RailExpo 2011

antonr91 wrote:

Okay cool, so it seems that they do not mind people bringing machinery onto their trains.

Hopefully I will be booking these tickets in the next day or two. If the 32mm track is going to be very small, then I might as well just adjust my wheels to 45mm, although it would have been nice to let people see a 32mm diesel as well.

There's no real difference between a '32mm' and '45mm diesel'....

Sadly many people at the exhibition won't even know what gauge they are looking at anyway.

So it's a bit irrelevant unless one has a locomotive to say 1:19 scale and represents a specific 2ft/60cm gauge prototype, a Funkey (or funky maybe... ) diesel perhaps.

You can explain and demonstrate that you can adjust the wheels if you wish.

There is a remote possibility I could add a 'third rail' and make one loop dual gauge.

Carl, could you give me a list of the hotels that are close to this expo, and roughly how much you think each would cost

There are many hotels nearby at least a dozen.

The best thing for you to do is to go on:

www.viamichelin.fr
type in 91140 Villebon-sur-Yvette where it says 'carte'.

This will give you a map of the area.

On the left there is a box for hotels. Put the dates and number of people and it will give you a huge list of hotels ranging from about 40 euros per room per night.

However as you are with your parents and coming by train you might be better off staying near Massy 91300 where there are direct trains to Paris and a free shuttle bus to the exhibition.
Again a big selection of hotels ranging from 41 euros per night at the Kyriad which is about 5-10 mins walk from the station to the Mercure at over 100 euros per night but just outside.

Tickets booked. i will be coming up on friday but will only arrive at around 2.30pm. I will be there all day Saturday and will be returning home Saturday night.

Lets hope saturday is a busy day or is sunday the busy day?



Just need to sort out accommodation...

They are all busy days but different groups of people.

Friday, mostly 'experts', rivet counters, retireds want to talk in depth about about their trains, but fairly sensible questions.

Saturday, mostly fathers with sons, 'average' enthusiasts, massive queues if the weather is fine.

Sunday, families, and daft questions. especially after lunch with grannies (all called Edith) and their poodles.

It should be reasonably quiet at 2.30 Friday.

Okay good, well it sounds like me and Shunt will be coming over, and im excited as it could be the first proper time i get to run it.

Just need to get some buffers purchased from essel and then ill be ready to go.

Carl, im guessing your brining wagons/coaches?

Is anyone else bringing any rolling stock with them? As i would love to couple as much as i could to the diesel to see how much it could actually handle

You said Nitro, food and drink is all supplied free ?

The other reason why i say this is because im guessing that they wouldnt want the fuel to be brought with me on the train?

I know that is a very fussy kind of question but will there be different percentages of nitro? as ive tried mine on a few types and i think its 16% seems to work the best?

Don't worry about bringing nitro fuel or anything like that and I will have a comprehensive tool kit. I have at least 10 and 15% nitros and I will buy some more to be sure.

There will be plenty of rolling stock too.

You will be adequately fed and watered during the day.
Unless of course you ave any special dietary requirements. Remember it is French food.
Snails, frog legs and other uncooked wriggling, squirmy things in a garlic sauce.

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Friday, mostly 'experts', rivet counters, retireds want to talk in depth about about their trains, but fairly sensible questions.

Good thing I'm only present saturday and sunday. I choose granny's over rivet counters anytime (especially when they carry cookies with them). Ah well, I can't speak French anyway

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Is anyone else bringing any rolling stock with them? As i would love to couple as much as i could to the diesel to see how much it could actually handle

Noticed! I'll bring some rolling stock (the Margnat tanker, Dubonet boxcar and some other stuff). I'll try to pickup my crane car project and try to finnish it in time.
I also bring the VW railcar and hopefully the Mercedes railcar and my scratchbuild 'railbus' although it's in poor condition right now... Or the RC controlled Stainz...

I booked a hotel in Orsay as it was perfectly located; the ladies can get the metro to Paris close to the hotel and I'm not too far away from the Expo.

Carl Hibbs wrote:

Remember it is French food.
Snails, frog legs and other uncooked wriggling, squirmy things in a garlic sauce.

That certainly wasn't my experience when I went a few years back! I was royally entertained by the organisers at lunch whilst Carl was manning the stand!

Carl, I may still come, but as a short term, non loco toting "passer by" and will endure the queues and entrance fee!

BTW Phil, are you going? and which hotel will you use?

Cheers

It will be good see to see you in any capacity. They'll always be a nice cup of tea or a beer at least.

Okay Carl, it seems youve pretty much catered for everything

Im glad im not going to be there until the later part of friday, as rivet counters really aren't my cup of tea.

Im very excited about this whole trip now, and im sure it goes without saying:
WE NEED TO MAKE A VIDEO WITH ALL THE DIESELS RUNNING TOGETHER

And im definitely a huge French food fan, not for the snails and frogs, but the pastries and dry cured salami salads

antonr91 wrote:

Okay Carl, it seems youve pretty much catered for everything

It's not me doing the catering.

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Im glad im not going to be there until the later part of friday, as rivet counters really aren't my cup of tea.

That's the absolute worst time for 'les compteurs des rivets' ... But don't worry I'll deal with all the questions and when I get fed up I just pretend to be busy or not to understand.

The best (and most patient) person is Laurent if he comes. He's great with customers. He should work for the SNCF. There will be a few other eminent French G scalers on 'our side' though.

