifelike or Model Power. Marklin is middle of the road. Just my opinion.

Jim Semikoski

[peteski]

Having lived in Germany and visited several other times, (although not wanting to collect European), I did want a German passenger train as a souvenir. I found Fleishmann passenger trains to be vastly superior to any of the other European brands. I would say they are much better than Micro trains. Minitrix I would put on par with Lifelike or Model Power. Marklin is middle of the road. Just my opinion.

Jim Semikoski

Jim,  Marklin doesn't make any N scale models. Minitrix does (Trix/Minitrix and Marklin have merged several years ago, but all the N scale is still only made under Minitrix brand).
As for American companies, neither Life-Like or Model Power exist as separate entities anymore.  Life-Like was purchased by Walthers years ago, and Model Power was acquired by MRC.  But in my experience both brands were considered low-end model trains.  Trainset quality.  More recent locomotive models were better quality, but as I recall, nether have produced any appreciable number of passenger equipment.  Micro Trains also does not make much passenger equipment (compared to their freight offerings, but they are way better quality and fidelity than either Life-Like or Model Power used to be.

If you are interested visit http://spookshow.net/ where Mark has extensively reviewed hundreds of N scale models.

Going back to Fleischmann, they have merged with Roco and have re-releases some of Roco's N scale models under the Fleischmann name (Roco is now all H0).  Fleischmann was the top quality and fidelity brand back in the '70s and '80s, but nowadays I would say that the quality of all the European N scale manufacturers is about equal.  And they are all now made in China, or in few select Eastern European countries.

[Mark W]

A few years ago I bought a Graham Farish Peppercorn A1 "Tornado" and several coaches.  They are exceptional models.

While the flanges still look quite tall, they do not have any issues on Atlas C55.


https://i.imgur.com/7JmseHx.jpg

I was concerned to discover the engine was tender driven, especially at it's size; smaller than a 44 Tonner!
However it has quite a surprising amount of pull.  Also, the Graham Farish passenger coaches I got are by far the most free-rolling pieces I've ever seen!  This little tender drive can easily pull 7 coaches up a 1.5% grade.


https://i.imgur.com/zwMPv2z.jpg


100% would recommend. 


https://i.imgur.com/A9fVB2v.jpg

[peteski]

A few years ago I bought a Graham Farish Peppercorn A1 "Tornado" and several coaches.  They are exceptional models.

While the flanges still look quite tall, they do not have any issues on Atlas C55.


https://i.imgur.com/7JmseHx.jpg

I was concerned to discover the engine was tender driven, especially at it's size; smaller than a 44 Tonner!
However it has quite a surprising amount of pull.  Also, the Graham Farish passenger coaches I got are by far the most free-rolling pieces I've ever seen!  This little tender drive can easily pull 7 coaches up a 1.5% grade.

100% would recommend. 

When Europe is mentioned, I usually think of continental Europe (not including UK).   

The flange depth of some of the European brands have been reduced in the recent 10 years or so, but not by much.  Most of the contemporary Arnold, Minitrix, and Fleischmann models still have rather deep flanges, especially re-releases of the older models.

Lilliput and and Hobbytrain/Lemke models seem to have the smallest flanges (but still fairly deep by American standard).  Seems that Graham Farish also reduced the size of their flanges.  But as I said, it is still buyer beware (especially with the other makes I mentioned).

The biggest compatibility problem is with Atlas c55 flex track (due to the height of the "spikes").  Micro Engineering c55 track might not be as problematic.  And of course PECO c55 track (due to its design) is compatible with all pizza-cutter flanges.