Links & Acknowledgements

There have been several articles about Playcraft and its chequered history written by the well-known author and collector Pat Hammond (of Tri-ang fame) for the Train Collectors Society magazine, TCS News. I have drawn on these and other articles, my thanks to the authors.

There have also been several articles published in the Model Railway Collector (formerly Model Railway Enthusiast) magazine with colour photos. I have illustrated several pages with some of these colour photos. My thanks to the folks at MRC, which has unfortunately now ceased publication. However the web page is now expanding rapidly under Pat Hammond and is well worth a look.

The November and December 2001 editions of the excellent French toy magazine 'La Vie de Jouet' contained two interesting articles about the history of Jouef which feature some Playcraft too.

Thanks

I have also been assisted and encouraged by Steve Knight of the Kitmasters Collector's Club who also has an interest in all things Playcraft. My thanks to him. The TCS Magazine for summer 2001 included a series of very informative articles by Steve about Playcraft Railways. There are also a number of back issues of TCS which contain articles about Playcraft.

I must also thank Bill Thursfield, a member of the SNCF Society for additional information about Playcraft and Jouef.

Sites of Interest

My own site concerning Jouef trains from the beginnings up to circa 1981 can be found at www.joueftrains.com 

An excellent French site by Philippe Gaulup  is at http://www.lestrainsjouef.com and is also available in English

A site by Patrick Broguiere in French and still under construction at http://www.broguiere.com/jouef

Part of a bigger site in French and English called European Model trains with a number of pictures of Jouef models. http://www.trainsminiatures.com/jouef.htm

An excellent and comprehensive site includes reference to many European manufactured models of French trains and has a section on Jouef  http://www.lestrainsdeguillaume.com/

There is an excellent site about various European models of French trains at http://www.lestrainsdeguillaume.com/

I host another site about Tri-ang at www.tri-angrailways.com 

There is an interesting site from Scotland's Eastbank Model Railway Society which features photos of the Night Ferry (Paris-London) in prototype and model form . Also on the site are a number of good photos of Class 29 locomotives by Allan Trotter.

For those of you interested in modelling UK prototypes there is a site called the British 1:87 Scale Society which features the North British diesel locomotive as well as 1.87 scale locos and stock from Lima and other sources. There is now also a site devoted to Lima's attempt to crack the 3.5mm market in the UK.

There is sometimes a good source of Playcraft buildings kits at the site www.modelsforsale.com which I can thoroughly recommend as a satisfied customer.

www.old-dalby.com concerning the recent history of the former BR Old Dalby railway test track on the Nottinghamshire/Leicestershire border.

www.traintesting.com which includes pictures of my involvement with the testing of trains etc on the former BR and abroad over the last 30 years. This site is gradually being expanded but currently includes the early days of the Sprinter DMU's, class 91, prototype HST, the Advanced Passenger Train, Brecknell Willis pantograph, Automatic Train Protection etc.

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