Wait Ages, Then Several Come Along At Once...

Well you know what I mean, you are waiting for a bus or whatever and after ages several arrive one behind the other.  Well it seems the same may apply to model trains as well, after waiting ages for the Royal Train to make an appearance today I received an absolutely beauty made by Fleischmann, I don't make a point of collecting European Outline trains, but just occassionally one comes along that is just stunningly beautiful and this one falls into that category.  A lovely limited edition set made to celebrate an anniversary of Fleishmann trains.  I had wanted a version of this loco for years and had been drooling over a Roco version, but they are frankly silly money so I'd always resisted  But then this came up at a very reasonable price, relatively speaking, so couldn't resist it even though it was not exactly the same as they Roco model I still yearn to have, the other big advantage apart from price is that it also came with a rake of 4 very high quality carriages as well that are easily as detailed as the loco.  Anyway enough waffling, here's some pics, including some close ups to show Super the rivets (he's got a thing about rivets )

[Super]

Its...Its...RIVETING

I love the Coaches with the rounded ends and that Baggage Car is Awesome.

It's often like that... you wait, and then - poof - magically they are all there for you!!  
And you reacted appropriately - you got them all! That's the way! Cool!   If you had waited, you may never have them! 

"Gepäckwagen" (the baggage car) is my favourite too (and it's home station - Halle an der Saale - is a hometown of my uncle, he would love to see that car!).

But the inscription on the dining car ("Speisewagen") is interesting. The name of the company then (in the 19th century) was Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (=German Railroad Society), and the word for the dining car ("Speisewagen") is somehow just inserted there, between the 2nd and the 3rd word of the name of the company (separated by two dashes)... Strange 

I like the two-colour passenger car also!

Anyway, this looks so beautiful >>> any chance to see this train in action in the near future?

Its...Its...RIVETING

I love the Coaches with the rounded ends and that Baggage Car is Awesome.

Yes the coaches are particularly nice, so match the loco perfectly in terms of style and quality.  Amazingly this is actually quite an old set which shows you how far ahead of the likes of Hornby were when this was produced.  Mind you I read the other day when researching this set before hitting the button that apparently Fleischmann got into financial difficulties recently and has since been taken over by Roco.  Not that is such a bad thing as Roco also produce stunning products, the only downside though appears to be that they are running down the HO model side of the company and turning them into an 'N Gauge' specialist.  This will be a pity as it removes some of the competition which of course stimulates improvements as well as keeping prices down.

So, I may have to see if I can source some more coaches to go along with this set to make a full rake and makeup while they are still around...

I tell you one other thing I like about these (and other Fleischmann coaches of that era) if you notice there is the odd window that is open or half open, something you don't get on the newer hermetically sealed air conditioned coffins we travel around in.  You'll also notice the doors open on the baggage car, well they actually work and can be opened/closed

 

It's often like that... you wait, and then - poof - magically they are all there for you!!  
And you reacted appropriately - you got them all! That's the way! Cool!   If you had waited, you may never have them! 

"Gepäckwagen" (the baggage car) is my favourite too (and it's home station - Halle an der Saale - is a hometown of my uncle, he would love to see that car!).

But the inscription on the dining car ("Speisewagen") is interesting. The name of the company then (in the 19th century) was Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (=German Railroad Society), and the word for the dining car ("Speisewagen") is somehow just inserted there, between the 2nd and the 3rd word of the name of the company (separated by two dashes)... Strange 

I like the two-colour passenger car also!

Anyway, this looks so beautiful >>> any chance to see this train in action in the near future?

Yes, these things do tend to come along all at the same time and I've learnt in the past to act rather than dither for fear of missing out on the opportunity, so if I can afford it I jump when they pop up

I know that the word "Speisewagen" is usually used on the more modern German outline dining cars as I already have some of them in my European rolling stock, so I didn't really pick up on that appearing in the middle of the society name.  I wonder if that is prototypical or just a bit of poetic licence on the part of the maker?  Either way I just love that gold lettering on that car.  The baggage car as already mentioned is also interesting, I love the 'hump' in the top of the roof, that was apparently there to allow the guard to act as lookout when the train was in motion, never seen that before - or at least not explained.

As for seeing her running?  That will probably happen in the future, at the moment I only really have a test track setup to try out the new additions, but I'm toying with the idea of building a big layout in my car garage, after all I'm only using it for storage at the moment as I can't physically get my car in there since I got the new one a couple of years back as she is just too long and wide lol!

As I'm also tinkering with DCC now as well I'm itching to see the likes of Princess Helena running with the sound chip going