I have purchased well over 100+ engines ,Roco, Hornby, Fleischmann, Jouef, Liliput, thru Ebay UK and France. Ho scale and N scale. Never had a problem and all arrived in the US in good shape. All at least 50% less with shipping then i could find them in the US. Germany is the only one that has very high shipping.
I you have an Ebay and Pay Pal account in the US you can use it on the UK and French Ebay. You still get buyer protection.
If you need to translate a page or information from French or German just copy and paste it on the Bing translator page and it will automatically translate to English.
Have fun.