So its a bit of 1:1 scale and 1:87 / My Layout scale stuff.
Having grown up in a military family on the US Army side where we were stationed in Germany many times in the 70's, 80's, and 90's I've been around armor rolling around towns much of my youth.
So after resisting the urge to buy some old KFOR and MFOR stuff due to cost for so long the new Märklin train kit:
26606 with a ludmilla locomotive, a troop passengers silberling car, and six Leopard 2 tanks of the Bundeswehr, just finally broke me.. I had to order it. Order placed.

Ok, but now what. How do I integrate that train into a planned layout that was centered around passenger traffic with some freight between some industrial sites?
Well, the route already passed by sites that had military bases nearby (Mannheim, Bebra, Hanover) and a scenario of moving the materiel to Hamburg (already planned as an end station).. for transfer to ships to deploy overseas... ok that could work. But what to build. Its me, so of course, I need to overdo it to some extent.
So off to Google Image Search to see what other vehicles I might want, and eBay to see if I can get them and soon I've got an order for some MB Unimog trucks, VW Golf and T3 busses, as well as a host of Schuco made 1:87 scale models of Marder, Dingo, Boxer, and Fennek vehicles. That should stock a motor pool nicely and may allow for modifying the things I have on the transport train.
First, find out what building kits and landscape kits exist. Luckily
Faller Military has the solutions for perimeter walls/fences, entry gates buildings, motor pool facilities, and with others additional motor pool facilities, loading ramps, concrete plate road surfaces I had the key elements to build a small and simple facility that would house armor type materiel and troops.

Now how to know what else might be there or how to interface with the rail system? OK, google search time...
Bundeswehr locations... the German army page has a nice map of where units are deployed
SVG of locations German military bases. Seeing a big armor presence near Hanover at the
General Field-marshal Rommel barracks in Augustdorf I go and find that on Google Maps to get some hints. The usual overheads of a military installation, barracks, admin buildings, motor pools.
But I'm wondering, how do columns of tanks get from that major armor facility onto the rail lines they surely use to move the armor to the eventual ships/planes for transport to deployment theater or other training sites? YouTube search found a video of unloading in Gütersloh station:
But that seems odd, given that is a looong drive on surface streets from Rommel facility to the freight loading yard.
https://goo.gl/maps/TRRf9WNBt8n
Indeed there was a
news paper article where the issue of the column of tanks going to/from the station damaged some curbing on a section of road, where the military spokesman talks about that not being the typical place to transfer the tanks to the rail. Whew.. and here I was worried about having to put a trans-loading freight facility in a city. Nope, they normally load up the tanks in Bahnhof Sennelager. A quick check of Google Maps shows this is right next to the Rommel facility - down at the southern end (may still have British forces there as well).
https://goo.gl/maps/xaH2wAf6DBk

Now its just a question of how the tanks get from the huge training ground into the trains station. YouTube to the rescue... so on a simple morning your standing at the freight loading area of the small Sennelager station and suddenly a bunch of tanks roll around the corner....
So now I know they come down the Sennebahnhof Strasse.... one can then guess they just come across the Bielerfelder Strasse from the Küglerweg on the site, but thats not critical.
Still, for space reasons I may just put the loading ramp side of things in or just outside of the modeled armor barracks I'll build, and make it a stop along the run where I can fit it in. Hannover would be nice but thats just one short stretch to Hamburg on my planed layhout.. so maybe I'll move the armor to south of Mannheim... will see.
Edited by user 04 October 2017 16:52:19(UTC)
| Reason: Corrected name of tank to Leopard