Deagostini railway in miniature. Railway in Miniature (Eaglemoss). Making a children's railway

The touring railway is the dream of almost every child. It is enough to see how children "stick" to exhibition stands and museum exhibits that simulate a railway. It is very interesting to see locomotives and wagons, which are a small copy of the real ones. The trains can be controlled, they stop at the stations, give sound signals, pass through the tunnels and call into the depot. This is a very beautiful sight, but it is not at all easy to do all this.

In order to assemble a model of the road, you need a lot of time, skills, materials and financial costs. The child is unable to do so. But many adults are willing to spend time, effort and money to create their own model of the railway. This is very an exciting activity, and the reward will be a layout that you can develop, improve, add rolling stock and landscape details.

The history of layouts

The directions of modeling that fans of layouts are fond of are different:

Collecting rolling stock, rails, wagons.
Collecting full-fledged models of railways.
Making miniature roads.
Making copies of real-life trains and trains.
Creation of park models in the open air.

The first models appeared in Germany in the second half of the 19th century, and subsequently the scale in which they were produced was adopted as a basis by other manufacturers.

Layouts that copy shapes and sizes real trains, are very different from children's toy roads with trains. Almost a century has passed since modeling became an exciting pastime for adults. This forced many firms to start producing improved models of trains and rails, to produce houses, arrows, traffic lights and semaphores, and landscape details.

Miniature roads are available in digital and analog versions. The control of an analog railway is reduced to the control of the movement of trains. With digital control, the functions are greatly expanded. Using the remote control, you can turn on the lights in the cars and steam locomotives, give sound signals, translate arrows. This is very interesting process, but it is equally interesting to create such layouts yourself.

How to make a layout with your own hands

It starts with gathering information. Many people are passionate about model building and share their experience, give advice, post photos and videos on the Internet pages showing the models they have assembled. You can purchase various structural elements and collect them. First of all it is worth identify with i with space for layout. It should be free space. A table measuring approximately two by one and a half meters can fit. There are ways to arrange a layout on a folding or retractable table top. Then you need to select the scale of the layout. There are five main scales:

HO, track 16.5 mm (1:87).
TT, track 12 mm (1:120).
N, track 9 mm (1:160).
Z, track 6.5 mm (1:220).
G (1:28 or 1:22.5) - garden or street scale.

Road to scale is very common. It has dimensions that allow you to place the layout in the house, and consists of fairly large elements that are convenient to work with and play with. It is also interesting to use smoke generator, a sound decoder, for reproducing noise during the movement of trains, and security systems.

For another common TT scale, many German companies produce models and accessories, for example, Tillig, Berliner T. T. Bahnen. Such models are also produced by other European companies Piko and Roco, Russian manufacturers "TT-model", "Peresvet".

The choice of scale depends on the space allocated for the road. Z is too small a scale and the layout will be difficult to assemble and deal with. The most common are TT and H0. When choosing a scale, consider minimum radius crooked. For scale rails (1:87) it is 380 mm. When passing large locomotives with five axles and long cars, this minimum radius must be increased by 1.5-2 times.

Based on this, it is necessary to calculate the required space for accommodating the rail track. At a scale (1:87) it will be three by one and a half meters. You can select a smaller scale (1:120). The minimum radius will be 275 mm and a width of one meter is enough.

You need to start building a layout by creating a diagram. At first, it can be simple, one circle with a composition. Gradually, new branches, arrows, semaphores, houses and other elements will be added.

Making a children's railway

Having determined the dimensions and drawn a diagram, you can start making a layout:

You need to start by making a sub-model of the selected size. It can be a countertop or just a sheet of thick plywood. Next, you should transfer the diagram to the sub-model, drawing railroad tracks, installation locations for arrows and semaphores, the location of houses, depots and station buildings. A complex arrangement of paths is designed in a special application on a computer.
After drawing the scheme, it is necessary to lay the rails. They are glued or nailed on. You can buy rails or make your own from copper wire. In this case, they need to be given a rectangular shape by rolling on the machine. Sleepers are also made on the machine. They look like thin sticks.

