The time is the late 1980s before the lifting of the Iron Curtain, the place the suburbs of a medium sized city in Saxony, eastern Germany close to the borders with Czechoslovakia and Poland. We are at a small suburban commuter station on the outskirts of this city which witnesses not only commuter trains but international express trains from other eastern European countries heading for Berlin and a wide variety of freight trains from all over eastern Europe. On the road behind the station, local trams trundle along the street from which the station takes it’s name.

The layout was originally designed to be one metre longer than it’s current size, but, with the onset of the Covid pandemic was shortened to allow it to fit into our summerhouse. At that time no one knew when the next exhibition would take place, if at all.

Locomotives and stock are from the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR), the state railways of East Germany, with cross border trains hauled by units of the Czech (CSD) and Polish (PKP) and Hungarian (MAV) administrations. Layout control is DCC and all steam and diesel locomotives are fitted with sound. The tramway is analogue, with the trams powered from the overhead wire.