Hello from France

[gibet_b]

Hello everyone,

My name is Jean-Baptiste (that's my first name, not my last name and first name), and I live in France, more precisely in its center, in a very beautiful region called Auvergne 😉

 

I came back to model railroading in 2019, after giving my daughter a wooden Ikea train for her third birthday 😊

Until today, I was making French model trains (of course, I want to say), in H0 (narrow gauge and standard gauge) and in N. And I've been making American model trains in N since almost the beginning, which makes me a weird guy among my colleagues 😂

I've wanted to make Japanese model trains for a long time (that's going to make me an even weirder guy), but I think the time has come 🤣

 

As a job, I'm a journalist... for model railroading magazines 😉 I write articles for the group's various magazines for which I work on, and I also and above all (it takes a lot of my time) take care of the YouTube channel.

 

A lot of my searches brought me back to this forum, so I signed up.

Edited February 2 by gibet_b

[cteno4]

Welcome Jean-Baptiste, lad you found us! Sounds like you have an interesting career. What magazines do you write for? Is the YouTube channel on model trains?

 

there are several folks from France on the forum so you are not totally strange! You can start a trend! Japanese scenes can be really fun as they tend to be dense with details and have a lot of different things potentially going on together you don’t see other places in the word and trains are everywhere in Japan so you see tracks next to about any scene you can dream up.

 

keep us posted on your modeling!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[gibet_b]

9 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Welcome Jean-Baptiste, lad you found us! Sounds like you have an interesting career. What magazines do you write for? Is the YouTube channel on model trains?

 

there are several folks from France on the forum so you are not totally strange! You can start a trend! Japanese scenes can be really fun as they tend to be dense with details and have a lot of different things potentially going on together you don’t see other places in the word and trains are everywhere in Japan so you see tracks next to about any scene you can dream up.

 

keep us posted on your modeling!

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Thanks Jeff.

 

Yes, I am happy with what I do today professionally, even if there are very intense moments! The path up to here has been a bit strange, because during my studies and my first years on the job market, I was a computer scientist...

 

The magazines I work for are Loco-Revue (the oldest French model railroad magazine: 90 years old!), Les Dossiers Thématiques de Loco-Revue (a kind of special edition of the previous magazine), Clés pour le train miniature (mainly aimed at beginners) and Voie Libre (dedicated to narrow gauge). As the group mainly publishes model railroad magazines, yes, the channel talks about model railroading: https://www.youtube.com/@LRPresseOfficiel (and this video has been automatically translated into English by YouTube if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Unjv-dKGTA)

 

Yes, of course, I will keep you informed. In the meantime, here is a photo of my french H0 layout:

 

 

And two photos of my latest N layout, Franco-American (yes, I dared!):

 

 

[cteno4]

The more interesting the journey, the more rich the life. I ended up doing things different than what I went to school for even with a PhD… seems odd but I don’t regret it at all as I ended up doing many more interesting things and meeting a lot of amazing people.

 

Nice to see there is a thriving model train publishing business in France! The video reminds me so much of visiting my best friend as a kids mother last year. Sadly my friend passed a couple of years ago but his mom in her 90s is still doing exceptionally well. She showed me in her garage the 4’x8’ layout he had built when we were kids (we each built our own layouts). His had no scenery yet before he put it aside for working on cars. But looked similar leaning against the wall. Brought back so many childhood memories with him.

 

jeff

[miyakoji]

Hi @gibet_b welcome to the forum!

[miyakoji]

@cteno4 I didn’t know you’re a PhD-holding marine invertebrate!

[cteno4]

Oddly I started in marine biology and then went into molecular biology for the PhD, then into computer and exhibit design. Not a very direct path. But I do have a jelly fish named after me.

 

jeff

[gibet_b]

Thank you @miyakoji !

 

@cteno4 I absolutely do not regret that my studies are useless to me today 😉 Life is a journey, and it is more fun when there is something unexpected 😂 As an anecdote, one of my colleagues (editor-in-chief of one of the magazines) has a Ph. D! In a field that of course has absolutely nothing to do with trains...

