I am collecting the Era II Orient Express, and trying to find some locomotives that are very likely to pull it at that time. So I am looking for representative N-scale locomotives specifically in service in the 1920s. Was trying for the 230 or 231 series, but most of them are HO. The closest I get for now is Fleischmann's G8 or BR 38. Any suggestions?
Not sure what time period the Kato release was but Kato did the OE a few years back. eBay has them at a wide range of prices, but Kato is good stuff.
As Massey indicated, not sure of the time period but this is the Kato loco I have for their Orient Express cars.
The BR18 was used to pull the orient express starting 1920. I know minitrix just re-issued that loco. Not sure though if it is prototypical to the ones that were in CIWL service. MINITRIX 16184 Hobbytrain/Lemke did offer a specific CIWL BR18 but long out of production so you have to find one on the secondhand market. Per my understanding though a train would be attached to different locos throughout a single route. It's conceivable therefore that depending on the location you are modeling on your layout that a train could use any number of locos from the epoch II era.
The Kato 2016-2 was the best example of a Japanese loco to pull the Orient Express. Are you modeling Japan or Europe?