Layout Inspired by Living in Germany
- Built by: Munhyuk Kwan
- Type: Tabletop layout
- Dimensions: 630 x 39 in (1600 x 100 cm)
- Scale: HO
- Country: Germany
Hi! Tell us about yourself and how you got into model trains
My Name is Munhyuk Kwan. I am a 52 years old Korean man who is living in Chuncheon, South Korea. I retired 4 Years ago and I am living with my wife. I came back to Korea one year ago after I had lived for 3 years in Germany.
In 2018, I had a chance to visit Miniature Wunderland in Hamburg. The visit made me curious and I started to learn about model trains. I prefer layout building and operating to collecting.
Fortunately, there are many train shops and layout clubs in Frankfurt where I was living. Many friends there to help me to learn and understand model railway DCC systems.
My Instagram (@kleines_wunderland) shows my layout and related systems.
Please describe your layout
My layout doesn’t have a name. The theme of my layout is about the European small city in which trains, trams and cars are running automatically.
In terms of country, I like Germany and Switzerland because DB, SBB, OBB and SNCF are running there. I have collected all kind of European trains. So I wanted to put all of these on my layout.
In terms of scale, due to starting in Germany, HO scale is my favorite.
After retirering, I opened a modelrailway academy to share my experiences and knowledge with beginners in Korea. My current layout is located in my academy which visitors in Korea can see.
The size of layout is around 16 x 1.2 meters. It has taken 5 months to build it. Before coming back to Korea, in Germany I got to experience working on an Alps layout where RHB Bemo trains (HOm scale) were running.
For my layout, I have bought finished buildings like Faller, Kibri, Vollmer, Auhagen etc. I customized housing lamps and made weathering effects.
Fortunately, my wife also like model railway as a hobby. So the layout is built by two people without other people. In my layout, trains and trams are automatically controlled by Traincontroller Gold 9 (German interface program). All cars are subject to the Faller analog system.
In the future, I have plan to upgrade the car system from analog to Digital (DC Open Car System).
How did you plan your layout?
During travelling, I got inspiration for my layout plan. Closely looking at many photos which I took while travelling, I tried to catch some points which I can focus on in my layout.
I think that planning is the most important process (no plan, no layout). So I spent enough time to plan the layout. I materialized my layout ideas by drawing it in a sketchbook. After that, I use the track planning program (Wintrack), even though some minor modification between my first idea and the final design have occurred.
I prefer HO scale because I am very familiar with HO scale. No other reason about it.
Describe your rolling stock
Because I prefer European rolling stocks, my favorite model brands are Maerklin, Roco, Piko, Bemo etc. Among them, I like Maerklin as the best for two reasons:
- Top reason is that all kind of Maerklin trains can run on R1 (Radius 1) track. This feature can provide convenience and scalability in building the layout.
- The second reason is that MFX type decoder equipped in all the products can provide convenience to find address of the items. It saves a huge amount of time. It doesn’t matter when it is analog, but it is very important for digital.
Advice for other people in the model train world
There are many options for beginners to choose from (scale, two wire track or three wire track, analog or digital, etc.). Giving recommendations is not easy without taking into account each individual’s economic situation.
It is important to know what kind of layout you are going to create. In my case, I planned to build a huge layout in which all the trains are automatically running with the help of interface PC programs. So I selected Digital, three wire, and HO scale.
I made many trial and errors when buying devices for my digital system. But this was also good lessons to understand the mechanism of the digital system. Don’t be afraid, I advise you to take on a challenge.