 

It's amazing what you tell me about your friend's layout. Because the video has received a lot of comments, full of positive feelings, memories and nostalgia. Jouef is an iconic brand in France. Many children had a Jouef starter set when they were children: this was the case for my stepfather, it was also my case.

Edited February 2 by gibet_b

[cteno4]

Yes Mark’s layout was the big one in the old atlas track plan book from the early 70s (well it was new then) and all atlas sectional track and looked just like the one in the video but in N scale with a bit more track. Thanks for the flashback to the flashback! Reminds me to call his mom here (sort of my second mom as we lived 2 house apart).

 

Funny aside, after I finished my PhD at Berkeley and a short postdoc, I decided I didn’t want to go the prof or industry tracks and wanted to go back into exhibit design and bring in computers (beginning of interactive multimedia), but had to work on free stuff for 6-12 months to get things on the resume to get paying projects. Turns out my old department had 4 labs moving into the building and they needed a half time carpenter to reconfigure the lab spaces and build some custom cabinetry and it paid $40/hr (a lot for the late 80s). I had learned woodworking from my father and done it thru youth in construction and custom stuff so had the chops and got the job. Completely freaked out all the faculty that here was a recent PhD graduate of the department building cabinetry in the building. They would come to me saying I should not be doing this, I would retort with well can you do it? No, well I can and do it well, I enjoy doing it, I can do it better than the usual cabinet guy as I understand how a lab works, and I’m making plenty of money as I set up my next phase in life. Seems like a very good solution to me! Most would walk away shaking their heads, but a few got it. Department chair was not a friend and he tried to get me fired as he was so pissed about it looking bad for the department. Kind of help support my decision to not stay in academia and it got me to the next career.

 

jeff

[disturbman]

Bienvenue, JB. Jeff a raison, il y a quelques Francais par ici, mais pas beaucoup. Et ils sont assez peu actifs.

Nice layout. Very French looking. I like it. I hope you will find the forum useful and won't fall ill to the Nippomania. Japanese N is a very, very difficult habit to kick out once you started between the immense variety available and the affordable prices. What are your Japanese interests?

And definitely don't worry about being the weird guy. You are amongst peers here. JNS is where all the weird guys (and girls) end up. And wait until you start Chinese or Taiwanese models, then you might even become stranger for your colleagues.
 

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Nice to see there is a thriving model train publishing business in France! The video reminds me so much of visiting my best friend as a kids mother last year. Sadly my friend passed a couple of years ago but his mom in her 90s is still doing exceptionally well.

 

Sadly, it's nothing like Germany. I had a shock the first time I spotted the train and model train racks of some German newspaper shops after moving here. Wouldn't find that much variety in France.

[Tony Galiani]

Welcome.  This is a great forum and I am sure you will enjoy it.

I enjoy Loco-Revue and usually pick up one of the series books when I get to France.  Very much enjoy it despite having minimal French.

Tony

[Little-Kinder]

Hey Salut JB,

 

si tu veux du N japonais faudra regarder Tomix et Kato, si jamais tu as des amis qui vont au japon, demande leur de te ramener des trucs, ce sera beaucoup moins cher sur place

[disturbman]

I wouldn't limit everything to Tomix and Kato. The other manufacturers are well worth the look as well, just depends the areas of interests.

[Madsing]

Welcome to the forum. I am not French, but I speak French and I am a subscriber of Loco-Revue and Clé pour le train miniature (the digital version, as I live in Asia). Both are great magazines!

 

Marc

 

[gibet_b]

@cteno4 Unfortunately, I am not surprised by your anecdote. Myself, I was convinced until ten years ago that I was not capable of doing something with my hands, and I had (because of my education I presume) a wrong vision of manual work. And one day, I became passionate about woodworking...

 

@disturbman For the time being, I do not have a very precise idea of what I want to do. I am exploring. By the way, on this subject, do you know a good book in English on the Japanese trains (specificities, history, etc.)? And I am not afraid of being the strange guy, on the contrary, it amuses me. I am just a little disappointed by the lack of curiosity of many people...

And yes, compared to the number of modelers, we are not going to complain about the press offer in France, but modeling is less popular here than in Germany, England, or... Japan!

