Mehano

[slowshunter]

Hello, Living in Dover I am seeking out some continental locos to run on my lay-out. I've discovered a company, in Slovenia, called Mehano. Does anybody have any experience of this company's locos? Can their locos be controlled by Hornby Select controller and do they run normally on Hornby OO Gauge track?

As ever, thank you for your patience and advice.

Cheers,

Phil

[DBfan]

 I don`t think they very ative at present. Gaugemaster import them into the UK. Yeas theywill run on oo  and any form of digital ontrol system will work with them

[bill7437]

Gaugemaster do not import Mehano directly but through the European distributors in Germany who are Lemke Collection. Mehano train sets are distributed through the Toy trade and at present there is no agent in the UK but these items may be obtained fairly easily from an agent in the Irish Republic. The early Mehano products made for the US market were fairly mediocre being made to a price but the items made in the last few years equal in detail and performance the products of the major European manufacturers.

[walkingthedog]

Plenty on Amazon.

[Forum-1211528]

Mehano started off in the 1980s when they were called Mehanotekinka in what was Yugoslavia and distributed in the UK by Eastern Models run by Graham Hubbard who until recently ran Bachmann! Mehano can be reached on their website at www.mehano.si, see what they have got available as they don't seem very active now I think they did go Bankrupt and someone else has taken on this range as for a UK distributor there isn't one anymore its best to simply deal direct with them that's how to get what you need as I don't know what they have so look on their website OK!

[walkingthedog]

Mehanotehnika was founded in 1952.

[ellocoloco]

Hi Slowshunter, 

 

I'm a great great of Mehano and run several successfully alongside Electrotren (Hornby) locomotives as well as numerous other brands.

 

As has been mentioned above, Mehano are not particularly active in their own right at the moment and appear to be supplying commissions for a number of operations. Lemke offer a number of locomotives and wagons for the German market and Mabar have recently commissioned a rerun of the Renfe 333.3 in various liveries and articulated container wagons for the Spanish market. There may be others. These are of models that were in the Mehano Prestige range and compare fairly to other suppliers.

 

I have five models of three types and am very satisfied. The details is not quite as good as what I have seen from Roco or Electrotren models from the same time period, but they run great and have a 'chunkiness' to them. The 333.3 (of which the UK Class 67 is a descendent) weighs in at 837g with chip and will pull anything I ask of it, and as it is laid out mechanically as an A1A-A1A rather than a Co-Co it will happily deal with Roco R2 which are tighter than Hornby R1! The 252 is a more accurate model than the Electrotren (former Lima) offering and the G1700 a gem. All are DCC ready and I have chipped them all using Lenz silver decoders. 

 

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Ebay would be the easiest source for these locomotives - 4 of mine came from Ebay.es, and once chipped they should be not problem with the Select and Hornby track. I think all the Prestige models have Nem coupling pockets and either 8 or 21 pin decoder sockets.

 

Let us know what you get and how you get on.

[Yelrow]

hi, i have 3 locos. All run fine. Mine are diesels.

[RDS]

Is that on DCC John?

[Yelrow]

RDS,  no, DC, but it could be, as DCCReady. I have never attempted to fit a decoder to any loco. I know my limitations,

[bill7437]

Certainly the availability of Mehano in the UK in 2022 is very questionable apart from the items branded Mehano by Lemke imported by Gaugemaster.

After a request to Mehano for parts for a G1206 they tell me a) there are

no parts available ( even though they have these locos still for sale in their webshop ) and b) they are no longer shipping to the UK presumably because customs seem to make this no longer viable. Pretty shabby really -

when you have paid over 100 euros for a loco and they cannot supply a cardan shaft - ended up making one. I certainly would NOT recommend

the purchase of any of their items unless sold by Lemke ( they do have parts for their commissioned items ). Mehano do not care at all about any service to consumers.

[ellocoloco]

Glad you managed to make a replacement.

You could try this website for Mehano spares in the future if you need anymore parts. I have not used it but there seems to be a lot listed including parts for the G1206/G1700. Some of the parts he lists as not knowing what they are for. So far I have not had any problems with my selection of Mehano models. If I need to order parts in the future I will feed back how I get on.

[bill7437]

Hi Ellocoloco, I did contact Bogdan but he did not have much for G 1206 - I have burnt out resistor on PCB and lights now do not work.

I have tried Mehano again but to no avail. Loco now works OK with my replacement dogbone drive coupling so will take it apart again to get resistor values and check my wiring hoping the LED light boards are still OK.

I wonder if Matar stock any parts for other than the RENFE items and if they distribute other Mehano items in Spain.?? Mehano still have a webshop and stuff pre 2009 in stock but now seem only to deal with EU.

[ellocoloco]

I think Mabar only commissioned Mehano to produce the Renfe 333.3, articulated container flats and individual containers along the lines as what Lemke are doing. Mabar don't appear to be a Spanish distributor for Mehano.

This year Mabar have commissioned a run of the ACME Traxx as there versions of the RENFE 253. Hornby previously commissioned ACME to produce this same model for the Electrotren brand.

[ellocoloco]

As all the previous photos on this thread and others have not been restored since the forum upgrade, I thought I'd add one. Mehano have often been seen as a producer of 'basic' introductory train sets including HST sets its often forgotten that they have produced a number of full spec models of some unusual prototypes.

If you thought the Class 67's big brother was the Class 66, guess again! Its this guy from the Alstom's Valencia factory. Mehano RENFE 333.324.

[Federalbahn]

Be careful as some Mehano locomotives are AC powered, as with Marklin they also still offer some AC in HO. But most are the standard DC now.