In my house, there is a spare room up under the roof. It used to be my bedroom, but is now dedicated to trains. This room measures about four metres square, with the stairs going down in one corner. Under the eave, there is also a storage space, and there are two skylights in the roof. About half the floor space is occupied by my Märklin layout.

An early track plan indicating directions of travel and signal positions.

Considering I have been collecting Märklin for only about two years, there is an awful lot of stuff here. The layout is still under construction, but of course, there is no such thing as a finished layout. There's always something to improve, an accessory to install or a siding that can be extended. Once the bridge is back in commission (currently it has one of the ramps missing), it will be possible to run up to five trains simultaneously, on a loop that is 27 metres long! Automatic block signalling will control their movements and, hopefully, prevent collisions!

The business end of the control panel. Very soon, a fourth 280A transformer will join the ranks. 

The control panel is nearly 3 metres long and its seven transformers put out almost 200 Watts of power. Four separately controlled track circuits spread the load, so that there will never be more than two trains drawing power from the same source. These are wired through a bank of main switches, so that they can be disconnected individually in case of an emergency. The other three transformers are used to supply power to lighting and accessories.

 A photo-montage view of the entire layout. Click on the image for a larger view.

As can be seen here, there is no landscape, except for a couple of rocks and the occasional building. To me, it's all about the trains, and the whole thing is just set up semi-permanently on the floor. Every spare corner is occupied by track, with a few strategic bare spaces to act as stepping stones. Running this layout requires a lot of stretching and other bodily contortions!

top of page or continue...