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S-Trains Presents ....

The Model Railway on exhibition in the Nuremberg Toy Museum, KarlstraBe 13,  at the 2nd floor, is of special interest at the moment.  The  lay-out measures about 325 sq.ft. and the whole construction is hand-made.  It was built between 1950 and 1974  in Nuremberg by Dr. Wolfram Bismarck in his spare time.  The scale of the lay-out is 1:64 (gauge S = 3/16") i. e. half  the size of gauge no. 1. The main components are hardboard  and plywood of various widths.  Altogether the lay-out  consists of 565 ft. of tracks.  Strips of wood were planed,  coloured and cut up into 12,500 sleepers.  Steel of 0. 1 " was  used for the rails themselves.  The last section is made of  argentan.  A special characteristic of this model railway is  that the stations themselves, their outbuildings, the tracks,  and the points, as well as all the rolling stock are handmade.   For his own interest the designer chose an American  railway lay-out as a prototype.  He did so because the  American railway system displays features and technical  idiosyncrasies of special interest.  This model shows the Omaha/Nebraska junction on the west bank of the Missouri  River.  This has the advantage of beeing able to simulate  the railway traffic between several stations from one  electric control panel.  The rolling stock and railway traffic  flow on the model resembletheera between 1940and 1965.  On the other side of the river opposite the town of Omaha  lies Council Bluffs.  The bed of the river forms the border  between the states of Nebraska and Iowa.

Ten different  railway companies converge on the junction of Council  Bluffs.  Here all the railway traffic passes into the hands of  the Union Pacific Railway and proceeds to Omaha to be  classified and re-dispatched.  The lines which leave the  two main stations fuse into a main line on a lower level of  the lay-out.  Several hidden sidings have been built into  this part of the circuit.  To these sidings rolling stock is  admitted, stored, and released.  From there it heads for one  of the main-line destinations.  This ingeniously conceals  the missing stretches of tracks beneath the lay-out.  So the  trains, as they embark on the imaginary stretch of line between Council Bluffs and Omaha, simply disappear out of sight.
Council Bluffs goods station
Omaha is both a passenger and a goods station.  The  passenger station is joined to two electric circuits.  The station has three through tracks, eachwith itsown platform.  The motor rail coach repair-shed and goods-depot are linked tothe outercircuitsto the left and rightoftheomaha  Union Station building.  The old engine-shed in the motorcoach repair yard, the goods-shed and all the other build-  ings correspond to the prototype.  The large Omaha Union Station building required eight  months of work.  Half of this time was used to recreate   the interior (see the original photos of the interior).  In   some parts of the building seven layers of plywood had to be   laid one on top of the other in order to reproduce the   appropriate relief of the building.  By means of carving and   burning intheart Decoarchitectureof the main building and  its two wings has been reproduced.  The heating-plant   joins the main station building from the direction of the  rail-coach repair shed, behind which there is a shed for   luggage waggons.  Next comes a section of the city park of  Omaha with a memorial to the last Omaha Indian of the  Sioux tribe.  General View  In order to show the Omaha goods shed in its proper light   the loading area in front of it is shown to be still under   construction.  Of particular interest here, as on the layout  as a whole, are the hand carved figures.  Including the model   passengers in the local and inter-city trains, these total more than 300.  A look through the doors at the loading   ramp of the goods-shed into the illuminated interior shows the complete lay-out; just as a look through the front   windows revealsthegoods registration officewithfurniture, telephone, freight tarif tables, and staff at work.  Opposite   the goods shed, but still within the goods yard, the two main industries of Omaha are depicted: grain stozage and a   meat packing business.  The cattle in the stock cars are taken along the siding to the cattle corral.  At the same time   meat products leave the factory and are loaded into refrigerator cars.  A covered grain waggon stands on the   siding by the grain storage plant.  This simulates an unloading system operated by compressed air.   Omaha goods-station is joined to both of the main circuits.  This means that trains can both enter and leave in either   direction via the appropriate points.  The problem of space has meant that the lay-out of the tracks in the goods-   yard has had to be thoroughly simplified.  Thus there is CTC-control panel and eastern entry to Council Bluffs Station only one entrance and one exit line.  This is sufficient to    illustrate the flow of the goods traffic.  When a goods train enters this area the engine can be electrically uncoupled  from the train and taken into the loco storage tracks for refueling.  At the same time the shunting engine can push the waggons over the hump of the double-incline.  On this simplified lay-out the waggons are sent into sidings heading for four different directions:

1) Chicago 2) North-West Line via Montana, Idaho to Tacoma and     Seattle in the State of Washington 3) the historic Western line of the first trans-continental     railway via Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Reno, Sacramento     to San Francisco 4) everything, that has to go via Kansas City and St. Louis     either to the east in the direction of New York and the whole     Atlantic Coast, or to the south in the direction     of Oklahoma - New Orleans.