The whole layout started from an inspiration I got from the M300 model that I got a hold of, with only 400 pieces being made as a one-time run. This would mean that these models wouldn't be available forever and even though my layout is far from finished and I don't even know what the future of it is going to be eventually, I knew that I would at least have to gather a complete collection of rolling stock anyway. I wouldn't want to find myself with a space for a complete up-and-running layout in ten years with no trains available!
After getting hold of a good amount of these M300 models and digitalizing three of them for the layout, I decided that I also have to find a way to include the older M100 & M200 stock. After all, this kind of special layout has a very limited amount of prototypical rolling stock anyway, so I want to at least be able to display all of them. So, after gathering some material and figuring out the best and also at least somehow cost-effective way to produce these models, the solution came in a form of a private professional model builder who has a unique cost-effective way of producing models, that don't have the same factory-built quality like the big manufacturer's models have, but still capture the essence of the prototype and look very good and pleasing to the eye.
So now that I had found a suitable way to produce these models, I had to decide what and how many of them I want. I figured out that the best way is to just take the hit and get all the models done at the same time, rather than spreading the manufacturing and costs over a longer span. After all, a slight 'mass-production' usually also serves to reduce costs a bit. After a lot of research and thinking I decided on four complete 4-car trains: four motorized two-car units and four unmotorized ones, adding up to a total of 16 cars. What I wanted to achieve was a maximum amount of variation and interest to the fleet and thus my plan was to have:
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| M100 - non-refurbished |
real system. The cars are numbered 101 to 106, and my train includes the first four of these cars. The differences are very subtle: The decals will be a bit different, with black road numbers instead of white ones and a colorful version of the operating company's logo instead of a white version, different mirrors and a slightly different front.
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| M100 - refurbished |
has new-type mirrors and detailing. My train will include cars numbered 153-154 and 177-178.
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| M100 - refurbished with advertisements |
purple 'Sonera 4G' advertisement, cars numbered 119-120 and 165-166. The car number 199-120 is used for these ad's in real-life with the Sonera ad being a nice and easy example to model. I decided on this just to bring some more color to the fleet and reduce uniformity a bit. This kind of advertising really just makes the trains look more ugly and unbalanced than the 'clean' ones and that's what I wanted to achieve too.
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| M200 |
currently the second-newest (and second-oldest) type of train running on the real system. The real system has much less of these than the older ones, so that's why I also opted for only one example to have a similar scarcity of these present in the layout.
One way to reduce costs was that I decided on using the chassis of an M300 model and only ordering a new body to the train. This reduces realism slightly, since the M300 chassis isn't 100% correct in size (it has some 1-2mm differences in certain measurements) and of course the 'undergarments' are a bit different, but I think the price reduction (about 2-3 times less!) more than makes up for the slight reduction in realism.
I ordered the trains last autumn and after about 8 months of waiting time, I sent the chassis's to the model maker and got the finished products back in a couple of weeks time. I'm very impressed with the results and couldn't be more happy by this huge new addition to my collection. What's left is that I now still have to do the digital conversion to these four trains and of course order and apply all the decals to them. After that I have seven complete metro trains for my project!
PS: These are most probably the only H0-scale models of these trains in existence ;)