For rolling stock, an electrical circuit is required. The power supply can be homemade or purchased with a voltage of no more than 16 V. As an electric motor for a locomotive, you can use a motor taken out of a toy or purchased in a store. The trains will be powered through the rails. They need to connect the taps from the power supply. Electrical wiring is supposed to be done using copper wires and connectors. It should take into account all the places where there will be traffic lights, semaphores, lights.
In order for the railroad tracks to have a realistic look, it is necessary to pour the ballast. To do this, you can use aquarium soils or special model gravel.
To give the layout a finished look, it is necessary to think over and complete the landscape, make mountains, tunnels, draw roads, put houses and figures of people. You can buy ground powder, grass, trees, or make a mountain and a tunnel with mounting foam and paint with acrylic paint. Papier-mâché, paper, wood, plaster, cardboard and other materials can be used well.
Very interesting models of trains and wagons can be made from paper. To do this, you need to download from the Internet and print the diagrams. They need to be folded along the fold lines and glued. This is an easy way to fill the layout with new interesting models.

Do-it-yourself modeling is an exciting activity and a continuous creative process. It takes a lot of imagination and skillful hands to bring the plan to life. It will be doubly interesting to make a layout with a child. This is a good opportunity to instill in him the skills of manual labor and show how interesting the process of designing and making models can be. Joint creativity brings together and enriches.

Attention, only TODAY!

The beginning of a project to assemble your own model of an existing railway.

The series started in August 2014. We will gradually collect in the collection: 6 INTERCHANGEABLE CARS WITH AUTOMATIC COUPLE. 6 ready-made wagons for coupling with locomotives: 4 goods, 2 passenger.

Locomotive and control panel are sold SEPARATELY, not in series editions. Issues include wagons, rails, houses, trees, lanterns, cars and little men, landscape details. However, the base itself needs to be purchased, it is large, you will need a slab (for example, plywood) 174x105 cm in size. And the marking map for this base will be gradually invested in the series numbers. The first two parts are already in the second issue.

1 number: passenger car + straight track section.

Number 1: passenger car about 25 cm long + straight track section.

2nd number: turnout and switch + lantern (ready to use) + first 2 parts of the layout plan.

The new collection contains everything you need to create a working model of a railway: two different track circuits with arrows, a traffic light and a crossing with a barrier, a station, a platform, a tunnel in a mountain, all the necessary control systems for the simultaneous movement of two trains in a circle.

The magazines of the series contain the history of trains, a detailed description of train models and their arrangement, the history of railway stations, and a lot of other interesting information on this topic.

Release schedule:

In the 6th edition of the railway crossing.
In issue 7, a bag of miniature grass and part of a tank car.

The 9th issue will have the first part of the platform, the 10th issue will have the second part of the platform.

publishing house Eaglemoss launches new magazine series 'Railway in Miniature'. Thanks to it, your house will have its own operating railway, along with the corresponding infrastructure.

In addition to carriages, lamps, barriers, railway crossings and stations, each owner of the magazine will be able to find a lot of interesting things in it. The reader will be presented with fascinating stories related to this type of transport. The publication will tell about the brilliant designers, the famous railway stations of the world and the history of the railway.

With each release, you will receive another part of the future track and accessible instructions, thanks to which you can easily build a real railway from the collected elements.

Miniature Railroad Release Schedule

No. 1 - Wagon, straight track section - 19.08.2014
No. 2 - Street lamp, straight section of track
No. 3 - Half of the details of the house
No. 4 - Half of the details of the house, electric lamp
No. 5 - Tree, track section

Frequency: weekly.

How many issues of the Miniature Railway collection are there?
120 issues planned.

Collection "Railway in miniature"

One of the most anticipated series. It was expected not only by children, but also by adults. At least in our family. This is a unique opportunity to spend more time with loved ones. Finally, a childhood dream began to slowly come true. Now I will have my own personal railway! It is a pity that waiting until the completion of the "construction" is long. But nothing, it's a pleasant expectation.

Studying the first number pleased. The quality of the investment is excellent. Both the lantern and the section of the future road are made with high quality. The information presented in the first issue is really informative, but as for me, the magazine could have been made more meaningful. After all, before the end of the series is still a very long time and the buyer needs to be interested. If the next issues are as meager in content, I'm afraid only the most die-hard like me will buy the latest issues. Those who dreamed of such a railway for a long time.

Hobbies are different: someone quietly and calmly collects stamps or candy wrappers, fitting their entire collection into a thick album in the top drawer, someone plays golf on Saturdays, and someone chooses an entire art direction as a hobby and devotes it all of my life.

