H0 Gottard railway system returns to the Verkehrshaus!

The H0 Gottard railway system from the Museum of Transport, safely packed in a wooden box, was transported to Rain after temporary storage in Bleienbach, in a hall on the Daetwyler AG site, where the system is being comprehensively refurbished and expanded. The model will return to the Museum of Transport from August 2024.
The Swiss Museum of Transport had spoken to various organizations across Switzerland about loaning the Gotthard railway model including operation. However, the numerous negotiations did not lead to any success. The system will therefore not be given away and will remain at the Swiss Museum of Transport. The Gotthard railway model will probably be on display again in the Verkehrshaus from August 2024, as the museum confirmed to the Luzerner Zeitung [see article on Zentralplus that can also be read without a subscription].

Until then, the 64-year-old, 15-ton, 75-square-meter system will be overhauled by a voluntary working group. In the future it will be presented in a “contemporary form”, as it is said. We are talking here about current digital control and further development in the sense of contemporary museum education. For this purpose, the system will be cut into three parts and presented along a line in the future, following the original course in the Reuss Valley. A Ticino section will also be added.

“It is important to the Museum of Transport to preserve this unique object, which is part of the childhood memories of countless visitors to the Museum of Transport, and to make it accessible to the public.”

The Swiss Museum of Transport expects the entire project to cost around half a million francs.
On October 7, 2023, the Gotthard model could be viewed in its unchanged form at its storage location in Bleienbach. There was driving, an insight into history and an outlook on the transformation.

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I downloaded some pictures of works on that fantastic layout

For the sake of transport, the layout is divided into 3 parts, each of which has about 5 tons!

The size and weight can be understood from this picture


Numerous decoders are connected for digitization

The legendary Gotthard railway model is back at the Swiss Museum of Transport - bigger, more modern and more impressive than ever. Adjustments are still being made until the end of December in preparation for its full commissioning. You are cordially invited to look over the model builders' shoulders as they work. The entire facility will not be back in operation until January 2025 and the trains will once again make their rounds from Wassen to Erstfeld.

In 2020, the Gotthard railway model had to make way for the construction of a new multi-purpose building. Now, after extensive transformation, it is back in the centre of the Museum of Transport and fascinates young and old alike with its impressive attention to detail and technology.

One of the longest model railway layouts in Switzerland
An elevated passerelle now provides unique views of the detailed landscape. Like an unfolded penknife, it unfolds along the mountain top and integrates the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which opened in 2016. The extensive transformation of the installation in Bleienbach began 55 weeks ago. The original 6 x 14 metre Gotthard railway model now measures 31.5 metres in length and 3.5 metres in width and is one of the longest model railway layouts in Switzerland. The Gotthard Base Tunnel, which opened in 2016, has also been integrated. Visitors can take a look behind the scenes of the model world: a digital control system and staging yards at the back offer exciting insights.

A masterpiece of volunteer work
Under the motto ‘Combining the old with the new’, the Gotthard modelling group, led by Emil Galliker, has further developed the Gotthard railway model with great attention to detail. The team consists of 20 dedicated members of the Lucerne Railway and Modelling Friends and the Rothenburg Railway Modelling Friends. Together, they invested over 12,000 hours of voluntary work to realise this masterpiece. verkershaus.ch
These pictures were posted on Fb by Roger Haller

View from the gallery

Real trains in the museum can be seen through the windows from behind

More pictures of Mr. Haller

A place to manage the layout

Hidden cells

I'll go back to the very beginning, when it was decided to do the layout in the EU there were no manufacturers of flexible rails yet so they bought it in America. The minimum radius was 140 cm, and they made the switches themselves.
Like Maerklin, both rails were on one pole and the contact network was on the other, but for steam locomotives and wagon lighting, a brass nail was driven through every other sleeper and connected from below (hm, did anyone count how many nails were used on 330 meters of track?)
Later, this was modernized with more advanced techniques, instead of track contacts, reed contacts were introduced.
The masterpiece was the creation of a contact network that was tensioned with weights like a real one. The original real copper wire, which wore out quickly and tightened a lot (so it had to be replaced) was replaced in 2002 with a beryllium-bronze wire. Standard pantographs would also wear out quickly (cut), so all pantographs were additionally treated with a thermal process at the Silbag company in Lucerne and also silver-plated.

All bridges are made of brass according to the designs of real

Beginning of work on routes that had to be strong to withstand people walking on them


They made the relays for driving the switches themselves, later they switched to factory-made ones.