IETB Marseille

IETB are one of the very few retailers in France offering garden railway equipment for sale.
Shame for me (or good fortune for my wallet and marriage) that they are in Marseille which is rather a long way to drive. Dragon G scale is about the same distance.

Anyway, I have ordered some of this new Trainline 45 track, 3 900mm radius points and a full 900mm radius circle of track.
This being to upgrade and extend slightly my portable layout to double track. This will give 750mm rad and 900mm on the curves. It may be a tad close at 150mm track centres for some passing trains.....oooh breath in.

I had a pleasant surprising phone call from the man in charge, Monsieur Deconde down there informing me of the expected delivery date, thanking me for my generous order and wanting to chat about G scale.

I am now subscribed to their monthly newsletter.

Here is the news for March.....scissors crossover anyone....

IETB News

Note the misnomer with R2. Not the same as LGB/Aristo labelled R2 (750mm rad) track.

Cheers for the link Carl, looks an interesting range of stock. I am intrigued by the page on "Merten Personnages"... particularly the ones at the bottom of the image!

http://www.lespetitstrains.com/php/main_new_api.php?EXEC=3&ID_SESSION=KQDD8915&ID_CATEGORY=698

Carl

In my experience, IETB is definetely "une bonne adresse" and the only place I know where you can still have engines repaired. Just one thing to be careful about : the availability of items is not clearly and reliably stated on their site. I'm still waiting for a station building which was ordered in mid-december. So it's always better to check M. Deconde before you order, as you just did.

Jean-Pierre

Thanks Jean-Pierre,

It is always useful to know other's opinion of retailers and suppliers.

By the way, what others do you use in France?

Well, none in France actually. I used to shop at "Le petit train bleu" in Lyon, my place of work, but they stopped selling LGB. However, they seem to have resumed it recently. Here's their website : http://www.lepetittrainbleu.fr/

I usually buy my stuff at RD Hobby, which I find reliable and fast… no LGB there unfortunately !

End of march, I shall pay a visit to IETB in Marseille, to have my LGB Mogul repaired. I will take the opportunity to check if he really plans to sell Aristo and Bachmann, which he does, but with a very limited range.

JP

Well what we said earlier.

My track arrived today. Jolly fine service DIRECT from Herforder Lokshop. So IETB doesn't keep any stock of this track but arranges pronto delivery direct from the wholesalers/distributors in Germany.

Excellent looking track though. Streets better than Aristo quality and very much like LGB.
Photos maybe tomorrow in the daylight.

Photos please indeed! I'm interested in the TrainLine45 R3 points - are they a drop in replacement for LGB? My lovely finescale-wheeled 399 isn't always too keen about going backwards through R3 points on the curve - it falls through the enormous gap in the frog, and I'm wondering whether selective replacement with TrainLine45 R3s might be a solution?

I don't know about their R3 (1200 rad) points Bruce. I ordered their R2 which is 900mm rad and 375mm long.

Here's some pics taken in the messy workshop - on the new boards for the portable layout.

16 pieces to a full circle. 4 for a quarter on my quadrant board.













There is a large chunky, enclosed point switch which seems compatible with LGB.

Bruce if you go to this link it gives the dimensions of the 1200mm rad point.

IETBTrainline track

Thanks, Carl... I'll need to measure an LGB one as well... the whole frog area looks less "slack" than LGB... just wouldn't want to ruin the circuit or not be able to drop in a straight replacement, it would rather defeat the object of the exercise!

He sent me some catalogues today.

Trainline 45, Massoth, and LGB new items for 2009.

I have no need of the latter 2 if anyone wants them.

LGB for me me me please Carl. Its just so i dont pay too much on ebay. I use IETB's website for that normally. even if they dont carry a lot of stock the prices,descriptions etc are useful

mikey

Send me your address by message or e mail. I had once but lost it..sorry.