This is exactly what can be said about lovers and fans of a railway or railway miniature, because to create a craft of this kind, one desire is not enough - it will take a lot of time, effort, careful collection of information, sometimes resources, and financial investments, and, of course, the ability to as a result, you have a real miniature railway of your own.

A miniature railway is a subject of interest not only for children, but also for adults, and adults even more and more often. Almost every child had a children's toy in the form of a railway station with rails, steam locomotives and wagons, and if it cost more, then the kit included various railway signs, a semaphore, figures of drivers and other interesting details.

It’s interesting to play this, but I always wanted more, for example, that the railway network would be more developed and contain many branches and turns of the rails, so that train models were inertial or moved by themselves, and you could control them using the remote control, so that there were many additional elements: tunnels, bridges, roads with vehicles, trees, people, etc.

To make such a toy, or rather, not a toy, but a real mock-up of a railway with your own hands, you need to work hard, and not all children have such an opportunity, so you will probably need the help of your parents. It’s good if they share your passion for railway miniatures and help in creating crafts. For an adult lover of railway modeling, of course, it is easier in this regard.

As for the directions in which there is a miniature railway hobby, they are separated by several:

some simply collect only toy rails, trains and all their accessories;
others also collect, but already scale models;
still others are engaged in the manufacture of railways in miniature, recreating entire historical stations and railway stations, laying a real railway network from different directions of the tracks, engaged in the actual reconstruction of certain objects;
someone tries to make miniature copies of real or existing locomotives and trains in the smallest detail;
and another interesting type of railway modeling is a park or garden railway, for the creation of which a very large scale is used, so such a model of the railway can even be used as an attraction and transport people in it.

A bit of history

A miniature railway is not a tribute to fashion and not a new phenomenon, because the history of railway miniatures and modeling goes back more than one hundred and fifty years. For the first time, the model of the railway appeared, like a toy, in the nineteenth century (in its second half). Germany, represented by the manufacturer Märklin, took over the provision of the necessary industrial volumes. Their miniature railways were of such high quality and good that even the royal family ordered such a model for the Winter Palace.

Based on the scale of the railroad shown in the German-made miniature, scale standards for railroad modeling were later adopted. By the end of the nineteenth century, America also joined the cause, for the first time in the world, launching an electric model of the railway on the market (manufacturer - Carlisle & Finch).

Almost until the middle of the last century, both an ordinary toy in the form of railway rails with a train, and an ideally exact copy or a miniature railway were perceived in the same way, however, after the toy ceased to cause such a stir, and modeling began to take shape as a serious hobby, gradually finding more and more more fans.

Therefore, the manufacturers tried to please their new admirers - adults who were eager to assemble a full-fledged miniature model of the railway. To do this, they began to produce more advanced models, where the rails could be folded into a full-fledged railway track in miniature, where locomotives and wagons had many parts and elements, which also included various buildings, road paraphernalia and signs, a semaphore, etc.

Nowadays, there are practically no world-class giant firms left that would be engaged in such production, however, there are many small successfully functioning companies specializing in the production of certain models of trains or additional accessories, without which a miniature railway is impossible.

Scales, components and other nuances

To make a model of a railway, you must understand many nuances, for example, on what scale a miniature railway is usually made, what types of sets and configurations of crafts can be obtained, whether a diagram is needed and where to get it, what to do with accessories, necessary details and various accessories, etc.

Scale and size standards for railway modeling are very different. The most common are sizes bearing the symbol TT and NO.

The TT standard size - from the English Table-top trains - means that the model of the railway is carried out on a scale of one to one hundred and twenty (1:120) with a gauge of twelve millimeters. Such a miniature railway is also called a twelve-millimeter railway. All mobile models of trains are also made in it - this is done by supplying electricity along the rails, although it is possible to connect an electric locomotive through a contact network.

A large number of models and various accessories for assembling railway miniatures of this size are produced by:

German companies Berliner TT Bahnen, Tillig;
European manufacturers Roco and Piko have a small selection;
Jago pleases fans with rare models of vintage locomotives;
Russian firms "Peresvet" and "TT-model";
American PossumValleyModels, GoldCoast (some models of wagons and locomotives).

