Marescot Fournereau

The firsts models made by Robert Marescot are a freestyle 440 steam engine with a three axles tender and just after a scale model of the French 4-6-2 Pacific from the ETAT railway. He is also famous for his passenger cars matching those two engines. He also produced a very large variety of freight and passenger cars, mainly in O gauge, also less known in gauge I, as well as semi scale models. They can be identified as originals by a French flag on the underside bearing the initials of RM.

A little later he sold the firm to Jean FOURNERAU who added many details to the French Pacific to look as a realistic scale model. The firm, still in existence as a publishing company, stopped producing trains in 1960. A great variety of models were made in differing quality; basic scale models but also very high end models, some of them specifically for museums. You can see some in the museum of Arts et Metiers in Paris. Models were also made for collectors, railway enthusiasts, railway companies and much more.... Jean Fournereau was also a pioneer in modeling. He sold engines and cars in kit form, at the time called construction boxes as the word kit was not used... So when you find a model different qualities can be found. Factory models, but also home made models of different qualities depending on the ability of the constructor to build his model, some are very poor and just good for parts, some are very well made. All these trains are high priced, but they were also very expensive in their time.

Unfortunately nothing has been written on their history, even with the family still in existence. There were so many wonderful stories about all the models, even the most confidential ones...