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Hello and Welcome to the Italy-Blog, Episode 1
We're standing in front of the track plan for the new Italy layout.
Looking at this, it's all Greek...uhhm..Italian to me!
Which things are planned and how to put them into action
will be explained by the chief model maker, Gerhard Dauscher.
Hey, Hello!
One question up front:
Why Italy in the first place?
Italy has something special about it.
For one thing, it's almost an island country, and for another:
The heat, the Mediterranean, the climate, the sun, and most of all:
holiday feelings!
Of course, that's convicing!
We have two rooms at our disposition.
An area of about 180 square meters.
At first, we were contemplating
which highlights we'd choose.
What do we want to build, actually ?
We definitely wanted Mount Vesuvius, a very striking mountain,
Rome, most certainly, the center, a must-have,
the Eternal City, as it were.
Then, Venice, the City of Love with many canals.
In the South the Amalfi coast,
which is a very interesting coastal area
with quaint buildings and picturesque fishing villages.
In the North, the Legurian region
with many beautiful dwellings built in steep rock face.
You just mentioned "Vesuvius"
How shall I picture that? A Mount Vesuvius 1:1?
Did you get a boulder of cold lava?
Will you build it from lava rock, or will we see lava?
Mount Vesuvius will be way back in that corner.
The advantage: It will disappear in the debth of the room,
and appear to be larger and more majestic from the front.
We will build it on top of steel,
and plaster wiil be our main material.
With that material you can depict the material nicely.
We're still looking for the sparking, ardent idea for
how to build such a powerful mountain
which radiated this suspense between fear and danger,
but also a certain fascination,
this: "Wow, what's happening inside the earth?"
When we move along, what do we find in this area?
This is still the South of Italy: The Amalfi coast
whith beautiful resorts and beaches.
In the southern part be have to special features regarding model railways:
A high-speed line with trains running up to 300 km/h,
which run slower converted in small scale, of course.
They will race along the track in a smooth curve,
while parallel, the old railway line is winding
along the mountains and the coastline.
Watch: Numerous curves in one track, the other is mostly straight
no matter if there're mountains or valleys.
it'll drive through a tunnel, or cross valleys via bridges.
So, really it's an indulgence for the eye!
Correct!
When we drive further along the coast,
what will we encounter here?
Here, Venice will arise.
Venice?!?!
It'll be the major highlight in this area.
The area is very flat. This will be water only.
You can see all the waterways.
Will there be ships? Visible gondolas
all all kinds of things in motion?
We want to set many things in motion, and we are puzzeling over
the question of how to make gondolas move,
as well as the ships, and in general
we want to make the entire surface billow - that would be marvellous!
But we still don't know how to make that feasible technically.
Maybe, we even have to take real water.
Going further along, what do we find here?
Well, I see "Rome" written here...
What's special about Rome: It's a giant city
with a gigantic areal extent
which we do not have at our disposal.
Here, we have to lower our sights, and see
how to fit Rome into this area.
We want our visitors to be able to see and recognize a lot of Rome,
but also all those little alleys and backyards.
So we placed Rome onto an island,
where you can walk all the way around,
and get the impression of being right in the middle of Rome,
and no matter where you are, you will always look into an alley,
or a backyard, or a market place.
So, where will we find the Coliseum?
We divided it like this:
Here you find the historic part of Rome, the Coliseum,
with a cutaway view - this way we're saving construction
of one-half of the building.
Also, you'll be able to take a look inside
and see what's happening inside.
Right! That's the second effect:
The guests are virtually inside the Coliseum
as if they'd paid admission for the original one,
and can take their picture from there.
Next to it is the Roman Forum
It's a must-have: The ancient ruins and columns,
the typical picture, the highlight.
Here the imagination runs wild!
Another part of town will be the inner city.
Many houses nestled and overlapping in tight quarters
It's amazing and unbelievaby stunning how tight the backyards are,
And what was built in and around,
and on top over the centuries.
It's a crazy jumble of rooftops, really terrific
and it'll be a gorgeous view.
One thing we must not forget -
as we are a model railway - the station!
This one is very special: The building style is rather plain,
sixties style, but it will be impressive in its size.
What's exceptional about it, even at Wunderland for the first time,
it's a terminal station.
That means, the trains drive into the station,
take a halt, and drive out backwards.
So, it can't drive through!
Somewhat like in Frankfurt!??
Exactly!
Are there any differences in the train traffic,
as compared to the German train traffic?
Here we have to pay attention: Italian trains drive on the left.
Left?
Left-hand traffic!
It'll be pretty tricky for our train drivers,
to get used to that one,
because the trains have to be set up the other way around
as compared to the German Federal Railway.
What about celebrities?
And with celebrities, I mean the Pope, wher will the Pope be set up?
He will get a Place of Honour, of course.
For one, he can take a seat at the St. Peter's Basilica,
but we'll also build the Papal Palace
with a special feature: A scission at the layout edge,
so you can see what's going on inside the building.
We can show some of the Pope's everyday life.
Of course, it would be marvellous, if the Pope were interested as well!
Surely! Let's go from the Papal building
to the track tangle over here.
What in the world is it?
This is something special which the visitors won't see at all.
O.k.?
Only when taking a tour behind the scenes,
because these are the hidden staging yards.
Ahhh!
A staging yard is kind of a depot for our trains.
Here we are building several train stations;
a gigantic area of 10 times 1 meter at least,
with 4 - 5 levels stacked up, somewhat like a shelf,
and the computer will take the trains as needed
from this subsurface area,
and send them across our layout.
I have a very substantial question:
How do you indend to depict
Italy's atmosphere in scale 1:87?
This is the most difficult challenge of all,
because we want our guests to see and feel the heat,
we want to make them sweat,
and awaken memories of their last holidays.
We want to bring it across with special illumination or with colors,
by coloring the rock face brighter, glarier, and yellowish,
and planting meadows and vegetation noticeably more barren,
so you'll see more stone, dust, and soil.
It will seem very dry and make you sweat.
Super! I'll bring sunscreen and I look forward to it!
Great! Unfortunately I've got to go,
otherwise Italy will never be finished!
I thank you for yout time. Guess we'll run into each other again,
so thanks a lot!
Yes! Bye-bye!
That was very impressive, of course,
I hope for you just as much as for me.
In the next episode we'll take a closer look a the staging yard
and the entire construction underneath.
I say: Good bye, until the next time!