Another common size is NO. The name comes from the English abbreviation HalfZero or half zero. The model of the railway in this case is produced in a scale ratio of one to eighty-seven (1:87). There is also a size 0, in which the scale is taken twice as much, that is, 1 to 45. And here it turns out half of zero, but the Latin letter O is used instead of it in the designation.

A miniature railway in this scale is considered the most popular and widespread in the world due to the fact that it can be made without the use of complex devices, moreover, these models of railways are large enough for detailing, but at the same time quite convenient and compact to place the layout in the house or apartment.

A miniature railway of this standard size is also mobile: energy is supplied from a contact network or along rails (in the case of electric motors in locomotive models). Plus - you have the opportunity to use additional interesting elements when creating crafts:

a smoke generator device that will run on oil and create a smoke effect over diesel locomotives or steam locomotives;
installation of a sound decoder in the rolling stock - you can play any sound files that imitate noises and sounds of train traffic, etc.;
signaling devices, which stands for signaling, centralization and blocking.

Various other sizes also exist. For example, the large-scale G standard, which has been developed and produced since 1968 and is still being developed by the German company LGB. This is the clearest example of an outdoor garden railroad. In general, the larger the scale at which a miniature railway is built is chosen, the more detailed the prototype should be repeated, the smallest details and elements should be taken into account.

Do it yourself or buy?

Today you can find many thematic forums, special publications dedicated to railway modeling. You can purchase various elements separately and put them together later, mounting your own railroad layout.

However, first of all, you will need to decide on the available free space. Can you allocate half or even an entire room for the layout? If not, then you will first have to deal with the construction of a mock-up or equipment of a special place. To do this, you can use at least a separate table or make a retractable / folding tabletop, which will be used only for your project and nothing else, which means that you do not have to fold and remove the layout every time.

There are also options for modular layouts, which consist of individual blocks, cantilever structures (you can attach mock-ups to the walls like shelves) and lift-ups (easily stows away under the ceiling).

It is also better to take the appropriate scale for an apartment, for example, with a size of 1:87 you will not do much, because you will need a space of one by three meters at a minimum. It is better to stop at 1:120 or 1:160 scales, since designing a layout in an even smaller Z size (1:240) will require a lot of skill, effort and financial investment.

To create your own miniature railway, you will need to come up with and think over its future appearance to the smallest detail. Perhaps you should start with the simplest scheme, for example, make only one rail ring and a locomotive with several cars. Over time, you will add additional tracks, trains, semaphore and signs, station and buildings, figures of people, etc. to the project.

Experienced craftsmen already know how to create whole detailed landscapes - mountains and plains, bridges and tunnels, forests and fields, miniature streets, numerous forks in the paths, depots and other interesting things.

Even for the simplest project, it is better to make a diagram. Just try to draw what exactly you want to create. If your plans are to create a railway of a certain historical era, then you will need to thoroughly study all available information on this topic, find archival photographs, copy them, etc.

Also, a detailed diagram will be needed for the manufacture of models of locomotives and wagons. You can use the drawing diagram of a particular machine by looking for its photo. Just divide the real dimensions of a particular train by the scale you need and you will have a ready-made construction plan.

