The fire engine drives, the trains, however, are still standing still, but at least already on the rails, including the four and a half meter long freight train. Why is nothing going yet? “We have to go to the points again,” says Lukas Breitwieser, “calibrating satellites, adjusting lasers: a lot of fine-tuning is still necessary.” Anyone who lets the technical historian with a degree explain the new, digital, highly complex model railroad layout at the Deutsches Museum, as a layperson, gets the impression that the whole layout consists only of fine-tuning. In any case, it no longer has anything in common with the classic model railroad, which in earlier decades was often under the Christmas tree. Curator Breitwieser describes his work as an “infrastructure monster”. No contradiction, nowhere.
Curator Lukas Breitwieser calls the facility an “infrastructure monster”.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
The exhibitions on Museum Island have been updated and redesigned since October 2015. The building will also be brought up to date, in two sections, so that the museum will remain open. As soon as part one is finished, the first new exhibitions will reopen and the construction site will “move” to the other side of the building. In 2028, on the 125th anniversary of the Deutsches Museum, the building should shine in a completely new light.
Three screenings per day are planned
Model railroad fans don’t have to wait that long. Breitwieser & Co. want to be ready in March, the opening is to be celebrated in May – if Corona doesn’t thwart their plans. On a 44 square meter scale, a total of 36 train sets then turn their computer-calculated laps on 750 meters of track on a 1:87 scale. There should be three screenings per day, each 20 minutes. Not only will a few trains go back and forth, the Traffic, Mobility, Transport department has already given more thought: “The idea is to simulate a daily routine,” explains Breitwieser, “from four in the morning to midnight. We squeeze the time: One minute equals one hour. The room is darkened, there is a lot of commuting in the morning, and less is going on at lunchtime. Parents and children should experience realistic traffic operations. “
The cars are already driving, the trains are still standing. Because the model makers still have to work on the switches.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
In order to achieve this, a tradition was broken: instead of being surrounded by colorful, ornate houses, the rail landscape is completely in neutral white. “No, it didn’t snow, it has nothing to do with Christmas”, explains the curator, “with this abstractness we optically move the landscape and all things that do not belong to traffic into the background. Everything that moves us – Trains, road traffic, trams, bicycles, on the other hand, are colorful. We didn’t want these playful, often kitschy details of traditional model railroad systems such as in the ‘Miniatur Wunderland’ in Hamburg. ” But a realistic representation of physics, technology and infrastructure and the associated driving operations. Everything else is just a distraction.
A track planner for the railway worked on the layout
Breitwieser sees the certainly bold design as a unique selling point. Special feature number two: the extremely realistic track layout. The layout was designed in collaboration with a track planner from Deutsche Bahn, it comes from the original, so to speak. “We are as close to the model as it can be done with toys,” says the curator, “for example, many curved turnouts were built in – they can run completely different radii. There are also canting in the track, which results in realistic driving physics leads.”
Andreas Reinbold is responsible for the vehicles.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
It does not depict the present, but rather the time from the mid to around the end of the 1990s. For trains on the rails this means: Tilting technology: yes, the ICE models 1 to 3: yes, the ICE 4: no. A piece of high-speed line can be seen, but also old structures such as a regional train station with a small signal box. Next door: a port with a crane, so that thanks to a so-called car system that lets the fire brigade, buses, road sweepers and trucks drive, loading processes can also be displayed on the port crane. There is also a rack railway that climbs up to a castle. No city was reproduced 1: 1, but the layout is based on the Lower Franconian town of Gemünden am Main – which, to Breitwieser’s astonishment, a colleague recognized at first glance. When the first demonstrations take place in spring, the audio information will speak of a city called Wernmünden. Not googling at all is fictional.
The visible area only makes up a quarter of the track surface
On the other hand, the current challenges, such as the programming of the system, are very real. As part of the future initiative of the Deutsches Museum, it was said, “We want a new train!”, The end of the old system was sealed, which thousands of young and old Munich residents had marveled at in the west wing over the years. Since the old railway was not built to be transportable, the Dresden company Designprojekt manufactured a new one in modular construction. Cost: around half a million euros. A month ago half a dozen model builders came and created one of the museum’s new eye-catchers out of wood, Styrodur and plaster of paris. “Now someone has to learn to operate the system,” says Breitwieser, “Keyword troubleshooting!” After all, the visible area only makes up a quarter of the track surface.
In the shaded area that can be seen from the side, a large parking and shunting area under the layout, rails run over several floors: spiral-shaped track helices over which the trains come from one level to the other. Breitwieser explains: “If we let the ICE drive through the picture for three seconds, it has already been on the road for five to ten minutes. It’s all difficult to coordinate, a huge amount of programming effort.” It is controlled via the Train Controller software as well as laser and ultrasound – brave new world. The curator says: “I find the clash of old and new structures exciting. There is also a museum trip with the good, old steam locomotive.”
The demonstrations will simulate the course of a day, from the morning commute to the quiet hours of the night.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
The train. Breitwieser believes in them, sits in it every day, commutes to the city on the regional train: “I believe that the rail is becoming more and more important if we want to stay mobile. We are already reaching the limits of individual transport that we also do with automated ones Individual transport cannot be postponed. The railways will continue to be one of the main carriers of mass and freight transport. We are not showing railway technology in a romantic way, but as a fundamentally important means of transport, not only in the nineties, but also today and even more so in the future . ” But now he still has to set a few points.