Press info from 07.02.2023: Private plant competition – From the hobby cellar into the limelight!

In the past years, the interest in the private plant competition for the Fascination MODELLBAHN Mannheim was always very high.
Again this year, 8 great private model railroad layouts were selected for the MIBA Private Layout Contest 2023. Participants come from all over Germany with their model railroad beauties, often built especially for Faszination MODELLBAHN Mannheim.
Here you will find an overview of this year’s private plants:
Dr. Michael Giersberg: “At the crusher” (H0e gauge)
The layout in H0e “Am Brecher” represents the connection by light railroad from a quarry to a crusher. The quarry is then transported by lorries directly to the plant. In the same way, the finished products leave the plant. For this reason, there are some sidings. Likewise, the quarry from the quarry and from the crusher can be transported away by truck.
The plant is located just outside a village. For this reason, smaller passenger trains also run. Also on the road are GmP in different compositions and also railcars.
All locomotives, cars and buildings are aged or color matched.
Wolfgang Stößer: “Hepsander Coastal Railway” (H0e gauge)
The Hepsander Leuchttrum is well known and popular, so there is always a lot of hustle and bustle on Sunday. The day invites for a walk and many guests take advantage of the warm weather for swimming. Drink coffee in the station pavilion and buy delicious fish at Else’s. The old railcars, lovingly restored, jerks comfortably over the old tracks. Summer visitors big and small get on and off.
Otto Gisch: Winter layout “Obersilken” (H0 gauge)
The new winter facility in Era IV reminds us of the time when we could still practice winter sports. It is divided into two parts and measures 2 sqm. An attempt was made to create a good mix of rail, road traffic and landscape. In particular, a monotonous-looking white winter landscape with scenes, train and road traffic (Faller Carsystem with junction and stop) had to be made interesting and varied. The track system consists of Märklin C-tracks, the track length is 12 m on two levels. The station is double-tracked, as is the staging yard. The terrain was created in the proven manner with fly wire and plaster bandages. For snow formation, a thin layer of plaster was applied, painted with white paint, and after drying, wetted with water and sprinkled with plaster dust using a fine tea strainer. After that, snowflakes of the company Heki and Noch were sprinkled on it. Trees and shrubs were partly self-made and treated in the same way. All houses are patinated and illuminated, as well as the ski slope. The installation is put in the right light by 2 movable LED lights.
Heinz-Ulrich Grumpe: “Mine railroad of the Harz baryte industry” (H0e gauge)
Until the early 1970s, a 750 mm-gauge mine railroad connected the “Wolkenhügel” and “Hoher Trost” mines with the ore processing and loading facilities of the “Deutsche Baryt Industrie” in Bad Lauterberg.
Now the model railroad layout does not want to be an exact replica of this mine railroad. The model only served as a template for ideas. This is the “Harzer Baryt Industrie” with the mine “Schwacher Trost”.
The processing plant and the mine are connected by a narrow-gauge railroad with 9 mm gauge (H0e) with a gradient of about 5.5% (up to 53‰ in the prototype). On it, one train each of empty and loaded wagons run alternately. In between, a passenger train shuttles in factory traffic to transport the miners.
All vehicles and buildings were discreetly aged with powder paints and pigments. Self-painted figures and numerous small parts complete the small layout.
Heiko Wendler: West Bend Grain (N Gauge)
The 1/160 scale “West Bend Grain” competition layout depicts a small grain silo loading facility in the northeastern United States in the early 1980s. It was conceived without a concrete model as an “Inglenook” jigsaw puzzle game for work breaks and implemented in an illuminated showcase with a stage set, attached fiddleyard and presentation space behind the Scenic Divider. The system dimensions (100 x 28 x 36 cm) are limited by office cabinet interior dimensions. Its sliding doors protect the plant with rare, early winter theme from light and dust during breaks in play. At exhibitions, a small cassette is added on the right to extend the main line of the standard-gauge branch line (stabling track) in the foreground or to be able to exchange rolling stock. The main line of the short line leading over a small bridge serves as the starting point for the shunting game. A train locomotive arrives with a short set of cars, uncouples and, with as few shunting runs as possible over two points (one of which is designed as a space-saving segment point), assembles a new train in a randomly determined sequence for the onward journey. This also includes wagons acc. on the two sidings of the loading facility and replace them if necessary. A second locomotive occasionally provides variety. Setting and coupling is done manually. The very lightweight system can be operated in analog and digital mode. Track sections can be switched off for analog operation.
Albert Messerschmitt: il Treno Vino (gauge 0e)
The private facility “il Treno Vino” or “meaningful and sustainable use of old wine boxes”!
The ancient Romans already knew that wine is a digestible and intoxicating drink. Albert Messerschmitt thought about the sensible and sustainable use of the old wine crates and built model railroad dioramas with them. He will show you this this year at the private plant competition in Mannheim!
Ronalf Kramer: In Provence around 1925! (H0 gauge)
The small layout by Ronalf Kramer shows a fictitious terminal station of the French private railway company PLM (Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee) around the year 1925!
In the depicted small town, a tram commutes (automatically) from the station to the imaginary center, where it disappears behind a row of houses! A market is held in front of the town hall. To the east of the town are lavender fields and a factory with a railway siding. The level crossing has a motor-driven barrier whose grids move horizontally to close the road!
Jörg Baumann: Model railroad layout for the shoe closet (H0e gauge)
The new layout of Jörg Baumann, which was built exactly for the home’s shoe closet, shows a light railroad with connection to a sawmill, as well as a small railroad depot with locomotive shed. The depot and some of the vehicles are based on the Abreschviller forest railroad in the Vosges. In front is the sawmill as well as the tracks of the depot with shunting facilities to the sawmill. Next to the sawmill on the left side they see a dense forest and on the right side a building, which is shown as a half relief, so that you can see the inside of the building.
The self-made saw frame is driven by an electric motor via a linkage. In the sawmill area there is a fully mobile derrick crane for unloading the logs. The doors of the locomotive shed are made movable. The buildings are all self-built.
Images for use free of charge for your reporting here: http://www.faszination-modellbahn.com/presse/
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Contact: Messe Sinsheim GmbH, phone: +49 7025 9206-102, e-mail: presse@messe-sinsheim.de