The second of December is marked as the International railway modelling Day. It was launched in 2015 at the initiative of the European Railway Modeling Association*. Hagen von Ortloff, a German TV presenter and a well-known promoter of railways and railway modeling in Europe, suggested the idea for this holiday. Railway modelling has its peculiar aesthetics and a special world! A steam locomotive is a symbol of movement, a change of an era.

It is known that toy railways first appeared in the second half of the 19th century. The idea to create such toys originated with German artisans. Soon enough, this seemingly strange hobby became popular. In 1891, the German company Märklin was producing them in industrial-scale volumes. In due course, the company had set most scale standards for railway models. In 1897, American firm Carlisle & Finch produced the first electric railway. Germany supplied the Romanovs Imperial House with realistic and magnetically sized railway models. Nicholas II was very fond of such toys -- they inspired him to develop new projects of Russian railway network.

A miniature railway helps us to abstract ourselves from everyday routine. One can be delighted at the synchronized operation of the trains on the layout and admire the fine details om the set-up.

The museum Collection exposition features two versions of multidimensional mechanical miniature "Village of all trades". The first one was created by Henrick Pallesen in the 1890s and the second one -- in the 1900shttps://mus-col.com/en/collection/mmp/the-automatons/automatons/23843/. Both models demonstrate small-scale operating railway.

Photo album showing the assembly process of those automata is posted in the museum Photo Gallery.

On the cover: Mantel half hour striking locomotive clock with barometer, thermometer, compass and automaton. France, circa 1900.

*MOROP is a European association that federates national associations of railroad and model railroad enthusiasts.

https://kakoj-segodnja-prazdnik.com/zabavnye-prazdniki/den-modelnoj-zheleznoj-dorogi
https://rusjizn.com/mezhdunarodnyj-den-modelnoj-zheleznoj-dorohy/