 

@Tony Galiani Thanks for your appreciation of Loco-Revue! It's nice, especially when it doesn't come from French people 😉

 

@Little-Kinder I'm already a big fan of Kato, because of my American N equipment, and also narrow gauge. But I'm curious to discover Tomix. Unfortunately, I don't have many friends who travel to Japan, but my best friend went there a few years ago. If it were today, I would of course ask him to bring me back some stuff... Until then, I'll go through the web. Even with VAT, etc., it's still advantageous compared to French stuff, which is very often overpriced. And the quality/price ratio is amazing...

 

@Madsing Oh, it's great to meet a reader of our magazines here! If you were reading Clés pour le train miniature last year, you may have recognized in the photos above the layout whose construction was described in the magazine 😉 It is Else-Ouere. One of the photos was used as a cover for one of the issues, but I'm not sure if the other one is not unpublished.

[Bjorn]

As a suscriber of clé pour le train miniature, I was also happy to see you here! 🙂

[gibet_b]

Hello @Bjorn ! I wouldn't have thought there were so many Clés readers here 😉

[disturbman]

21 hours ago, gibet_b said:

For the time being, I do not have a very precise idea of what I want to do. I am exploring. By the way, on this subject, do you know a good book in English on the Japanese trains (specificities, history, etc.)

Following your heart is always the best solution. There are so many possible eras, type of rolling-stocks, urban trains or rural trains, shinkansens, operators, etc. One can never really go wrong. I personally started with a thing for JR Shikoku and then branched out from there. Now, I'm mostly into private railways. Maybe due to the fact that I grew up in Paris with its subway and urban EMUs. I have no idea.

A generic book is hard to recommend as there is so much possibilities to look at. Maybe the others could have suggestions. I'm personally more interested in illustrated guides of rolling stock. Japanese wikipedia and Japanese Internet is where I nerd when I need more proper information.

[cteno4]

Gilbert,

 

I agree with disturbman, follow your interests and joys. Some get purist and only one region and time period, others just buy what they like, heck one of our club members only buys trains he has ridden on (luckily he is a prolific traveler and train rider!). It’s your rr and your joy to focus on.

 

We have a topic with a lug list of Japanese rail and websites in English that may help get you started.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[gibet_b]

Thanks a lot @disturbman and @cteno4 ! Purist modelers are everywhere 😉 And why not ? As I often say, there is as many ways to do model railway as modelers ! As long as everybody respect what the other love. 

 

I just ordered some stuff from 1960-1970 (prototypically, of course) from Plaza Japan. I have to wait now, and to think about a future layout 😉 But I will create a new post soon.

[disturbman]

Totally, sometimes people seem to forget that. I really enjoy JNS and le forum du N for their open-mindedness, it's refreshing. Many other European forums, like 1zu160, can be particularly toxic.

Don't hesitate to post pictures of your purchases in the most prolific thread of the forum: the famous "What did you order or the post deliver?" I'll be curious to see where serendipity and happenstance take you.

https://jnsforum.com/community/topic/998-what-did-you-order-or-the-post-deliver-japanese-n-gauge

Edited February 4 by disturbman

[gibet_b]

@disturbman In french, Le Forum US (https://forum-us.forumactif.com/) is very refreshing too ! I wouldn't be here without them, in some way. Very open-mindeness. It was the place I spoke about my layouts, americans or not ! As a big part of what I do these days is published, I can't really speak about them on french forums now, but I regret it. A funny things : a big part of the french us train lovers live in the same region of France, mine ! So the next us exhibition in France will take place in October, at less 1 hour drive.

[disturbman]

That's strange and interesting. I would never have thought (or known) that the Auvergnats had a fascination for the US. Now I wonder if French modellers with an interest in Japanese trains modellers are all located in the same region(s) as well 😉

Maybe I should post there to show them some of the China Railway locomotives and trains. They would be surprised by some series, like the HXN5 and HXN5B.

[gibet_b]

Me neither ! But Auvergnats are more than French 🤣

[UnfinishedKit]

Where in the Auvergne are you from? I only ask because I spent a lot of my childhood summers In Montbrison. Not strictly the Auvergne but close enough.