Introducing the H0 gauge model railroad layouts!

Track H0: Module assembly Limitless

Markus Horn came up with the idea of a module assembly group at a Märklin Insider regulars’ table, where we wanted to offer the members free development of their modules. The only requirement was the size of the modules and that Märklin C-track should be used.
The rest is up to the builder’s imagination. This has resulted in modules that are pure madness.
From mountains and towns to Bran Castle. From the small idyll to the chemical plant and from the army barracks to the locomotive museum.
Normal commercial materials were used as well as parts created from garbage.
A double-track main line runs from a siding across all modules, with all trains and carriages from all eras. The whole thing is controlled by ESU Ecos. Many lights that work independently of the power circuit and also some pushbuttons for the spectators round off the whole picture.
Märklin MS2 also offers operation on branch lines, independently of the main line. Faller Carsystem as well as Viessmann Carmotion can be found on the modules.

There are many little things to discover, but also large masterpieces, such as a marketplace with 7000 stones and a cemetery wall with 3000 stones from Juweela were painstakingly built on the module by a builder.

Modulbaugruppe Grenzenlos, it’s called because we have 24 members from Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg, making us an international group of Märklin crazy model railroaders. Some YouTube stars from the model railroad scene are also part of it and can be met live and talk shop about their modules.

Operator: Modulbaugruppe Grenzenlos, Markus Horn, D-78073 Bad Dürrheim
Plant size: 12 x 6 m

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, D 66606 St. Wendel
System size: 6 x 4 m

H0 gauge: Model railroad layout “Trixbergen”

Our “Trixbergen” model railroad layout consists of 17 segments. There are two six-track staging yards underground and a six-track track table at the end of the layout. This ensures varied and realistic operation. The atmospheric fantasy landscape is reminiscent of the Bavarian foothills of the Alps in Era IV. A double-track main line and a single-track branch line meet on eight tracks at the main station “Trixbergen”. There is a lot of activity here, with national and international passenger trains, heavy freight trains, special transports and the leisurely trains of the branch line. Next to the main station are several businesses (including a red light district) and a small railroad depot. Behind it is the town center with a lively weekly market. To the side is the surrounding countryside, characterized by agriculture and forestry. It then becomes rocky, a mountain stream with a waterfall flows into the lively “Badesee am Wasserschloss” and then flows through a green valley, lined with rock faces and accompanied by the double-track main line. The branch line winds its way up into the heights, past a castle and a sawmill until it finally reaches the idyllic mountain village of Peterswalde at the end of the layout. At the touch of a button, visitors can bring the layout to life at various points and immerse themselves in the detailed world of Trixbergen.

Operator: Trix-Express Friends of the Danube Valley, D-86673 Bergheim
System size: 10.1 x 5.2 m

H0 gauge: Between the Alps and the Jura

The modular network “Between the Alps and the Jura” is freely inspired by landscapes, places and stations on the Swiss Plateau between the 1970s and the late 1990s. This period allows for a wide variety of rolling stock and train compositions: mixed trains (freight and passenger), local trains, diverted long-distance trains, freight trains, etc. It is a single-track line with standard gauge operated by SBB.

The modular network “between the Alps and the Jura” was designed by two model railroad enthusiasts. They created their own module standard called “compact modules”, which is based on the “Minimax module”.

Operator: Raoul Masel, Switzerland – 2088 Cressier NE
System size: 12 x 2.4 m

H0 gauge: Children’s play layout + layout with US motifs

The children’s play layout is 2.20 m long and 1.20 m wide. It is a 2-rail H0 layout and Piko A track has been installed. There are 6 points to switch and a prototypical operation of the signaling of a railroad can be simulated. But you can also just play.

The main motif is a multi-track station. For shunting operations, individual track sections can be disconnected from the traction current using a toggle switch. The train control is digital and the locomotives are operated using the Roco Lokmaus.

There is no specific model for the US layout. It was also built in H0 size but with Märklin C track. Due to the impressive size of 7.50 x 13.50 x 6.50 m, all kinds of, but exclusively US motifs can be seen. You will find some scenes, known from various feature films, on the layout. The layout is not modeled on any era. Whatever the builder likes is what is driven. Children will have fun with it.

Operator: BSW Foundation – MBG Lindau, 88131 Lindau
System size: 13.5 x 7.5 m

H0m gauge: Point to point RhB layout Switzerland with reverse loops.

The GARM group is coming with an H0m layout with new modules that have never been shown in this configuration in Germany before.

GARM stands for “Groupe Amis Réseau Modulaire” and is based in Echandens, Switzerland.

The focus is on the Litzirüti station on the RhB line to Arosa. The entire line has a length of over 20 meters and is operated via three analog control panels. In addition to the Litzirüti station, a dead-end station is operated where the trains are reassembled. The other end of the modular layout leads to a gravel works. Another module shows the operation of a Swiss military barracks.

