Buildings

[Calimero]

Are there any other producers of French buildings aside from MKD?

 

I've had a mooch through the mags and online and it seems there is only limited stuff available from the likes of Vollmer, Kibri, Called etc although these are predominantly German.

 

I also note that that MKD only have a small selection and no official website.

 

What I'm looking for is/to look at is an overall roof, station canopies and a modern design signal box (similar in style to Lourdes).

 

Also a station building, not grandiose like most offerings yet not as small as the MKD models.

 

Final question, does anyone know what yard buildings (shunters accommodation) would look like on French Railways.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Fat Controller]

Not sure about buildings; Jouef used to do a selection of varying quality, and in a selection of regional styles, but I'm not sure what happened to these when Hornby took over. There are quite a few sites with lots of photos that you might find of interest, though, like their equivalents in the UK, they are biased towards locos and stock.

This site is regionally-biased towards the Nord- Pas-de-Calais region:-

http://lapassiondutrain.blogspot.com.au/

This one is national, though with most images taken in the countryside, rather than at stations:-

http://voies-ferrees-de-france.xooit.fr/index.php

Due to the attentions of the RAF in the build-up to D-Day, most French yards have few older buildings remaining. There's a style best described as 'Concrete Garage', which can serve as anything from shunters' hut to relay building- I suspect these were manufactured in-house, rather like the SR, and others, did in the UK. Old vans (either parked up on their wheels, or grounded), often serve as store rooms, and even offices- those on their wheels usually have their ends painted yellow, and are referred to as 'culs jaunes'. One feature of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais are the 3-section sliding roofs removed from steel-carriers, and arranged in a line as car/bike shelters.

If you are modelling a station in an area that was bombed, then the bridges spanning the tracks at the extremities are quite often what I call 'RAF bridges'. These are concrete bowstring ones, replacing the ones the RAF (and USAAF) took out; you can tell how strategic a line was viewed to be by how many of these there are...

[Andy Hayter]

Faller do a 5 door station building (similar to the PLM designs) with the option of adding one or 2 annexes - IIRC called Saint Julien.  They also do the PLM platform canopy - which when it came out was a masterstroke in fine moulding. 

 

You can also check out

http://patrick-gazel.fr/

for plaster based buildings

 

http://82.240.92.237/dev2000/WebPagesFR/home.html

 

Also has some of the more "concrete"  style buildings

 

Pola did a small wayside station, Marmande - but ptobably too small for your needs.

[Joseph_Pestell]

SAI do some buildings but they are mostly Auhagen modified.

 

Quite a lot of MKD was sourced elsewhere as well. The very typical concrete walls found around station yards are (or used to be) available more cheaply from Wills. As well as Marmande mentioned above, a lot of the MKD range (now part of Hornby/Jouef I think) was originally Pola.

 

There are several manufacturers of plaster buildings in addition to Gazel. Have a look at the Railway SA Lisieux catalogue (but don't necessarily buy from him) for an idea of what's available.

 

I'm not aware of a decent French-prototype overall roof. But surely someone must have done one as an etched-brass kit???

[Oldddudders]

Look out for Colinter and Artitec.

 

EDIT This page also has some useful products

 

http://www.lrmodelisme.com/produits-boutique/produits-modelisme/batiments-ferroviaires-et-gares/#menu_centre

[SNCF stephen]

If you pick up Loco Revue there are a number of companies offering laser cut card kits which are pretty good and authentic French. The only thing I would say is that their attention to quality can be lacking. Personally I have bitten the bullet and have produced my own kits that I print off for buildings I want. 

 

Good luck with your search.

 

Stephen