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In
its desire to always be one jump ahead of the competition and to reduce
its manufacturing costs, Jouef often made compromises.
The co-co electric loco CC7107, released in 1965 to precede Hornby and Lima, was a very disappointing model. Its livery and lettering was much too simplified ("Jouef have made better", wrote RMF in February 1967), and it was saddled with the bogies and chassis of the CC40101, which were not prototypical. In 1967, the diesel electric locomotive CC70002 did not live up to expectations either but not as much as the CC6500 in 1971, on which the body was poorly lettered. Moreover, the chassis of a Diesel loco, including the fuel tank was re-used for this electric locomotive! There were also compromises with the BB9288 "Capitole". Keen to keep up with the prototypes, the engineers at Jouef were happy to re-livery the BB16001 in red by just painting over original embossed lettering. A few months later a new correct version was issued. Less explicable, was the lack of promotion of the "Decauville" narrow gauge range, which had been released in 1967 and which was joined by the German Egger-Bahn range in 1968, following the purchase of the company by Jouef. It was included in the catalogues up to 1972 after which time it disappeared altogether. Today it is much sought after. Another failure of Jouef was the remote train control system 'Jouefmatic '. This complex and not very reliable device (at least in the beginning and contrary to the electronic monobloc system which was abandoned in 1970) was badly received by the public.
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