H0 scale: Märklinfan Club Italia – Italian modular layout

The layout represents an Italian double track railroad line. It does not reproduce an existing stretch of road, but represents several elements typical of the Italian landscape. It consists of the transit of many classic Italian trains from Era III to the present day, including some international trains that have arrived in Italy.

Settebello, Frecciarossa, Espresso del Levante, Riviera Express, Freccia del Sole, Autozug and many more ensure a show that is always highly interesting.

Operator: märklin Club Italia, Mr. Alberto Pedrini, Italy – 12037 Saluzzo CN

Plant size: 12 x 6 m

H0 gauge: Landscaping in Era IV to VI

The layout consists of about 35 modules, on which Märklin C-tracks with a track spacing of 77.5 mm were installed. All tracks are additionally ballasted. Landscaping is kept in the seasons of spring / summer. No model has been deliberately assigned in order to give free rein to the imagination. Several module blocks are assigned to individual topics. Worth mentioning would be the four-track through station, our Faller Car System, a fairground, a wooded area with bridge, and an open staging yard.
In addition to digital driving on the layout, computer-controlled automatic operation with WIN DIGIPET 2021 “Premium” takes place at the exhibitions. This allows for a lively train operation with 8 trains.
Due to the integration of the staging yard into the program, a special feature is that trains can be changed during operation.

Operator: IG Modellgruppe der märklin Insider Stammtisch Hildesheim, Mr. Michael Ptok, D-31185 Hoheneggelsen

Plant size: 11 x 6 m

H0 gauge: Railways through German low mountain ranges

The model railroad layout of the epoch III and IV has no fixed model, it is based on models that can be found in the German low mountain ranges (Eifel, Bergisches Land). It is single and double track, stations are located on the single track sections for the purpose of train crossings.
To the right and left of the tracks you will find a brewery, timber operations/sawmills, reservoir with power generation, fair, weekly market, restaurants, farms and a replica of the Moselle bridge of Bullay.
To involve visitors, the model railroad layout has various push buttons that can be used to set figures or the like in motion on the layout.
This module plant is operated digitally. If visitors (especially children) are interested in operating a station or running a train themselves during the exhibition, this is possible under supervision.

Operator: ECRS Siegburg/Hennef, Mr. Uwe Bodenstein, 53721 Siegburg, Germany
Plant size: 20 x 6 meters

H0 gauge: Wood on the track

The forest and multifunctional forestry with the three forest functions of protection, utilization and recreation is the subject of the 12-part modular layout “Wood on the Trail” in H0.
At this unique forestry and timber facility in Germany, the approximately 1,000 scaled and optimized spruces, pines and firs are particularly eye-catching. In combination with numerous deciduous trees, they bring the diversity of the forest to life in detail.
The loading of the freight cars and trucks in Era VI is also at its finest: trains and trucks with accurately detailed loaded and lashed long and short logs bring the raw material wood to the modern sawmill.
The presentation of a safety incident at a tunnel portal, by means of an interactive functional model with sound, proves to be a visitor magnet.
The motifs for the layout come from the southern Black Forest, including the model of the Wutach viaduct of the “Sauschwänzlebahn”.

Operator: Cooperation Holz auf der Spur, Mr. Jörg Hammes, D-78052 Villingen-Schwenningen
Plant size: 19.5 x 8 meters

H0 gauge: Saarland impressions

With the plant, a perfect image of their Saarland home was created. A double-track main line runs through rolling green hills, past half-timbered houses and vineyards. It was created over many years of painstaking work one of 2173 handmade vines. A country road also winds through the area. The focus is on vehicles that have been familiar for decades, from the ocean-blue and beige 216 to the old sheet-metal Rheingold cars. Up to 9 trains can run on the layout. The operational center is the five-track through station at St. Wendel (Saar). It is the starting point of a double-track main line. The romantic landscape is interrupted by industrial plants and shopping malls, just like the original. In the industrial area, sidings ensure busy shunting operations.

