This 1:87 scale model is a result of seventeen years of effort by Marc Antiglio, a noted Swiss civil engineer. The model represents three railways , the Swiss railways – SBB, the Rhatische Bahn – RhB and the imaginary Kaeserberg Bahn or Chemins de fer du Kaeserberg – KBB/CFK.

CFK is located in the town of Freiburg, near Berne in southwest Switzerland, about a 2 hr drive from Zurich. I had the chance to visit the layout in September of 2013 and took a  lot of pics which you can check out here.

The three storey purpose built building for the layout is worth studying for the civil engineering technology used in it’s own right ….

CFK blog- entrance to the layout

Power is generated with it’s own solar panels…..

CFK blog- solar electricity panel display

Visitors first enter into a slick reception area surrounded by glass …

CFK blog- view of the reception area from upper level

…and a nice underfoot display educates those uninitiated about the various scales.

CFK blog- various gauges display in the reception area

Visitors are then arranged in groups of 40 and are taken into a small theater where the layout, it’s history and the techniques used are presented in a short audio visual. It was unfortunately in French which was Greek to me but then a picture says a thousand words ….

CFK blog- small theater for introduction of the layout

once the presentation is over we enter the lowest level in which there is an extensive staging yard and in which by my estimate atleast a hundred trains could be stored …..

CFK blog- staging area view 3

a stair case then leads us to the next level ….

CFK blog- stairs leading up to the main layout from the staging area

where one gets to see a large Ho standard gauge layout….

CFK blog- main station scene 2CFK blog- imposing hill scene 2 CFK blog- long mixed freight steam hauled too

they have a nice arrangement to prevent prying hands from reaching into the layout . Once a hand crosses the red line, an infra red beam is triggered and an alarm goes off alerting the staff in attendance  to the intrusion…..

CFK blog- red line alarm

the staircase then leads to the third level where there is an HOm display ….

CFK blog- HO meter gauge hillside view

a part of it is under construction ….

CFK blog- hill railway under construction 1

and in the center is a smaller display which shows off the various materials and techniques used at CFK …..

CFK blog- materials and techniques used display 2CFK blog- materials and techniques used display 3

including how to super-elevate track….

CFK blog- track superelevation technique

the view from the third level looking down upon the main layout area is quite nice ….

CFK blog- city view from upper level

After the layout has been viewed one can go into the basement level where there is a cut away model of an Ae6/6 locomotive which has a Train Simulator software linked to the actual controls. One can learn how to drive the locomotive over various routes ….

CFK blog- train simulator interior

All in all , a model railway very slickly presented and extremely well executed considering it is all analog control.­­

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