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Im very excited about this whole trip now, and im sure it goes without saying:
WE NEED TO MAKE A VIDEO WITH ALL THE DIESELS RUNNING TOGETHER

That will be great. I've yet to see any film of 2 or more diesels running together. However we will need seek permission from the 'Pompiers' before running more than one. Not so much the fire risk but more the smoke and we may have to lean the engines down just a tad.

The fact of seeing several machines together from different builders (if others can make it) will be of great interest and curiosity. We should try and produce an explanatory leaflet in French and English for the punters!

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And im definitely a huge French food fan, not for the snails and frogs, but the pastries and dry cured salami salads

I will bring a robust selection of 'saucissons secs'(salami) for you to chew on......Strangely the choux pastries in France are 'Viennoises' (From Vienna or perhaps Vienne... )

To be honest they taste more like shoe pastry to me.

Paulus wrote:

I'll bring some rolling stock (the Margnat tanker, Dubonet boxcar and some other stuff). I'll try to pickup my crane car project and try to finnish it in time.
I also bring the VW railcar and hopefully the Mercedes railcar and my scratchbuild 'railbus' although it's in poor condition right now... Or the RC controlled Stainz...

I booked a hotel in Orsay as it was perfectly located; the ladies can get the metro to Paris close to the hotel and I'm not too far away from the Expo.

Excellent Paul.

Those models will be much admired at the exhibition and we need to do them justice by displaying nicely. I will be ballasting my layout with this cork stuff I found earlier this summer and adding a Correze type station with a loading dock which will go some way to achieving that.

What hotel in Orsay is it? Is the posh one (Hotel d'Orsay) just off the N118 near Le Guichet RER?

I still don't know precisely where I'm staying yet. It could be the hotel Twingo at the moment.

The saucissons secssound good

I think a leaflet idea would be amazing. Perhaps a picture of each individual loco and a short synopsis of what it is and how it works, and how each diesel differs from each other

Paulus, what loco(s) are you bringing with you?

Now a little bit about loco couplings, but ill post that on the diesel section

antonr91 wrote:

I think a leaflet idea would be amazing. Perhaps a picture of each individual loco and a short synopsis of what it is and how it works, and how each diesel differs from each other

carl hibbs wrote:

We should try and produce an explanatory leaflet in French and English for the punters!

If you have any spare time Anton your contribution to this mini-project would be very welcome.

All the information and photos are on the forum.

It doesn't need to be too long or too much, just an A5 size sheet.

I'll do the French if you do (some of) the English.....

It could also include a bit about live steam.......lest we forget.

Carl, i could give it a go, but just having purchased a new laptop and the fact that it hasnt come with any Office programs, will stall me from proceeding for the time being.

I am also laden with exams at the moment, ive got my firtst Private pilots licence exam in 9 days, and then 1 every 3 weeks after that

But i will give it a go and let you know how i get on. Btw i know nothing about live steam...

Anton-
Are you familiar with Open Office? It's a freeware suite of programs (like MS Office). It is compatible with Office documents (and vice versa). It won't buy you anymore study time, though.
http://www.openoffice.org/

Thanks for that link Bill, i will try that out and see whats what

I use it at home, no trouble.
A bit different than MS Office if you want to use some specific fonction.

All the basic fonction are there.

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What hotel in Orsay is it? Is the posh one (Hotel d'Orsay) just off the N118 near Le Guichet RER?

Yes, that's the one indeed! 20 minutes ride with the RER to centre Paris. Hopefully the same travel time for me to get to the expo by car.
That makes me wonder; is it free parking at the Expo?

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Paulus, what loco(s) are you bringing with you?

All battery powered, I'm afraid Anton. I admire the fuel burners on this forum but I'm hesitating on the technical issues on those models (or actually, my lack of mechanical knowledge), but perhaps I come over to the dark side after seeing all the diesel power in november
Oh, and I'm too a happy user of Open Office also. Developed by Sun. Free and very workable. It can open save in Word and other MS formats so it's easy to share documents with others that use MS software.

BTW, did you all noticed we often get red colored adds on top of the page from Crown Oil about selling red diesel by the barrel?? Must be because of the term ' diesel' that is often mentioned here

Parking is indeed free at the expo and right by it. You don't have to walk forever.

Better still we will be located in the foyer, even less distance to walk.

I reckon 10-15mins drive from your hotel Paul.

Paulus wrote:

BTW, did you all noticed we often get red colored adds on top of the page from Crown Oil about selling red diesel by the barrel?? Must be because of the term ' diesel' that is often mentioned here

This is indeed a worrying trend, lets hope the web crawlers will start offering us "steam irons" and "steam wallpaper strippers" per chance

Anyone staying at the Premiere Classe Villejust for RailExpo?

Or have I booked into Bates Motel??

There's a possibly I could be staying there Liam.
Still not sure as I need to confirm with the organisers. If they don't have a place for me in their hotel then it will be chez Monsieur Bates.

I stayed there last time and it was fine, a little basic but not too noisy, a good crowd of exhibitors and a decent breakfast.

There is no restaurant but the Campanile is opposite and they have a decent if a little pricey resto.

Thanks Carl,

my mind at rest!

could anyone give me a link to this hotel and or hotels that are close to the expo (walking distance)

And Liam, are you bringing your loco with