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My Former Model Railway Layouts

German version

While today, I'm rather known for my dioramas and temporary photo scenes, I also built some operational layouts. Among them are three layouts, I operated for years but finally gave away. Fortunately, I could find modellers interested in incorporating these layouts into their own layout concepts. Thus, all of these layouts survived at least partly and are sometimes to be seen on model railway exhibitions.

Already in the early 1980s, at a time most German railway modellers still preferred a rather toy-like layout design with trains running in merry-go-round style, I had left the mainstream and got interested in small and modular layouts with prototype-oriented point-to-point operation. This way, I made the layouts Eibenstock, Braunesumpf, and Drei Annen Hohne.


TT Scale Layout "Eibenstock"

This was my first model railway layout I built in the early 1980s in the room I had in the apartment of my parents. It followed a proposal published in issue 4/1979 of the German model railway magazine "Der Modelleisenbahner". It shows the terminal station of the former Eibenstock Ramp. Since, due to the steep grade, all trains running uphill had the locomotive at the rear of the train, the storage yard could be constructed as a simple track ladder. It is covered under trees at the right end of the layout. The locomotives of the series 94.19-21 (former Saxonian XI HT) and 89.2 (former Saxonian VT) are scratchbuilt since industrial models of these types were not available at the time. The tracks were first of the old BTTB standard type with U-shaped rail profile. Later, I replaced them by Pilz model tracks. Only the turnouts remained of the old type since turnouts for the Pilz system were not yet available. Due to a different turnout angle they would not have fitted anyway.

Size: 200 cm x 35 cm

The picture below is from a model railway exhibition of the Havelland group of the Oranienburg Model Railway Club, which took place in the city of Potsdam at Easter 1987.

Because of the geometry of the old turnouts and the low quality of the benchwork, upgrading the layout to a higher standard would have required a completely new construction. That's why I gave the layout to a hobby colleague in the early 1990s. He had the intention to renew the entire trackwork and to integrate the station area into a bigger layout.


Article on this layout in issue #70 of Carl Arendt's "Small Layout Scrapbook"


TT Scale Layout "Braunesumpf"

At the end of the 1980s, I built this small layout in my student's appartment. It shows a small intermediate station on a mountain branch of the former Halberstadt-Blankenburg Railway (HBE). Since a storage yard was not used, operating sessions were restricted to local shunting work of freight trains. Since turnouts of the Pilz model track system were still not avaible, all turnouts are selfmade. When moving to another city in the early 1990s, I gave this layout to the same model railway colleague who took the Eibenstock layout. The rolling stock I built for that layout was later used on my layout "Drei Annen Hohne".

Size: 140 cm x 30 cm


Article on this layout in issue #70 of Carl Arendt's "Small Layout Scrapbook"


TT Scale Layout "Drei Annen Hohne"

I started building this modular layout after having moved to Hamburg in 1991. With some modifications and extensions, this layout existed for 24 years including two moves to new homes. After having hardly operated the layout for several years, I decided to sell it to members of the FKTT (a German TT scale community that runs module arrangements in a Fremo-like manner). This way, the modules survived and are occacionally shown on exhibitions as part of module arrangements.

The layout shows the standard gauge part of the prototype station Drei Annen Hohne, which is located in the mountain section of the former Halberstadt-Blankenburg Railway (HBE), which is also known as the Ruebelandbahn. The situation plays in the late 1940s shortly before the take over of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. In 1962 this part of the station Drei Annen Hohne was abandoned. The narrow gauge part of Drei Annen Hohe which belongs to the Harzquerbahn (not shown on the layout) is still in operation.

Here is a picture of the station Drei Annen Hohne. A passenger train headed by the locomotive "Elch" has just arrived while mallet No. 96 024 (a leased DR locomotive) shunts in the background.

Foto: eisenbahn magazin


Übersichtsplan der Anlage

Apart from the 95 043, which was made from a kit from Kittler, all other locomotives were already used in my layout Braunesumpf. These models are scratchbuild using drives, frames, and and runnings gears of locomotives made by former manufacturer BTTB. The shells are made of cardstock. Of course, the quality and detailing of these locos is far away from what is available today from commercial manufacturers. However, in the early 1980s, when only a few locomotive models were available, these scratchbuilt models got a lot of positive response from other modellers. The 84 003 to be seen in one photo is a high quality brass model made by Andreas Schwoboda from Dresden. She was just a guest on this layout.

number Type remarks on the prototype remarks on the model
HBE "Elch" 1'E1'h2t later DR 95 6779 scratchbuilt from BR 81 of former manufacturer BTTB
HBE 10 1'D1'h2t later DR 93 6779 scratchbuilt from BR 81 of former manufacturer BTTB
HBE 18 Dh2t later DR 92 6879 scratchbuilt from BR 81 of former manufacturer BTTB
HBE 3 1'C1'h2t later DR 75 6678 scratchbuilt from BR 86 of former manufacturer BTTB
HBE 6 1'C1'h2t later DR 75 6776 scratchbuilt from BR 81 of former manufacturer BTTB
DR 96 024 D'Dh4vt leased DR locomotive scratchbuilt from BR 81 of former manufacturer BTTB
DR 95 043 1'E1'h2t leased DR locomotive Kit from manufacturer Kittler


Article on this layout in issue #67 of Carl Arendt's "Small Layout Scrapbook"


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