TRAIN COLLECTOR SOCIETY MEMBER FRED VAN DER LUBBE from Holland has recently put together another fascinating book of photos and comment taken from his collection, this time on models of the rolling stock of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et Grands Express Européens.
In his own words “My train collection consists mostly of rolling stock (locomotives, coaches and wagons). One of the collecting goals is to make it possible to run representations of the luxury trains of yesteryear. The luxury trains in continental Europe were largely initiated and operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et Grands Express Européens, abbreviated to CIWL. This catalogue contains all CIWL carriages from my collection. I have carriages in various gauges and scales of many different brands. The catalogue is based on the CIWL vehicle types such as WL (sleeping car), WR (dining car), WP (Pullman car) and F (luggage car) and the subtype like WL type S etc. As all CIWL cars had a unique number models or toys that show a number will be categorized by that number. Models or toys that have no or a fancy number cannot be assigned a CIWL subtype but they can be assigned a type; In this case, there is a separate paragraph devoted to these. The index in the back can be used to find carriages via the maker or brand.
Liliput HO model of 1907 Orient Express sleeping car
This catalogue will not elaborate on the history of CIWL and equipment. There are many books that go into this. Nor is the history of the makers or brands of the toys and models described here. Some of the brands, like Märklin, are well-known. Others, especially in the larger scales, are less known. Information might be found in books on toy and model trains and on the internet. Many of the makers of CIWL carriages in H0 are French; a couple of them are lesser known and I had to search to get examples of these in my collection; these are brands like France Trains and RMA and even lesser known like SMCF, PMP, Rateau, Martin, BLZ, FOBBI, Troby, TRAM and VB.”
Bing CIWL teak sleeping car c1920
The catalogue is now available, free to download, in PDF format. To do so click on this icon 
to go to the TCS Document Folder and then download the file CIWL carriages by Fred Small.pdf. You will also find Fred's previous catalogue on toy train accessories Tin stuff from Fred small.pdf there as well in case you have not already downloaded this. The TCS Document Folder has been added to the site to hold files, such as this one, which are too large to be held on the main site.
Many thanks again to Fred for sharing this with us.
Copyright
There is no copyright on this document, but please mention the source when you copy something.
