Part 1: My New Toporama Marklin Z Scale Layout ! - Introduction

Rail Transport Modelling is passion and fascination that ranges from possession of a train set to spending hours and large sums of money on a large and exacting model of a railroad and the scenery through which it passes, called a "layout". Hobbyists, called "railway modelers" or "model railroaders", may maintain models large enough to ride (see Live steam, Ridable miniature railway and Backyard railroad).

Modelers may collect model trains of various scales typically HO being the most famous, Picture below illustrates different scale or size of model trains availble.

They may also operate their own railroad in miniature. For some modelers, the goal of building a layout is to eventually run it as if it were a real railroad (if the layout is based on the fancy of the builder) or as the real railroad did (if the layout is based on a prototype). The below mentioned layout was built in 2012, The layout had automated Moving car system and train system with working railway crossings and signals.

Toporama Layout

In the year 1975 Märklin introduced what we now call SETTT, by sequential expansion process for Märklin railroads. Unlike their earlier catalogs, with their “fancy” sets of trains running in normal house hold, the 1975 layout showed a railroad set in a realistic scene with miniature apartment buildings and railway station along with introduction of 8930 and called it Toporama.

Here this blog site www.superhobbies.in is created just for the purpose of sharing the building process of this fascinating layout to all my visitors of this site.

The following Vlog introduces the rough plans and features of this layout.

Follow my youtube channel for latest updates on building this layout.

As mentioned in the video, i am sharing the complete list of tracks required for this layout which was designed in AnyRail Track planning tool

I will try to do a 3 or 4 part video series that shows unto the completion of layout. We will be covering the following topics on these series.

• Magnetic Moving Car System

  • This will comprise of implementing the Magnet Moving Car System, each and every part made in India using 3D Printing Technology

• Track Turnouts and Signal Automation

  • In this section we will deal with the automation of Signal and Track switching Interface using Arduino Microcontroller

• Z Scale - DCC Control

  • In this part we will convert the tiny 1:220 Z Scale Mini Club Marklin engines from DC to DCC with small footprint Decoders

• Catenary & Landscape buildings

  • In the last section, we will cover the Catenary and 3D Buildings for Landscape.