Help identifying locos and stock

[Alex3410]

Hey guys,

I am hoping someone will be able to help, a friends from work has been clearing out his loft and found his train set from when he was younger. They had asked if I could take a look and give an idea on value, I said sure expecting something Tri-ang or Hornby I would be able to identify and lookup.

Well, it's not and I don't have a clue so thought I would ask you lot. I have pointed out the vast majority of these finds are mass-produced low-value items but would check to make sure there are no hidden gems

I have gone nuts with the camera to take a look and let me know what you think

Edit:
tank loco train set is Playcraft ref. P 1410: train set Swindon. link ~ 1966

Tender loco is P 835 - French National Railways Pacific Express Passenger Locomotive and Tender Link

still not sure on values, interesting hunting down info though

[Bigmet]

Marketed in the UK as 'Playcraft', made by the French business Joueff. No idea of values at all, not very evenly distributed in the UK is my impression. Never saw it in 'my' model shops zone North of London, but the son of family friends had a very compete set, they lived in Kent...

Good site. http://www.playcraftrailways.com/

[Bufferstop]

They are products from Joueff's first dip in the UK market. They were nominally H0 but not tightly to scale, the Peco/HD style couplers were unlicensed and Peco went to court to stop them abusing their patent rights. The mechanical arrangements stretched from weird to "novel but ok".

[Mountain]

Want a couple more wagons? I have a few. Not many. PM me if interested. Thanks.

[Alex3410]

Thank you all for your replies, it has been an interesting task. After a bit of cleaning and a bit of oil last night both of the locos run with the tender loco lights even still work!

I have taken videos for him to keep but he's looking at selling them on, I have directed him to eBay with some rough descriptions and realistic expectations on prices.

Mountain thank you for your offer, I really appreciate it, but as they are looking at selling them on its best you keep them.

attached is an image showing one of the coaches against a 00 one I had handy, it was surprising the difference in size when you actually put them next to each other.

[Bigmet]

...it was surprising the difference in size (between OO and HO) when you actually put them next to each other.

For every seven OO vehicles, you can fit in eight HO, is the effect. 'If only' RTR wheel standards had been as refined as the best current RTR, back in the day when the divide between OO and HO was determined. Then it might not have happened and some of the scale 'adjustment' common in HO would have allowed a gradual move to true scale 1/87 by now. (I expect original condition Gresley A4 and Bulleid spam can pacifics would have been the most popular big engines: no outside valve gear - or even cylinders on view in the case of the A4 with valances - cylinders neatly between the bogie wheels on the Bulleid, easily the best for RTR HO on set track curves.) 'Might have beens' eh?

[Mountain]

One thing that amazed me with those Jouef steam locos is the motors. They are quality. The wagons are a little light weight. Small rivit detail is actually impressive. The scale size of the coaches... In those days Triang did something similar, and to be honest, so did Hornby Dublo. They were a compromise to fit in a small space. In those days, just to get a loco and stock to look something like the real thing was the basic aim. Don't forget. They were aimed at the toy market. Jouef came in and by simplifying design (Which in itself was clever) to reduce the number of parts to be assembled etc, they quickly became popular as they were much cheaper then Triang, and Triang themselves had become popular as they were cheaper then Hornby Dublo 2 rail. In Hornby Dublo 3 rail days, all they had to compete with was Trix, and though Trix was more novel, Hornby was a much more superior product in my eyes.But when Hornby brought out their 2 rail, and they had both Triang and Jouef to contend with at far cheaper prices, Hornby were out of their league compared with the market demands for trains at afordable prices.

I mentioned that in those days the likes of Triang and Jouef were aiming more at the younger generation. Then what about the older railway modellers in the smaller scales? Well, for years kits had been the answer and most modellers were used to making truer scale models via the many kit manufacturers which once were popular.

[Bufferstop]

Their lengthways compression method looks to me to be copied from the system HD used very little taken from the width of windows and doors but large slices taken out of the plain bodyside in between. Triang just deleted one window or compartment.

[Mountain]

Early Triang were very short. 6" coaches.

I thought it was wize in the late 1970's to early 1980's when Hornby brought out the HST to make their coaches a little shorter. It gabe thelook of the real thing and reduced a whole formation by about a foot in length. Is surprizing how a foot is much appreciated.