European Train Enthusiasts

ÖBB ALL THE WAY

(Oesterreichische Bundesbahn)

I was born in Vienna, Austria. The beginning of my trains was in 1958 with Kleinbahn. In the later years came Liliput and Fleischmann. In 1964 I came to California. I started some small layouts until the year 1975, when my ÖBB layout became reality.

Vienna has four end stations, which are not easy to copy. All my trains arrive at the same station. The main station is a typical “Modellstation”. It has on the left side the transfer tables and on the right side the turntable. There are two more small stations: one which has the connection with the narrow Gauge Hoe (Mariazeller Bahn).

I have four hiding stations, 2,6,10,18 tracks (Schattenbahnhof), from where I can call all my trains on the layout( a total of 44 trains). One station is built from scratch 1:87 representing my home town in Vienna.

I also made the gravel train myself. They arrive there every day to Wien Beton (Vienna Cement). I built the cement yard which I have visited several times, in order to be able to copy it as close as possible. The cement yard belongs to the Company LAFARGE, which delivers gravel and cement in Austria and Germany.

My layout was seen in the Modellwelt Magazine(Austria) 3/2000. Which of course, made me very happy.

All my trains run analog in 10 blocks (Transformers) and arrive in my fantasy Station (Vienna). They are: ICE from Hamburg, Transalpine from Basel, Orientexpress from Paris, Romulus from Rome and Venice, Chopin from Warsaw and Moskow with the famous Russian sleeper. Bela Bartok from Budapest. It is difficult to copy these trains a 100%, because there are still some models of cars not available.

But, it is a good feeling to run these trains on my layout. Most of my rolling stock is ROCO (Austria).

Soon, after 25 years, there will be a big overhaul.