As usual with GARM, there are countless little scenes to discover on this layout, created with a lot of imagination and skill.

Operator: GARM Groupement Amis Reseau Modulaire, Switzerland-1026 Echandens
System size: 14 x 6 m

HO + N gauge (3 layouts): Next to the main line / two sides two motifs / mountain scenery in a picture frame

HO layout theme next to the main line:

We present our branch line on 500 x 60 cm, the station has 250 x 60 cm and the rest is landscape with a lifting bridge over a river. We will only be able to shunt here, which has its own special charm.

N Attachment Topic Two-page attachment:

The layout is 100 x 60 cm in size, i.e. a so-called small layout. On one side you can see a small village with a stopping point, and if you walk around the layout, there is a ruined castle and a hiking trail on the other side.

N Plant theme picture frame plant:

The layout is 200 x 60 cm and the section of the picture frame is 120 x 60 cm. You can see a mountain landscape with a small stop, a hiking trail, mountain climbers, the Faller car system and much more.

Operator: Modellbahn Bodensee Friedrichshafen, D-88074 Meckenbeuren
Plant size: 6 x 3 m

H0 gauge: Consolidated Nickel Mines Co.

This layout shows the loading station, railroad line and final loading station of a fictitious nickel mine in the American Southwest.

An underground conveyor belt moves the ore (nickel sulphide) along an adit, and loads a two-way hoist, which lifts and loads the mineral to a primary buffer silo. From here, a conveyor transports the mineral to a secondary silo, from which a small conveyor transports the mineral to a pivoting hopper that loads the freight cars.

The loaded freight wagons travel along a private railroad line to an unloading station. Here, a rotary railcar dumper automatically unloads the wagons into two large hoppers, from which the mineral is transported for further processing. As in the original, the dumper’s exit ramp is equipped with a self-propelled railcar positioner; the maneuvers can be performed with or without locomotives. The speed of the trains and the mass throughput of the loading machines are accurately maintained on a realistic H0 scale.

The H0 layout was created completely from scratch and from my own designs.

Operator: Mario Alberto Scarati, Italy-20154 Milan
System size: 6 x 1.5 m

H0 gauge: Rhaetian Railway / Filisur-Preda / Albula Valley

The system was built according to the Swiss model, the Albula Valley of the Rhaetian Railway.

The layout shows the section of line from Bergün to Preda. The layout builders were specially on site and looked at and measured many things in order to be able to recreate them true to the original. Many details, such as the hiking trail, the pass road and the barbecue area, can be found in their original places on the layout.

The special feature of the layout is the realistic representation of the section of track. The view of the valley with its 4 stone arch viaducts, over which the train crosses the valley, comes into its own. The train works its way up the artificially lengthened track by means of loops and hairpin bends, following the original model.

The highest point of the system is over 2 meters above the ground.

There are sturdy wooden platforms for visitors to stand on to get a good view of the facility at the highest points.

All the buildings were constructed by the company itself. These are mainly the Preda and Filisur railroad stations.

Operator: MEC Waiblingen, D-71334 Waiblingen
System size: 8 x 4 m

H0 gauge: Ruinaulta (Vorderrhein gorge RhB)

The Rhine Gorge (Ruinaulta) of the Vorderrhein, the ”Grand Canyon of Switzerland”, was formed after the Flims landslide 10,000 years ago and is now a fascinating natural landscape.

The Rhaetian Railway RhB has been running through the gorge for 111 years, after this route was chosen and built as a narrow-gauge “flat line” for cost reasons. Today, this journey between Reichenau and Ilanz is an extraordinary experience in the midst of otherwise untouched nature, accompanied only by the Rhine and partly by a hiking trail, the stations far away from the villages.

A few selected viewpoints from this route have been reconstructed in 1:87 scale according to the original model (as of approx. 1990). These sections, all in accordance with the MAS-60 standard, can be put together as required to form a layout. Trains ‘from the last century’ run on them.

Operator: EMFC – Eisenbahn-Modellbau-Freunde Chur, Switzerland-7015 Tamins
System size: 8 x 4 m

H0 gauge: Model railroad stories by Hagen von Ortloff

The theme that the Stuttgart team ‘Lokomotive Oxaplatz’ with Hagen von Ortloff, Lutz Mäder and Rolf Brändle will be exhibiting at the trade fair in Friedrichshafen is simply called “Märklin from the 50s”. Legendary models and their illustrations in the catalog.

Accessories include trolley buses, streetcars and various cable cars. Complemented by buildings such as the villa in Ticino, the Berlin radio tower and the Faller Rundcafe with the rotating advertising on the roof.

Hagen von Ortloff will be signing autographs at 2 p.m. on all days of the fair.

Operators: Hagen von Ortloff, Lutz Mäder and Rolf Brändle
System size: 6 x 5 m