British H0 is still alive and kicking. The British 1:87 Society publishes a free magazine Satellite three times a year on the Net and has a lively Forum. Membership is also free. As well as the Jouef coaches Fleischmann also did Southern coaches and a Warship to pull them. In recent years the Society have commisioned 3D printed wagons as well.. Theres a lot going on with British H0.. so join us. Its free, after all.

The old Jouef couplings are called Lanal couplings. they allow for fly shunting, because the hooks can be latched to one side (against the raised lip) to prevent them engaging into the facing loop.

Playcraft Railways was sold in Woolworths, during the 1960's.

Playcraft I was brought up on them , true you could build bigger layouts for the price , so too they ran smoothly the bo bo diesel had a fantastic motor coreless, so to the 040 tank , as youngsters we did not care about how many rivets and how perfect to the real thing they were,

Great video 🙂 I should really add their mk3 coaches to my collection

Thanks again lad, and for another great model railway video!

The selection of 4mm/ft was taken in the early days of electric model railways and not the 1940s/1950s. During the latter stages of WW2, the British Model Railways Standards Board was pushing for 18mm gauge track to replace 16.5mm gauge as the standard but Hornby etc were already so entrenched in 16.5mm gauge nothing came of the BRMSB's proposal in the mainstream. However, it did lead to to the formation of the EM Gauge Society and then the Scalefour Society with its 18.83mm gauge track.

Wonderful video. Thank you for sharing.

Later on Jouef did produce some OO products (if I remember correctly). They produced BR Mk.III coaches in the mid(late) Seventies at the same time as Hornby released their models. However, Jouef's were scale length, unlike Hornby's models. The Jouef models were very favourably reviewed at the time. Worth mentioning that Hornby/Mecanno entered the French market themselves in the Sixties with the Hornby Acho range (which had some pretty nice items in it).

Woolworths sold the Playcraft Range. In the U.K. They had simplex couplers, like Hornby Dublo. Jouef sold them as well as the boxes indicate.

3D Printing certainly provides a chance for a British HO revival. Take the old Lima OO Deltic. The chasis and bogies are HO - so if someone produced a HO body, the conversion would be straight forward. I am sure there other underscale adaptable OO and even non British HO powerframes waiting for a 3D printed body. Lets not forget all the European Ferry Wagons that ran in the UK before the Channel Tunnel. The diveristy of which was surprising. There were a 1000 wagons from Belguim to Yogoslavia on British railways. I have seen photos of Bulgarian Railways wagons with cyrilic lettering in the UK. So that's an option too. When you add all this up along with was produced such as Lima and Jouef, the potential for modelling UK railways in HO is not as bleak as it first seems. Especially if you are working in the 60s/70s era. Some useful ferryvan info here (not all HO but very useful information): www.igg.org.uk/rail/4-rstock/04arstock9.htm www.igg.org.uk/gansg/10-avmod/am-cont.htm www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/155571-pre-nationalisation-ferry-vans-continental-freight/page/3/

British H0 just looks so right. Great video.

Sadly , Playcraft coaches aren't accurate to 3.5mm to the foot/HO/1:87 scale. If I recall correctly they are too short (by a cm or more) but their height and width are too big. The Lima HO gauge Mk1 coaches were much more dimensionally correct. Playcraft also did your weird restaurant car that was a brake coach on one side and a composite on the other. Having said that, you are spot on about the wheels being better than Triang - they do run much better. If size doesn't bother you (!) they are great coaches at a bargain price - nice interiors compared to the empty Triang coaches.

This is the first good look I have had of your layout, and it looks superb, well done. Do you run both Marklin AC and DC on the same track, that looks like Marklin track with the center studs.

I had joeff/playcraft. Dad couldn't afford Hornby.

Nit picking but worth noting. I think the roof on the brake coach may be the wrong way round. The guard's periscopes - which Lima, incidentally, couldn't be bothered including on their OO equivalent models - are over the passenger compartments. From looking at the video, they will end up in the right place if you turn the roof around.

Last month I acquired 4 Playcraft ( made by Jouef) mk1 coaches in cream/chocolate livery in original boxes. I bought them in the UK from Dave Angell. He has a website with a lot of British 00 and H0 train stuff. The only thing, because I live in the EU-zone are the import duties and the postal costs 😮 It can make it expensive. A local modeltrain shop had a Jouef Playcraft mail coach in the red livery. Which I added to my collection.

Wonderful coaches! I should try to get a few too. I would change the couplers maybe to get them shorter to eachother. Great review!

i am slowly being converted to British HO and i love it. im building a pair of class 81s to go with my new stock ;^)

Great to find some pristine boxed Jouef British H0 in France. Watching the Lima 33 pulling these coaches around really drives home how well this scale sits on the H0 gauge track. I had not seen a comparison of the BR brake vans before, between H0 and 00, and they look very cute indeed - the two pack of brake vans is now on my shopping list 😊 I am tracking a job lot of Jouef BR H0 carriages on eBay at the moment - the question is, added to my current collection, do I really need 9 Jouef Royal Mail coaches? 😯. Best wishes from Belgium, Ben

Jouef had a place down in Shannon in the 70s.they did a locomotive in h0 in cie super train livery.was a French locomotive with the Pantographs removed.iv not seen one come up for sale.cant afford to buy from eBay uk now if on did.

Crikey, even kids wouldn't be so heavy handed as you are with these coaches. Have you tried using them to knock in track pins?