Layouts at the IntermodellbauThe layouts on display were mostly built by model railway clubs, some were built by individual modellers and a few were built by professionals as showpiece at a manufacturer's stand.
Mr. AhnertMr. Ahnert, who also owns a small manufacturing business, had a pretty large narrow-gauge Z-scale (1:220) layot on display. The track gauge is 4.5 mm, all trains are handbuilt. Track is supplied by Aspen Model, who have 4.5 mm track gauge track sections and pointwork in their range. The layout depicts a well-known Swiss metre-gauge railaway: the Rhätische Bahn. Well, enough words the pictures speak for themselves.
Furka Oberalp HGe 4/4 electric loco in 1:220 scale
A tall viaduct spans the valley
Smooth swinging curves are possible with the Aspen Model 4.5 mm gauge track
Overview of one of the stations on Mr. Ahnert's layout Greifswald MRCA small club who showed a quite old N-scale layout. It was built to show the impact a high-speed railway would have on the landscape. It once appeared in a 'Fleischmann Kurier', the Fleichmann customer magazine. The layout was offered for sale, or you could swap it for a baby carriage!
Tall concrete viaducts span the wide valley
International (Chech in this case) trains on the lower line
And freight trains on the high-speed line Iserlohn MRCThis club showed one of the most impressive layuouts at the 2009 Intermodellbau, regardless of the scale used. The layout depicts the station and yards at the town of Iserlohn, home town of the club as they were in the 1960s. The club members had put a lot of research in their project, as nearly everthing had been changed, torn down or replaced with newer buildings. Most of the buildings are scratchbuilty or heavily kitbashed. Track is common Roco N-scale track, with some Peco added.
Station building of Iserlohn town.
Loading ramp, used to load military vehicles.
The goods shed of Iserlohn, now long gone.
An overview of the freight facilities
The signal box
A row of houses and shops
The junction, a section which connects with the tracks in the foreground was under constrcution at the show.
GermaNTrakA German group modelling US-outline to the well-known NTrak standards. Typical modular layout in American N-scale.
GermaNtrak modular layout
The grain elevator
Cola wars Lahntalbahn MRGA Dutch group modelling a scenic german railway? Why not? The Lahntalbahn MRG from The Hague has spent many years to re-create this famous line, that runs along the river Lahn in Germany. Along the line there's a lot te see: farms, vineyards, attractive small towns, a spa resort at Bad Ems, a loco depot and many bridges. Most structures are kitbashed or built from scratch. Other structures are made using card kits. Well, enough words, let's move to the pictures.
The loco depot at Limburg
Smooth flowing lines
A small quarry
A ballast train
One of the many bridges
Crossing the road
Nice scenery and lots of detail. Note the realistic colours. Lippe MRCThis club had a huge N-scale layout on display, with interesting technical details, like block working, operating signals and a lift bridge that could be operated by the public. Apart from all the technical stuff, the layout was well-lit and sported nice details. Control was analogue using home-built electronic controllers.
Station approach, note the working signals
A large loco depot
An older industrial area
Again the loco depot
A short stretch of elevated railway, Berlin style.
The terminus, a kit depicting the Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin
An express passing under the elevated metro tracks
Trains, cars, boats...
Trains ready to depart
The lift bridge
Operating signal, operating bridge
Trains meeting
A combine harvester, cutting the wheat...
A trough station on this huge layout
Trucks with working headlights
MinitrixPresented here as a counterpart to all the layouts built by enthousiasts, here's a demonstrator layout from Minitrix. As you can see, the track isn't ballasted and the colours look more flat and less realistic. Operation however, was quite smooth although most trains were running quite fast. Naturally, this is an N-scale layout.
Overview of the Minitrix demonstrator layout
The station and loco depot 
A wide curve
A small stationAll in all, the layout wasn't that bad, it just needs a little more attention to detail and finishing.
The news sectionIn Dortmund there were several new items to see....
TomytecAt the stand of Japan Model Railways, there were 2 small tram layouts on display with the new Toyama Light Rail trams running on them. This was the first time to see these trams on a european show.
The
larger of the 2 Tomytec tram demonstrator layouts. This layout had the
Tomix automatic shuttle system to control the tram car and the pointwork
As seen from the opposite side
The smaller of the 2 Tomytec layouts, note the german scenery UhlenbrockThis german manufacturer of electronic stuff showed their 'Intellibox 2' DCC system controller. Note the large display and backlit buttons. The new system controller now has A USB 2.0 computer interface and LocoNet connectors for attaching power boosters, track circuit modules etc.
The new Uhlenbrock Intellibox 2 DCC system controller ZimoThis austrian manufacturer of high-end DCC controls showed a prototype of the new MX32 hand / desktop controller. A prototype board was already running, but it shoud fit into the handheld enclosure. The MX32 has a large OLED colour screen, as used in modern cellphones, a USB port for loading loco decoder data and software upgrades. Zimo kept the usual slider speed control and backlit buttons. Mr. Ziegler, owner of Zimo, showed me many screenshots of the controller software and I was quite impressed by all the effort Zimo put in. The colour screen will show a picture of the loco under control, brake line pressure gauge, speedo etc. The meter section is adaptable to show other readings like 'fuel left' etc.
MX32 enclosure
MX32 prototype board.Well, that's all for this year. I'm looking forward to report to you next year!
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All photos by Mark Veneman © 2009
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