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SEBASTIAN BOGDANIK FOTOREPORTAŻ
Events 2024 February 5, 2024

A World at 1:87: the Model Railway Exhibition in Kozy, 2024

Model Railway Exhibition in Kozy, Poland, 3–4 February 2024: H0 layouts, steam engines, stations and tiny details.

Words and photos: Sebastian Bogdanik

A train on a stone viaduct. H0 layouts are a world 87 times smaller than the real one.
A train on a stone viaduct. H0 layouts are a world 87 times smaller than the real one.

On the first weekend of February 2024 the sports and events centre in Kozy, near Bielsko-Biała in southern Poland, turned into a land of little trains. The Beskid Modelling Group invited everyone to its Model Railway Exhibition, with free entry and donations welcome. I visited on Sunday morning and focused on what catches the eye most: the details.

A passenger coach with lit windows, detailed down to the smallest part.
A passenger coach with lit windows, detailed down to the smallest part.

A world 87 times smaller

Most layouts were built in H0 scale, 1:87. A locomotive a dozen or more metres long fits in your hand, and a person is barely more than two centimetres tall. Even so, you can read the signs on buildings and see flowers in the fields and lit windows in the coaches.

An old house by the tracks.
An old house by the tracks.
A signal box with lit windows.
A crossing keeper’s hut, a bastion of safety on the tracks.
A signal box with lit windows, and a crossing keeper’s hut, a bastion of safety on the tracks.

Among the exhibitors was the Polish H0 Modular Layout group (Polska Makieta Modułowa H0). Its layout is made of separate modules joined into one whole at each show. In Kozy they showed, among other things, a stretch of single-track line and the Roszków gravel works, and trains ran to a prepared timetable, just like on a real railway.

A steam locomotive with passenger coaches.
A steam locomotive with passenger coaches.
A tipper truck by the gravel heaps.
A tipper truck by the gravel heaps.

The devil is in the details

According to the exhibitors, visitors most often asked how the details were made. No wonder: there is more going on in these layouts than you notice at first glance.

A stork’s nest by the station.
A water tower, the “control tower” of the miniature world.
A stork’s nest by the station, and a water tower, the “control tower” of the miniature world.
A proposal in the field, with every flower as a witness.
A proposal in the field, with every flower as a witness.
A platform with waiting passengers.
A platform with waiting passengers.
Cows grazing by the tracks.
Cows grazing by the tracks.
A tractor whose only dream is to ride a train.
A tractor whose only dream is to ride a train.
A train that wandered off. A new route or an unscheduled stop?
A worker on a ladder by a brick wall.
A train that wandered off (a new route or an unscheduled stop?), and a worker on a ladder by a brick wall.
A boat on the river.
A boat on the river.
A truss bridge over the river.
A truss bridge over the river.

Locomotives

Steam, diesel and electric locomotives in the liveries of Poland’s old state railways rolled over viaducts, bridges and through stations at a steady rhythm.

When your engine is more motivated to work than you are on a Monday morning.
When your engine is more motivated to work than you are on a Monday morning.
Modelling can be truly “loco-motivating”.
Modelling can be truly “loco-motivating”.
Evening at the station: lamps lit and passengers waiting.
Evening at the station: lamps lit and passengers waiting.

The exhibition at a glance

When: Saturday 3 February 2024, 10 am–1 pm and 2–6 pm; Sunday 4 February, 10 am–1 pm and 2–4 pm
Where: Sports and Events Centre, pl. ks. Karola Kochaja 1, Kozy, Poland
Organiser: Beskid Modelling Group (Beskidzka Grupa Modelarska)
Entry: free, donations welcome

Sources

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