Earlier this month I attended the 2026 Faszination Modellbahn hobby event at the Maimarkthalle near downtown downtown Mannheim–about an hours’ drive from my house in Kaiserslautern. Faszination Modellbahn was a little like an American RPM event, a little bit like an NMRA meet, and a little bit like a train show–except they got 10,000 people through the gate. Anyway here’s what a big model railroad event in Germany looks like. I hope you enjoy the report.

The show was held in a huge warehouse and included vendors of all kinds, modular layouts, video presentations (instead of clinics), a few historical societies and railway associations, and a good number of what I would call exhibitions–people building models and doing how-to demonstrations. The view above shows a portion of the Markthalle plus the largest of the many modular layouts in-house. The view below shows one of the many vendors.

There were very-high-tech/high-end vendors there too, including ESU LokSound, Artitech, and this fellow, below, who was selling equipment for an Intelligent Model Railway. He had a complete line of digital control for everything on a model railroad.

There were hundreds of layouts at Faszination Modellbahn. There were a dozen very large modular layouts, a larger number of smaller layouts like the one shown below, some micro-layouts, and everything in between. All scales, gauges, and eras were represented, even some US layouts were present.

It was great. Every ten or fifteen feet was an operating layout. The moving trains added a whole lot of fun to the event.

There were two very highly detailed RPM-style layouts in another room. The scene shown below was part of a 50-60-foot HO scale shelf layout of Swiss prototype railroads. The club is Eisenbahnfreude Biblis, and the layout is Die Lauterthalbahn 1924.

Next to the Swiss layout was a German layout, circa 2000, from the club IG Modellbahn Rein-Neckar. This layout featured four separate scenes of contemporary German railroading, each small and beautifully finished. More on the club can be found at https://ig-modellbahn-rhein-neckar.heisswolf.net.

The guys below are modular Z scale from the club Spur Z Stammtisch Radolfzell. They had a four or five trains running on the large loops and trains running on several even smaller layouts. Two micro-Z- layouts are in front. That picture frame and the little round thing had Z scale trains running on both of them.

One of the things I really admired about this event was how they catered to families and kids. This club had little Z scale modules pre-built–see the little wood board with a straight track at the very bottom of the photo? They would give these modules to kids, have them put scenery on them, then attach them right there to the operating layout. One of the fellows spoke English and was able to answer all my questions.

Another one of the neat things for families was at the Marklin display. Marklin had track of all kinds and scales, wired up, with engines and cars laid out on the carpet. Kids could come along, make their own track layout and then run electric trains on what they just built. They were so excited.

Yet another cool thing set up for families and kids is shown below. There were several “building stations” like this one set up around the room. The tables had placemats with glue and clippers, and in the middle of the table was a pile of brand-new kits in the box. Kids could come along, sit down, grab a kit and build it. It was so cool.

Below. Here’s another one of the building stations.

Below. Here’s a view of a visiting modular layout from France. It was very well-scenicked.

Here’s the engine terminal for the French HO layout seen below. I thought this was a really nice scene.

Below. Marklin has a massive display in the center of the hall. They had at least four traveling layouts–two in HO, one in N and one G scale. Here’s the biggest layout they brought–a mountain layout with working catenary.

Below. Here’s the Marklin N scale layout The Marklin factory is about two hours away in Goppingen which is a little east of Stuttgart.

Some new products were on display. The brass engines at left were 3-4000 Euros.

Below. Here’s a closer view of the largest of the Marklin layouts. I couldn’t believe they have a portable layout with catenary.

Below. Here’s an interesting sales display you won’t see in America. This display has a Marklin G scale engine, running, with rain water pouring all over it. The sign says “The railroad for inside and outside.”

Below. You can’t have Marklin without Marklin G scale. Here’s their G scale traveling layout. It was big fun, pun intended.

Below. One last view at the Marklin display. These are new, high-end G scale models. I don’t think they’re intended for outside play as they run 400-500 Euros each.

Marklin wasn’t the only G scale ambassador at the meet. This G scale layout is from a French club. This fellow was having a good time switch the big cars around.

Here’s one of the demonstrations I mentioned earlier. There were a half-dozen of these in progress when I was there. Modellbahn Union is like Walthers–they are a huge hobby store and importer based in Dortmund.

Below. In addition to the trains, there were quite a few HO scale automobile clubs in house. This club brought their own little city, about 40-50 feet long, and they were running remote control HO scale cars all over it. These guys below were running remote control trucks, cranes and bulldozers. They used the crane to load sand in the cars and haul it away. Meanwhile cars and busses would zoom by on the road in the foreground.

Below. Another remote control automobile set-up was on display by Viessmann. In this case, guys were driving remote-control military vehicles on and off flat cars. Their driving precision was impressive. Here comes the convoy on the right.

The most unusual things at the meet can be seen below. A fellow brough 25 hand-built models of very old steam engine types. They all operated. The engine below was particularly interesting because it “walked”. It’s prototype was built 150 years ago and was designed to walk like a horse. It had legs behind it and was walking back and forth to the turntables, turning around, and walking back. To borrow a term, it was fascinating. The Modellbaumeister (Model Maker) is Hartmuth Ludwig, and his interesting website can be found at https://www.dampfhalu.de/.

Here’s another view of this remarkable engine model:

Below. This friendly fellow is Voelker Grumpe, and he and his wife were selling an interesting street trackage line. Fortunately er sprach Englisch (“He spoke English”–I had to look that up) and we had a nice conversation. It turns out he has taken over the street track line from Andy Reichert’s Proto87 Stores. When I told him I knew Andy I made a friend for for life.

Most of the track line is–I think–what they call HOe which is like HO scale 3-foot gauge, or maybe prototype 600mm gauge that’s used by German Feldbahn railroads. He does carry a line of 16.5mm track which is HO scale. Anyway he couldn’t have been a nicer fellow and we talked quite a while. His website can be found at https://www.dtlw.org (Desk Top Locomotive Works).

Here’s another view of the product line.

I mentioned there were hundreds of layouts. Many of them were like this–small layouts that were brought by individuals or manufacturers. Unlike our RPM events in the US, which can be kind of sterile, the different layouts and moving trains make these events a lot more fun.

And finally, yes there was some American stuff there. There were a couple of layouts like this one–Germans gravitate towards Western US and Florida-themed layouts. The Saw Mill was operating on a loop with two trains.

Speaking U.S. railroads, Marklin was showing a new line of models coming to market soon. They had a new 2-8-4, some new transition-era freight cars, and a UP caboose on display. They looked nice but I didn’t take any pics. I also saw plenty of those old Trix U.S.-prototype models for sale all over the place but sadly not at a discount!

If you want to read more about Faszination Modellbahn, check out https://www.faszination-modellbahn.com.

John