The Messe 2005 Trip Diary
Well, another Messe trip is history.
Once again, we spent the week in a new city (Ulm), visited many wonderful train-related venues, and enjoyed the Christmas season in a country known for throwing a great Christmas celebration!
Here are some highlights from that trip...
Ulm turned out to be a great place to stay. Our hotel, the Hotel Stern, was easy walking distance from the train station, the Christmas market, the shopping area, and at least one train store! The picture above was taken about 200 feet from our hotel's front door...
Saturday, December 3: My own account of the trip starts before the official kick-off. I picked up our rental van in Frankfurt and made my way south towards Ulm. First stop: a new railfanning location. I noticed on the drive towards Stuttgart that the high-speed and secondary lines were pretty close together, and found myself taking a brief detour to the station at Hockenheim. Sure enough, this proved to be a great railfanning spot, thanks in large part to the convenient bridge near the station (click on the thumbnail for a better view).
You might look at the third picture and ask whether I meant to include it in this webpage. Well, the reason I took it was because I often wonder about how to decorate slopes next to rail lines and off platforms. This should give modelers some ideas.
I needed to make one stop in Waiblingen (near Stuttgart) to pick up our train tickets for the trip and to take a sneak peek at one of our destinations- the train store known simply as ETS. After picking up the tickets I chose to take the more leisurely route to Ulm on the B-10 up the Geislinger Steige rather than the Autobahn. It turned out to be a great decision. At the top of the ramp, in Amstetten, I stopped at the station and happened to catch the local narrow-gauge steam train making St. Nikolaus trips to Gerstetten and back.
Here are a pair of trains at Amstetten station, with one headed down the Steige and another just coming up. I also caught a BR 151 at the top, probably waiting to provide braking effort for the trip down the mountainside to Geislingen:
Although there was no action in the small station for the narrow gauge line when I arrived, it wasn't long before I could hear the shrill whistle of the steam locomotive in the distance. Soon thereafter the train pulled in:
The engine did a quick run-around, and gave me just enough time to head nearby to a better photography location...
Imagine my surprise to find St. Nikolaus and Knecht Ruprecht headed for the train tracks just up the line! I sincerely hoped I'd get a chance to meet St. Nikolaus and plead my case for being a good boy later in the trip...
No sooner were the two in place when the steam train came around the corner...
Then, with St. Nikolaus and Ruprecht safely on board, the train continued on its journey. I continued on my own journey, and arrived in Ulm shortly before our opening reception.
Sunday, December 4: Our own steam train ride was on the agenda today, and the group made its way to Nördlingen, where a tour of the Bavarian Train Museum preceded the steam train ride to Dinkelsbühl. Here are a few pictures from the museum. For a more extensive collection of photos from this museum's amazing collection, click here.
I love the last photo, with all the guys clicking away!
We headed across to the main platform and boarded our train...
Oh no! Here comes St. Nikolaus, and me with a beer in my hand! Looks like I can expect coal in my stocking this year...
Here is our locomotive for the train ride, a gorgeous class 41. It's actually our third trip behind this beautiful locomotive...
This last picture was taken near Nördlingen, where a gatekeeper still hand cranks the crossing gate shut. He was very friendly, and didn't seem the least bit surprised when a bus full of Americans pulled up and began snapping pictures!
Next up are a few pictures of our day in Nördlingen, courtesy of Nigel Packer, who has generously allowed us to share them with you:
Our day wasn't over yet. We had one more stop to make before returning to Ulm, and that was the Modellbahnshau Pappenheim, an HO public layout in its early stages of construction.
Here are some photos Nigel took of this layout:
In addition to the layout, there was a collection of Marklin Metall models:
It's a nifty layout, and we'll look forward to seeing its expansion in the coming years.
Monday, December 5: The Messe! Unfortunately I spent so much time with the video camera and checking out the new items, I had little time to take still pictures. Still, here are a few choice images:
Once the Messe closed we took the subway downtown to enjoy a wonderful dinner at the Spatenhaus. Many considered it the best meal of the trip, which is really saying something, since all the meals were excellent (imho):
That Nigel Packer and Bill Young, plus the Seilheimer family enjoying their dinners. Nigel and Bill are sharing what we ended up affectionately calling the Bavarian "Mountain of Meat". What you can't see are the side dishes of potato salad, red cabbage, sauerkraut, and dumplings!
