Faszination Modellbau Friedrichshafen 2026 - Europe's largest model railway exhibition

This is the third and last report from our tour abroad this year. It's taken some time due to more photos and a longer video to edit. The main purpose of Gleng Model Railway Club's annual tour abroad this year was Germany and Friedrichshafen, home to Europe's largest model railway event. The massive exhibition spans over 70 000 square meters of indoor and outdoor areas, covering not only model railways of all scales, but also all aspects of the modelling hobby.

The exhibition center in Friedrichshafen is very close to the German Zeppelin headquarters and hangars, and Zeppeliners have a history in this area that goes way back:

 

Walking through the doors of the exhibition center of Europe's largest model railroad trade show feels a bit like this:

I'll try to share some of the impressions, but again I'm adding a YouTube video below to give a better impression of this large model exhibition.

Some of the first things we saw were familiar from the day before :

We've seen it in 1:1 and 1:87, but this time Rheinfall and "Smilestones" were made in 1:220 (Z scale). 

There were also a couple of other Swiss model railway layouts. This impressive model of the Landwasser Viaduct was made without compromise. We saw the original back in 2024 :

Another small Swiss H0m layout:

A small H0 model of a cogwheel railway. It is also featured in the video below:

This was an unusual prototype for a layout, as the setting was set to Peru. It was very well built:

This French modular N scale layout had some really nice modules. One of them was this deep chasm, about the size of a real man:

...- And one of the others was this one. When the trains came into this module from the adjacent N scale modules, the N scale trains became a "garden railway" on this one. I really like this approach to modeling; Not too serious:

Another impressive N scale layout:

These pictures are from a couple of 0 gauge track sets. A German:

... -and one French one:

I really like the little scenes and cameos found on some layouts.

A couple of German layouts in H0e (narrow gauge on 9 mm gauge, not that different from 009):

Another interesting scene from a German H0 scale railway. Abandoned bridge or remains of a sabotage operation from World War II? 

Here are some pictures of G scale layouts:

Here are some other smaller layouts:

H0

N scale

N scale

H0f which is H0 on 6.5 mm gauge 

These are all not 'micros', but very small layouts. I must admit that I've come to that I keep liking these small layouts even better.

Z-scale

T-gauge (1:450) made in a regular binder. This is not only portable, but also very foldable.

T-gauge

Another unusual item on a Z-scale module. The AT-AT was made of paper (!).

Another Z scale module where the trains transition to a "miniature" when they enter

From the very smallest ones, I went over to look at the really big ones:

Same locomotive as my Heeresfeldbahn Hf 130C diesel in 1:19 scale, only this one was made in impressive 1:7.5 scale (!).

It seems that the stock of Christmas trees is running low in the Friedrichshafen area this Christmas.

A very long, and probably heavy haul

No one left behind

I hope someone remembered to disconnect the fire alarm...

Here are some impressions from the trade booths:

Bachmann are discontinuing their Thomas G-scale range in Europe, and this Emily was their last one. Now she's in Norway

...I dont know how it is with their 009 Sodor range however.

I found these G-scale figures on a booth. I think they're perhaps closer to 1:22,5 scale than mine 1:19 scale trains...

...which was a pitty, as I wanted to add a Flak 38 to one of my Heeresfeldbahn cars. It was a bit pricey though:

Amongst these figures, I saw this 'censored' one:

These German G-scale figures was not 'censored' however. I didn't buy any. Where does one place these anyway?

Gauge 1

From the Kato booth:

I really like those Kato Mini-diorama modules. They're small, fast to build and easy to set up. The scenery of these was a little bit too fanciful though:

Kato Mini-diorama module kits for sale at €20. I didn't buy any, but I bought most of the Kato's new H09-tracks,which has the same geometry to fit the modules.

Kato's tram tracks

This really tiny engine from Kato is coming...

The smoke effect on this Gauge 1 locomotive is featured in the YouTube-video below

These Old West buildings are in N-scale, but I guess they would be suitable for (10mm or 15mm) wargaming too:

This is what's coming from Hornby in TT-scale. These were really good-looking and small engines in a very handy scale between H0 and N:

A lot of the members from my travell-group made purchases from this (LGB) booth

There were also a lot of plastic models exhibited. Here are some very few of them that caught my eye:

A small vignette which also can be played as a wargame. Just add some dice and you'll have a wargame like this

These models are made entirely in paper:

It's hard to belive that all but the bird-feeder and the suet ball are made in paper

One of these bottles have an operating train, which is also featured in the video below:

Some (static) ship models:

... -and some of operating radio controlled ones. The number of exhibited boats was so big that would be enough for an entire blogpost in it's own. Not only too serious modellers amongst the boat modellers either:

Like the boats there was a lot of exhibited radio controlled aircrafts. I noticed this 'Flying Boxcar' however, which could actually drop paratroopers:

Radio controlled motorcycles. Probably at the same speed as my 1:1 one:

Radio controlled cars, boats, tanks or whatever is usually made to larger scales. I really admire the ones that combines their hobbies and make radio controlled equipment in H0 scale to fit their model railways. RC-boats in H0. On the featured video below you can even se some RC H0 cars driving around the harbor:

RC tanks in H0:

This is the video I've kept referring to through this blogpost:

This is a really large exhibition, and you'll need two fully days (and comfortable shoes) to see it all. This was a glimpse. I hope you enjoyed it.

This was also the final of the annual tour abroad in my Model Railway Club this year. Thanks for another great trip guys!

Tour 2027?

Now it's time to return to the workbench and finish some ongoing projects.