Plan

As you may have noticed, I have an affinity for European trains. Of course, the point of collecting so many trains is to show them off, which calls for a layout befitting the collection. The main inspiration for the layout comes from my memories of the Köln hauptbahnhof, which is also where the title of this blog originated. A town square will be established in the centre of the layout. One of the two focal points will be the gothic cathedral facing the square. On the opposite side of the square will be the railway station with the platforms in the fore front for public viewing. I plan to use the same glass umbrella shaped roof structure as the Köln railway station. The station itself will be modern in appearance to provide contrast to the rest of the buildings.

The station's exterior walls will be glass, but I’m not entirely sure how to execute this as I want to construct the buildings from sturdy photographic paper. The idea came to me after seeing a 1:480 scale paper model of Praha, which is on permanent display at the city museum. Knowing it took the Antonin Langwell eleven years to finish his model leaves me a little concerned about schedule. At N scale, I will have to pay more attention to architectural details that otherwise would be indiscernible at smaller scales.