New wheels for the Paya Coaches

At Rail 2015, I also purchased 12 new sets of wheels and axles for the Paya coaches. The Merkur 9852 standard wheels, fit the old Paya coaches fine and they run smoothly now. That is a major improvement. In the meantime I have soldered the heads of split pens on the new replacement roof. So, I just have to sand and paint the roof and find some new buffers.

Rail 2015 in Houten

This weekend Rail 2015 was held in Houten (somewhere in the Western bit of the Netherlands). This is a swap meeting and a display of model railroad clubs at the same time. Three halls were filled with second hand toy trains, new toy trains, serious modellers, operators with their layouts etc. All in all quiet amusing. Personally my favorite stand was the Merkur stand with a long bone shaped layout with colourful trains rattling on three rail in zero scale. Welcome to coarse scale / tin-plate heaven.

Here are some picture of the most bright part of Rail 2015. Including the new diesel engines and the turntable.

An apartment building in tin plate is pretty creative!

Do I see J94 prototypes or what?

Merkur BR 01 puffing and steaming

The new diesel engine is a special one. A Czech prototype named T499 or Cyclops.It reminds me of a Class 66 engine with only 4 axles. A nice looking engine indeed.

Merkur toy trains for sale

Many model railroad clubs with their layouts

Amsterdam in model

Pre-war Lionel engine on modern tubular Merkur tracks

Apparently, some American folks still think that Lionel trains do not run on modern tubular Merkur tracks. This is getting more relevant as Lionel tubular track is getting more difficult to acquire. Although this topic gets raised frequently, lets throw in a video to make this subject clear for once and for all.

So, yes Lionel trains, also pre-war Lionel trains, do run on Merkur tracks. Lets hope we can move forward from here on.