Discover some of the longest model railways in the world.
1. Wunderland – Hamburg – Germany
This model railway took 500,000 working hours and is stretched over 4km² with plans to increase this to 6km² in 2014. The model rail track runs for 9km at a cost of 7.3 million Euros.
This is described as one of the largest model railways in ‘O’ gauge and it depicts the East Coast Main Line from London King Cross (UK) to Leeds Central. The rail track runs for 0.8km (1/2 mile) and requires at least 10 operators for it to run successfully.
This is Europe’s largest type ‘O’ model railway and is situated in the town of Lichtensteig in Switzerland.
Toggenburg model railway boasts 1.2km of track on an area of 500m squared.
Northlandz is the world’s largest miniature railway and took 25 years of dedication which is clear from looking at the photos. It has 8 miles of track and what is even more impressive is that it has over 4,000 buildings and 1/2 million trees!
6. Sierra Pacific lines by Pasadena Model Railroad Club
The Sierra Pacific lines has 30,000ft of hand laid steel track and is the largest ‘HO’ model railway in the world. This model railway was started in 1940 and from end to end it takes a train one hour to complete the route.
The HO model railway scale is the most popular in the world, and for good reasons. It is small enough that you can make elaborate layouts even in a relatively small space, and it’s also large enough that you can see the wonderful details that make a model train layout so enchanting.
To maximize your enjoyment of your model railway, you should get a basic setup going, and then gradually add to it as time and money allow. When do you stop? Probably never. Model railway fans tend to be devoted for life.
Here are some of the basic pieces you’ll need for starting your HO scale layout.
Make sure you have a good DC transformer. The one that comes with a basic train set is OK, but if you can get your hands on a decent transformer, your train will run better. Have 6 to 10 wheel sets. Keep half a dozen or so couplers handy, and a couple of packs of rail joiners. Also make sure you have some insulated joiners. Terminal joiners work better than plain terminal track and allow wires to be kept hidden. You should also have a collection of “odd straights,” which are exactly what they sound like: odd sized pieces of straight track.
Get some rerailers. These are sections of straight track that look like road crossings. And you’ll need a few basic tools and supplies. You should also have a roll of three-strand wire from an electronics store, a pair of needle nose pliers with a wire cutter, and a couple of screwdrivers – slot and Phillips head.
When it comes time to actually start putting down track, start small with maybe an oval with a couple of sidings. You can add to the complexity infinitely, but this design will get you going.
Model Railway building is a hobby in which almost all of the supplies you need are fun. It is like constructing a little world, and you get to build it as you see fit. It can be as realistic or as abstract as you want. It is best to start with a small layout and [...]
The N scale ranges from 1:148 to 1:160 which means that the real train is over 100 times larger than the model train.
In other words it’s a lot smaller than O scale trains but not quite as small as Z scale trains.
N scale trains are even smaller than HO scale trains, but that can be [...]
The pastime of building and running model railways has been around at least since the turn of the 20th century. In the beginning model railroading was primarily for children and the trains were built with that in mind. The earliest model railroad layout were O-scale, which are a bit larger than the typical trains older [...]
There are as many model railway layouts as there are model railway enthusiasts, and then some! There are model railway builders who create replicas of real world track layouts that are perfect down to the tiniest detail. And there are others who make a model railway layout that only exists on the train table. Both [...]
The ride home from obtaining your first model train layout and accessories is an amazingly slow journey if you’re itching to get home and start running model trains. Fortunately, there are enough train enthusiasts that obtaining the things you need to build a model train layout is not difficult. But the steps of how to [...]
Making and planning model train track layouts is one of the most fun aspects of train collecting, and is one of the reasons this hobby often lasts for a lifetime. You could never run out of changes to make to a train layout! There are numerous websites devoted to train lovers who write about and [...]
Model train layouts can mean anything from simple “found” pieces like Matchbox cars set up to surround a Lego toy train to amazingly realistic landscape and built-to-scale buildings in elaborate, complex designs. The great thing about model train layouts is that you can make them a little at a time, changing and modifying as you [...]
First what does a beginner do to start getting into 2mm model railway layouts?
- The 2mm Scale Association website (www.2mm.org.uk)
- A booklet called “The Beginner’s Guide to 2mm Modelling” from the 2mm Scale Association.
And you’ll pretty much have to join the 2mm Scale Association to get the bits you need to make the model.
If you [...]
click here to find out more