Tuesday, December 6: This day was open to explore Ulm, plus an unsuccessful trip to the layout at Merklingen in the afternoon. Instead we made our way to Göppingen for a few hours at the Marklin Museum. In the morning, Nigel Bill and I headed to a large freight yard near our hotel. I took the following snapshots:
Nigel, who had come along, took some as well:
I had already taken so many pictures of the Marklin Museum that I took video instead. If you'd like to see some pictures, there are quite a few from our 2001 visit located here.
Wednesday, December 7: Today was "Nuremberg Day", a staple of the Messe trips in Bavaria. We spent an enjoyable day in Nuremberg at the Christmas Market, plus we toured the Federal Railway Museum (DB Museum) and even stopped by Modellbahn Dörfler to pick up some goodies.
Thursday, December 8: Today we were off through a winter landscape to visit one of the premier manufacturers of plastic kits, Faller. ETS's own Uli Schweickhardt met us along the way, and with our bus following behind, we headed off the Autobahn and through the countryside. Our first stop was the famous "Hexenlochmühle", or "Witch's Hole Mill". This mill is a popular Faller model kit, and has been in the catalog for years.
Afterwards we enjoyed a fabulous lunch at a restaurant across the street from Faller, followed by our visit to the plant. Imagine our delight when we were greeted by a lovely hostess in traditional Black Forest attire!
After a wonderful tour and a visit to Faller's large showroom complete with several train layouts in several scales, we headed back to Ulm, complete with fond memories and a free catalog!
Friday, December 9: We were back in Göppingen on this day, to tour the Marklin factory. Unfortunately, photography is strictly prohibited, so the only photo we have is of the group out in front of the mysterious "employee store"...
We followed up the visit to Marklin with a side trip to Eisenbahn Treffpunkt Schweickhardt. After shopping to our heart's content, we were invited to a private viewing of the new layout of the Privater Modellbahnclub Winnenden, the club layout that Uli belongs to. Although still in its infancy, this massive layout already impresses, with huge helixes, long main-line runs, and a few surprises I'll share once I get the photos up!
Saturday, December 10: With the morning off, several of us decided to head south to the Lake of Constance, or the "Bodensee". Our first stop was the town of Lindau, a pretty town, the heart of which sits on an island just off the shore in the lake. The railway crosses a bridge to get out to the island, and the train tracks end at the water's edge.
The town had a small but pretty Christmas market, and the small group of us spent an hour walking around the area.
Next it was off to Friederichshafen, also on the lake of Constance. One of this town's landmarks is the Zeppelin Museum. Here are some pictures of this great exhibit on airships.
Time was short, and the Modellschau Merklingen was on the agenda. We picked up the rest of the group at the hotel ,and headed to Merklingen. This remains one of my all-time favorite layouts, and it is my third time to visit it. Although I didn't take any photos this trip, here are a few from previous outings to give you an idea of the scale and beauty of this H.O. Marklin layout:
Then it was back to the hotel for our farewell dinner. We said our goodbyes and headed off to bed.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
Yes, there is, indeed a little more.
Nigel Packer and I ended up spending a few extra days in Germany together after the end of the trip. My goal was to scout some possible locations for future trips. One of the stops we made was to the Technical Museum at Sinsheim. Wow, what a museum!
Now, as if that weren't enough, we also took a side trip to the Eisenbahnmuseum at Heilbronn. We knew very little about this museum, and least of all whether it was even open on the day we visited! Well, my streak of luck continues, and not only was the museum open, but Nigel and I received a complete tour, including having the museum's P8 pulled out onto the turntable for an impromptu viewing.
Finally, we found what had to be the highlight of the tour, if not the entire trip. We were completely amazed to suddenly find ourselves face-to-face with the one and only Northlander.
What a surprise! Neither Nigel nor I knew it was stored here. We spent a good hour poking through the train, sitting in the control car, and even relaxing in the seats. There is certainly work to be done on this train, but I understand that restoration does continue.
This was truly a most memorable way to end the 2005 Modellbahnmesse trip!