Operator: Modellbahnfreunde Bliesen e.V., Mr. Heribert Horras, D-66606 St. Wendel

Plant size: 7 x 4 m

H0 gauge: Association of Swiss Digital Model Railroaders (VSDM)

The Association of Swiss Digital Model Railroaders (VSDM) was founded in 1995 to promote digital model railroading. The aim of the club is to teach the club members the tricks of the application of digital technology of model railroads. The focus is on a purely technical plant without landscape. For 17 years, the core group of the association has been building the layout, on which up to 18 trains are in operation. The trains run in left-hand traffic according to the Swiss model. The signaling in the upper station, the left loop and the track helix comply with Swiss driving regulations. The signalization of the lower station is currently being planned. The plant measures 12.5m × 3.6m and consists of 25 modules. The trains make their rounds on Märklin C-tracks. A total of 4 digital systems are in use. Digital is driven with a Märklin CS3 and 5 Märklin boosters. TrainController Gold was chosen as the control program. The turnouts and signals as well as the feedback devices run via a model railroad self-build control system (MoBaSbS). The illumination of the Symo control desk, with its 163 LEDs and 32 buttons, runs via a home-built Z21 DCC center. Then the keys of the standing desk are read out via a digital system developed by the club using an S88 bus. The Symo control panel operates the upper station, the left loop and the track helix. The lower station is operated with a screen, the Raspberry PI and the TrainController 9. In total, the plant has 48 turnouts, 26 signals and 271 indicators.

Operator: VSDM, Mr. Bruno Geninazzi, Lindacker 11, Switzerland – 3465 Dürrenroth,
Plant size: 12.5 x 3.6m

H0 gauge: Model railroad and traffic history by Hagen von Ortloff

The popular celebrity presenter Hagen von Ortloff from the well-known TV series “Eisenbahn-Romantik” (Railway Romance), together with Lutz Mäder and Rolf Brändle, will present a show layout set in the 1950s and 1960s entitled “Model Railway and Transport History”.
This layout features trolley buses produced by the Esslingen-based company Eheim in the 1950s and 1960s, later continued by the Brawa company. It runs a monorail from Schuco, a state-of-the-art monorail from the late 1950s, but which was not very successful as a toy and is now accordingly sought after and expensive. On the other side of the layout, streetcars make their rounds, a Stuttgart streetcar from the Ulm company Gog and a Dresden streetcar from the local company BeKa. In addition, there is a Loren cable car from Eheim, a cable car from Brawa. As the highlight and centerpiece of the layout, the funicular from Brawa is on the move.
The railroad that connects all the other vehicles and circles the layout comes from the Göppingen model railroad company Märklin. The trains, mainly from the fifties, rattle over the metal tracks, some still with center rails. In addition, there are buildings from the traditional companies Faller, Vollmer and Kibri, whereby the legendary ‘Villa im Tessin’ should be highlighted at this point, which has been sold a total of over 400,000 times in four decades. The Elbe from its source to its mouth, depicted on picture postcards, some of which are over a hundred years old.
110 images, somewhat enlarged and zigzagged together, create a colorful background more than 20 meters long.

Operators: Hagen von Ortloff, Lutz Mäder and Stephan Kraus
Plant size: 11 x 6 m

H0 gauge: The railroad depot Klappstadt

The plant “Bw Klappstadt” was built with carpenter boards connected by hinges. Shown are the locomotive handling facilities corresponding to Era 3-4. The Fleischmann turntable is located between the two locomotive sheds, which in reality was rather rare in railroad depots.
The system is analog controlled, the electrical supply of the system parts is done by cable plug connections. The track material used was Fleischmann profile track. While the locomotive shed on the right was created from the Faller car shed 190069, the shed on the left is a self-built using parts from the Kibri locomotive shed “Ottbergen”.
Operationally, the processes in a steam locomotive depot are reproduced. The locomotives pass the coal bins coming from the right and are coaled with hunts. Then they take water at the water cranes, while the slag is emptied into the pits running in the track. The next operation is the unloading before the locomotives move to the sanding towers where the sand tanks are filled up. The locomotives are then ready to move to the turntable. On the front track, there is the peculiarity that the machines must first advance to the end of the track and then reach the turntable backwards via a switch. By means of the turntable the locomotives are distributed to the sidings leading to the locomotive sheds. Track sections can be de-energized via small switches inserted into the layout plate.
An interesting operation is created by several Peco locomotive lifts at the right end of the layout. Here, various locomotives are placed alternately on a current-carrying short track that leads into the layout. Shunting departments, consisting of a short shunting locomotive with one or two two-axle trucks, provide the supplies for the workshops in the locomotive sheds. They fit both on the locomotive lifts and on the turntable.

Operator: Friedel Helmich, 93339 Riedenburg
Plant size: 3 x 0.5 m