French Modular Layout

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Hi! Tell us about yourself and how you got into model trains

Hi! My name is Benjamin. I’m French, 18 and live in Paris where I study engineering. I started model trains with my grandfather when I was 10. He has a layout where we run trains together.

Three years ago, I have started my own projects and I’m also part of a model railway club. I like to run trains but haven’t got enough space at home, so I run the trains at the club. It’s awesome to talk to other fans at exhibitions and it’s always a pleasure to meet new people.

I’m on Instagram @modulesh0 and YouTube.

Please describe your layout

My layout is located somewhere in France and it is inspired by the Paris-Orléans line. I mostly run French trains from epoch 6, but I also have German and Austrian trains (two countries I love). I work in HO because I think it’s the best scale compromise between space and details.

My layout is a modular layout. For the moment, it is only 100 x 30 centimeters, but I want to create extensions to show the travel of the trains in Europe. I’ve been working on my layout for a year (because of my studies, I don’t have a lot of free time). I have built all of it myself except for the trees (Noch) and the catenary (Viessmann). I have a lot of friends who build layouts too and they give me a lot of advice!

Maybe one day, my layout can be available for exhibitions…

How did you plan your layout?

I’m French and like to run trains that I see in real life, so I focused on French trains first. It was quite easy to plan my layout because it is inspired by a real place. I used some paper and pens to plan it!

At the beginning I would like to run two trains at the same time, so I wanted to build parallel tracks. Finally I added another track for diesels trains (freight) which are not as fast as the trains which run on the electric tracks.

I choose HO because it’s the scale I began with and because it’s a good compromise between space, details and price 🙂

Describe your rolling stock

I love locomotives so I have a lot of them! (oops, I now have more locomotives than wagons). It’s essentially French trains but I have also some German and Austrian trains like the Taurus and Vectron. I like Piko because the models are very affordable and with a lot of details. It’s a good base for modifications ! I have a lot of Jouef too.

I have four favorite models: A Roco Nightjet Vectron which is a beautiful model, a BB 26000 Carmillon from Jouef, an XTER which is a gift form friends when I was is a hospital for a long time. They modified it to be more realistic and added some pieces. Today it seems like the real one! My last favorite model is an LS AGC, a beautiful model I travel with a lot in real life.

I would like to add more European trains in my collection ! All my rolling stock is controlled by analog.

Advice for other people in the model train world

The start-packs are a good way to begin in models train world! They offer the possibility to run trains with a small layout witch can grow later on.

My recommandation is to be passionate, and to get inspiration from reality because nature is a great teacher. Something we have in the community are the people who criticize everything without saying something useful. If you are passionate, don’t listen to them!

The best $100 I have spend were for buying a TRAXX Piko, my first locomotive which I have used for 10 years now. It is still running perfectly!

I think that money can’t do everything. Scale trains are better when you do it yourself, it’s part of the job, but a lot of people disagree with it.

Last, the best train advice I have ever received is that when you want it, you can do it. Nothing is for ever, everything can be upgraded and mistakes are great teachers!