| It's six thirty in the morning in a little town in | | | | another train is coming. The passenger cars are |
| Austria. A lightening eastern sky promises another | | | | lighted and show red lights when last in line. Both |
| beautiful day, as a cool ground mist starts to burn | | | | German and American trains are available. The |
| off. A chugging sound in the distance speeds up | | | | biggest challenge in creating the toporama came in |
| your heart in anticipation of the steam train as it | | | | inventing flora to look realistic in this tiny scale. |
| approaches the grade. Here it comes! The sounds | | | | The solution I came up with was to use parts of |
| of steam rushing through massive cylinders reach | | | | naturally occurring plants that branched just like |
| your ears before the massive snout suddenly | | | | big trees. All I had to do was dry them and dip |
| appears as it rounds the rough cut in the | | | | the feathery ends in green powdered foam |
| mountain. Faithfully, the two block-long row of | | | | rubber to simulate leaves. There are many |
| cars tag along. You imagine yourself riding the last | | | | companies who supply the proper scale |
| car, enjoying the cool breeze as the landscape | | | | accessories, like Volkswagons, people, dozens of |
| flows past. On the hills above you sheep graze | | | | buildings and train paraphernalia. No effort was |
| peacefully, seemingly oblivious to the plunging | | | | spared in creating realistic detail in these |
| antics of a German shepherd as he tries to keep | | | | miniatures. Hand detailing and 'weathering' add to |
| his charges from straying. Up ahead the clanging | | | | the realism. Four miles of railroad track was |
| at an intersection warns of danger as one | | | | contained on a board only three by five feet. The |
| hundred tons of diesel freight wait patiently for | | | | silver track is fully ballasted in the proper scale |
| your train to pass. You wave pleasantly to the | | | | sized granite. An electronically coupled tape |
| conductor who casually acknowledges with a | | | | recorder supplied the sounds and an actual |
| raised hand. | | | | photographic mountain panoramic surrounded the |
| Coming into the station, you notice that the lights | | | | scene. All buildings were lighted and all crossing |
| are still on in the ticket office, dozens of | | | | were automatically controlled. |
| commuters standing in groups ready to board. On | | | | The wiring is cleverly color coded for easy |
| the long down-grade out of town, the train picks | | | | installation. The track can be ordered in long |
| up speed, the engine roaring to the task of | | | | flexible lengths and the joints can be kept with |
| traveling at one hundred miles per hour. The | | | | the original click together connections or custom |
| above imagined scenario and many others like it | | | | soldered for lower resistance. An added AC |
| took place every time I turned the switch on the | | | | parallel transformer makes possible five mile per |
| transformer of my 220 : 1 ratio scale (Z scale) | | | | hour speeds. Four locomotives of various types |
| model train replica. | | | | could be run at the same time without colliding. |
| The mentioned sheep stand less than a millimeter | | | | Recently some locomotives were fitted with |
| tall. A normal six foot wide track ends up less | | | | digital receivers for advanced control. My record |
| than on quarter of an inch in width! These Marklin | | | | for a run without a collision was twenty -two |
| trains are made in Germany and have almost all | | | | minutes. |
| of the features found on their larger cousins. Long | | | | I don't recommend these expensive model trains |
| locomotives are fully articulated (they bend in the | | | | for children with the one exception - they're great |
| middle), can be coupled or uncoupled remotely, | | | | for the child in you! |
| and automatically stop at an intersection when | | | | |