Step by step work plan

Provide space for the project and make a sub-layout (a simple configuration can even be placed on a plywood sheet).
Transfer the scheme of the future railway miniature to the mock-up (draw how the rails will pass, mark the forks and turns, roads where you will place buildings or structures). For a complex rail arrangement, the scheme can be designed on a computer in a special program.
Laying rails. Rail material can be bought at a specialized store or you can make them yourself. Since current flows along the rails in moving roads, craftsmen make them from thick copper wire, rolling it to a rectangular section on a manual machine. Sleepers are made from thin bars, which are also cut on the machine. The tracks are attached in two ways: they are either glued or nailed to the base with small studs, you can then solder the rails to the same studs or also glue the rails to the sleepers.
For a mobile model, it is necessary to additionally develop an electrical circuit, and then mount it on a breadboard model. Homemade blocks are usually taken as a power source, you can also take a factory one. Do not forget about safety rules - the output voltage cannot be high, use a power supply unit up to sixteen volts, and if the model is small, then six to nine volts will be enough. The electric motor for the train can be purchased at the radio store or removed from any toy. Conduct electricity to the engine from two rails. To distribute electricity throughout the base, stock up on connectors and copper wires. Think over all the details before wiring - where the semaphores and traffic lights, barriers will be located, whether the lights will be on, etc.
Backfill and lay the ballast, selecting it in size among aquarium soils or any household bulk materials.
Think over and make a relief and a landscape. To make your layout look like a real one, be sure to design a beautiful landscape. You can use professional materials such as trowel-mass, forest litter, meadow powder, different layers of the earth, crushed stone, sand, gravel and other interesting accessories from well-known manufacturers. If you choose more budget options, then to imitate the mountains, it is quite possible to get by with construction foam, which can then be easily painted in any desired color. Hills, fields, vegetation and other decor can also be recreated from plywood, gypsum plaster, fiberglass, papier-mâché, wood and other finishing materials. To paint the details, use acrylic paints.
If there is no time and desire to bother so much, then many elements can be taken to the layout and ready-made, for example, from toy sets, in which there are figures of trees, and dummies of grass or bushes, animals, cars, signs, people.
The situation is the same with buildings - either use ready-made options, or build your own from cardboard, wood, plywood, papier-mâché. Use photographs of real stations and other buildings as references.
Add the necessary components: draw roads, paint the grass, arrange the figures of people and put the trains on the rails.

Passion for railway modeling can start with a gift set with a railway and trains. Such a hobby, although it requires considerable effort and expense, undoubtedly helps to develop, think, create and not stand still.

Imagine, this toy is still alive

Passenger electric locomotive series ChS7 built by the Skoda plant.
In the background is a mainline electric locomotive of the VL-1 series. The author of the models is V. Nikishin.

Passenger electric locomotive of the ChS4t series built by the Skoda plant.
Main passenger electric locomotive ChS2. The author of the models is V. Nikishin.

And some more thumbnails:

Railway modeling is a kind of hobby in which one can single out: collecting toy or scale railway models and their accessories (railway stations, railway tracks, semaphores, etc.); reconstruction in miniature of historical stations, railway lines, etc.; creation of models of locomotives and wagons; garden and park models of large-scale railways, including those used for entertainment and recreational purposes for the transport of passengers on trains with directly driven locomotives.

Landscape with a model railway, exhibited at the railway station in Wuppertal (Germany). Photo from Wikipedia, by Thomas Hermes

In the Zurich Museum. Photo from Wikipedia, by Flominator ( talk)

image copyrightMicha L. Rieser

The first toy railways appeared in the second half of the 19th century. In industrial volumes, they began to be produced in 1891 by the German company Märklin (including their railway was even supplied to the Romanov imperial family in the Winter Palace!), which over time set most of the scale standards for railway models. In 1897, the American firm Carlisle & Finch produced the first electric railway.

Until the 1950s, there was no particular distinction between toy railroads and accurate miniature models: the latter were considered the same toys. However, by the end of the 1950s, interest in the railway as a toy began to decline, causing a crisis in the entire industry. It was at this time that railway modeling began to take shape as a serious hobby, reaching its peak by the mid-1970s. Manufacturers began to pay attention to the details of cars, locomotives, related accessories (buildings, road paraphernalia).By the early 19th century, many of the leading model railway companies had declined and gone bankrupt; while the industry has many small firms specializing in certain models or accessories.

Today, there are a lot of companies producing railway models.

The largest toy railway "Miniatur Wunderland" in Hamburg

Miniature Wonderland is a unique place in the world where you can see several European countries in miniature in one room. The history of its creation is as follows. Two twin brothers Frederik and Gerrit Braun started this project in 2000. On 1,150 square meters, they modeled train routes through Germany, America, Scandinavia and the Swiss Alps. 700 trains, 10,000 wagons, 900 semaphores, 2,800 buildings and more than 250,000 people on the streets, stadiums and parks are placed on toy rails. Moreover, the designers say, as in the real world, there is no one similar to the other. 500,000 light bulbs in houses, street lamps and traffic lights. It took 500,000 hours of work, 700 kilograms of artificial grass and 4,000 kilograms of steel to create the landscapes. The toy cost the creators 10 million euros, or $ 16 million, but they are not going to stop there and by 2014 they plan to double the model by adding landscape models of France, Italy and Great Britain. Its area will then be 1800 square meters. Currently, the project serves 160 people. "Miniatur Wunderland" was created in 1:87 scale.