We visited the supposedly largest model show in the world...
1 My rail friend for about 50 years invited me to join him on a visit to Dortmund's Intermodellbau, which claims to be the world's largest model show.
2 The terrain of the fairground is humongous ...
3 ... and we did get a bit of a walk before getting to the entrance.
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5031924IMB24Hallenplan-LegendeLYlay.indd Halls 4 and 7 held the railway related stalls and displays. I picked out a few for this report. It is quite impossible to sum them all up.
6 Petershaven is a modest diorama depicting a small harbour. Focus is on landscaping rather than a lot of railway activity.
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8 The small sign reads: search the 10 moving objects.
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11 A wonderful roundy-roundy depicting three scenes from rural France connected by a meter gauge railway
12 The local market
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14 Bird's eye view
15 In the countryside
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17 A Rhethian railway mallet hiding in the shadow station. I did not see it run despite waiting for it, so I can not show it on the layout itself. The crew of the diorama seemed to be more occupied with themselves than with the public.
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19 An absolutely gorgeous scene
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24 Some houses were "open to the public". For a change there was no sex scene, the surprise of that has obviously worn off.
25 Narrow streets, autumn leaves and all kinds of stalls
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28 Motive power was provided by two S100 ex-USATC (United States Army Transportation Corps), so the layout must be placed in the late fourties or earlies fifties.
29 Passing the Seine with the yet unscorched Notre Dame in the background
30 Somebody left some body
31 The viaduct's arches house a variety of shops.
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36 Oops the baker tripped..
37 S100 halting below street level.
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39 The layout attracted crowds
40 ...speaking of which, the show was well visited but not overcrowded. Here an overview of Hall 4. With some patience all stalls and layouts could be visited. There was a substantial presence of manufacturers. My friend visited the NMJ-stand where he met "old friends".
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42 Although intended as a demonstration layout for ESU's products this L-shaped layout certainly impressed by its simpleness and at the same time operational capabilities. Certainly a good idea for those with restricted space.
43 ESU's exquisite 78 on demo-tour
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45 ESU was obviously very proud of this Ae 6/6.
46 ESU - Class 78 in original Prussian livery
47 and in the later Reichsbahn-guise (not entirely sharp, sorry)
48 BEMO - This display almost makes you faint
49 BEMO
50 And a view on the BEMO demonstration layout
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53 At Weinert's booth
54 Weinert - Again Spreewald (see album 2024-04-13)....
55 ....Hoya....
56 ...and Plettenberg on one day!
57 A parade of Harz mallets in Weinert's booth
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63 The whole layout in one view. It depicts a Norwegian theme.
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78 That's what you get in foreign languages. No doubt Hell is an ordinary town and goods handling is a perfectly normal business in Norwegian. But if you read it with an anglophone eye you get an entirely different image.
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89 The crowd was thick before this one so it was practically impossible to get a full broadview
