2024-01-05 08:09:19
They were no longer at the top of Christmas wish lists – model trains or corresponding accessories for the ongoing expansion of domestic track operations. And yet the railway myth lives on in its miniaturized form, as long as the popularity of large-scale professional systems is taken as a benchmark. In a far more elaborate and imaginative way, they can fulfill the desire of many living room railroaders to recreate the past and the present on an equal footing.
It doesn’t have to be a contradiction if steam locomotives and ICE trains run on the same track or if previous living environments are authentically preserved, but everything is computer-controlled. In any case, that – nostalgia, naturalism and electronic finesse – is what guides the “Odenwald Model Railway World” in Fürth, southern Hesse. Since moving from the periphery to a specially built, 2,000 square meter hall next to the swimming pool, with over eleven kilometers of tracks and 400 trains, it is now considered the second largest facility in Germany after Hamburg’s “Miniatur Wunderland”.
You can feel that the spirit of the whole thing, the management consultant Michael Schuhmacher, is fulfilling a “boy’s dream”. But he is also driven by the mission to preserve on a small scale what was lost in the real world. There is neither a lack of complete sets of locomotives and wagons, which, as he notes somewhat ironically, “are on time and ready to run,” nor of sets that are true to the original. The heart of the railway is a reminiscence of the Ruhr area before the decline of the mining industry. Where today there are green dumps and shopping centers, in Fürth there are still coal trains and blast furnaces smoking.
There are also other closed scenarios, such as the Rocky Mountains in their winter coat or an ideal-typical section between the Moselle and Rhine, flanked by Eltz Castle and the Marksburg. A new alpine panorama is currently being created, which will extend the total route by another 5,000 meters. The workshop atmosphere deliberately remains visible in order to show the effort that goes into the buildings and the otherwise hidden technology.
Despite all the attention to detail, one would soon get fed up if there wasn’t constant variety in the processes controlled from the elevated command post. By foregoing fixed timetables, no routine is created. This allows constellations to be staged as desired, such as an “ICE breakdown”. Darkening every 20 minutes provides nighttime impressions, with 35,000 lights from the “world’s largest miniature fair” providing a particularly bright, colorful accent.
In the end, the only thing you might miss is the lack of Odenwald analogies. There are also authentic role models here, such as the listed Himbächel Viaduct, and no less inspiration for what goes on off the tracks in the form of the mountain zoo near Fürth-Erlenbach. Given the hillside location, around 200 animals from all continents live there, for whom it can’t be steep enough: climbing artists such as African dwarf goats, ibex, llamas and shaggy yaks from the Himalayas.
Directions
Starting at Fürth train station, the end point of the Weinheim railway line, you walk to the main thoroughfare, Heppenheimer Straße (B38/460), across the intersection and shortly afterwards to the right to the main street for the inviting passage on both sides of the open-flowing Weschnitz. At the exit, turn left into Krumbacher Straße. It ends at the model railway world building. There is plenty of space for parking at the neighboring outdoor pool.
You can also spend two or three hours in the complex, with some time left for hiking and the Erlenbach mountain zoo. First you walk uphill between houses (Im Glasloch) and, now outside, turn right and pick up the red square sign. Things continue to improve for him in Offenland.
Meadows and orchards also accompany you when you turn left after 1500 meters to the Li 4 combination (and others). They lead in a sweeping left turn to the village of Ellenbach, where there are still farms. Some of the stately farmsteads with half-timbered buildings on a solid stone base can be seen when you change from Schlierbacher Straße to Erlenbacher Weg on the left, and thus to the signs F 9 and 10.
A path lined with oak trees heads towards the forest, where the question soon arises as to whether you should take a shortcut using the blue line and green N markings or climb up to the mountain zoo. The first option takes you directly to Erlenbach, while the long approach brings you closer to the enclosures from the back.
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Then you continue with these two signs and F 9 over a winding forest path, like ibex or chamois, rising sharply uphill in the forest. At the top, just before the edge of the forest, you turn left – using F 9 alone – and use the white fence as a guide rail to the ticket booth at the bottom of the six-hectare mountain zoo.
On Werner-Kraußstrasse and Steinbruchstrasse you finally get closer to the legendary “Schorsch” inn, whose large outdoor clock shows the special feature of the hearty retreat: around 800 chronometers from three centuries, collected by the former boss Georg Trautmann, fill the rooms.
A little below you will come across the blue line sign again. If you don’t approach Linnenbach directly on the footpath next to the road, turn right, soon changing into fields.
Barely 500 meters further on, the yellow, upside down T becomes relevant to the left. With the ridge of the so-called Überwald in sight, the path swings slightly downwards, then turns left, circles the cemetery and joins the country road towards Linnenbach. At the beginning, the T leads left into fields full of fruit trees, and after the right turn, Fürth lies in its entire width below the hiker. The island street, lined with private homes, leads in and merges into the main street. At the next intersection you will find the train station on the right – via Ellenbacher Straße; Otherwise it goes across the town as described above.
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