As a baby, you cry when your mother doesn’t walk to the train station. At one and a half years old, you get a wooden train from Santa. At the age of four, you have your first PIKO starter set. Then you discover N scale. You build several layouts that are even put on display. Meanwhile, you own over 2,000 books and magazines on modeling. And you are doing an internship at Miniworld Rotterdam. When you add that up you have invaluable experience in the model railroad world.
the many shadow stations, with 50 trains, provide a lot of variety.
That’s the story of 39-year-old Tjorben from Bremen, Germany. Who, when he opens the door of his model railroad room, sees the showpiece of his scale N layout; a 1 meter long bridge over a small town in a river valley and crowned by a castle on the mountainside. Combined with Atelier Dietrich’s appropriate background landscape, this scene is the highlight of the layout.
Thanks to a recent move, there was more room for his layout. This is now 4 x 10 meters in size. It started with the Kirchhain train station on the Main Weser Bahn in Germany in the late 1960s. It is not an exact replica. There is plenty of room for your own interpretation of the model railroad plan.
The station itself is on a double-track main line with two branching sidings. One is the fictitious private Beyenburger Kleinbahn and the other is operated by the DB. There are two more stations. Beyenburg as the terminus of the private railroad line and Götzenhof as another transshipment and freight train collection station.
The layout is about 30% complete. Most of the tracks are there. The wiring is also mostly done. Now remains the modeling of the various parts.
Advice for beginners: get started first and foremost!
The area around Beyenburg is almost completely designed, while the other two station segments show only an initial outline. Building does not follow a strict plan. Depending on the time and mood available, major job and electrical work will be picked up. When there is less, Tjorben prefers to make small scenes.
Thanks to the many shadow stations, variety can be provided on the layout with about 50 trains. There is digital driving with with FCC from D&H. Mainly with SX and some DCC locomotives in multiprotocol operation. All of this is controlled with TrainController 9.0 Gold.
Much equipment is purchased second-hand on line. And models are developed in-house. Kettle cars are currently the focus, especially from the Piko and Roco brands. In-house development of tank wagons using a 3D printer.
And although Tjorben has studied a lot of literature, his advice for beginners is to get started first and foremost. It helps tremendously to try out different things to find your way. Youtube offers plenty of online tutorials. And keep eyes open in the “real” world, there is much inspiration to be found there.
In addition, other modelers can help expand their wealth of experience. Becoming a member of a model railroad club is therefore definitely recommended. There is often plenty of equipment there and the opportunity to ride and try it out. This will help you discover what you like faster and allow for more purposeful investment in the hobby.
Sometimes Tjorben dreams for a job in scale 0. For now, everyone can enjoy his big project via Instagram (@kirchhain_in_spur_n) .
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