I will be travelling to Stuttgart Germany in the near future and would like to know if there are any hobby shops, layouts, or train clubs that I may able to visit while over there. Thanks.
John H.
http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/
Wunderland is in Hamburg. I don’t know how far away that is. The largest layout on Earth might be worth the trip.(I bet you could catch a train to there![:D])
It’s exactly on the other end of Germany… Stuttgart ist in the extreme south, Hamburg is at least 500 miles north of it. But of course one could take an ICE train with top running speeds of 300kmph (but maybe 10 to 15 intermediate stops), the trip would take maybe 4 to 5 hours.
But of course in Stuttgart are model train shops:
1: Eisenbahn-Treffpunkt Schweickhardt Gmbh, Marktplatz 10, 70173 Stuttgart
2: Modelleisenbahn Center W. Schüler Gmbh, Christophstr. 2, 70178 Stuttgart
3: Schieck Modelleisenbahnen, Pfarrstr. 9, 70182 Stuttgart
4: Märklin Store, Löffelstr. 22, 70597 Stuttgart
and probably a few more. Suttgart is a larger citiy by German standards, about 600000 people.
Stuttgart is a good size city by any standarts. It’s spread over 7 hills, so rent yourself a car and get a good ADAC (their AAA) map, (ask at your hotel). If you’re going to be there for a couple of weeks or more, you might want to get a Eurail Pass (online) before you go, (you have to buy it here). It’ll allow you to ride any train anywhere anytime. ICE trains will have a surcharge. Most public transportation will also honour the Eurail Pass. If you have weekends off you could eisily go to Paris (8hrs by train), Amsterdam (8hrs), Hamburg (5hrs), Munich (2hrs).
Stuttgart has plenty to do as well, you can take a tour of the Mecedes Benz factory. you can ride trollys all over town, there’s even an old classic Brill-type trolly that goes up the main hill from the city center.
If you do any driving, be carefull, German drivers are a bit on the aggressive side, think NYC and rally driving. Big rule on the Autobahn: keep right unless passing, it’s illegal to hang out in the left lane and you will get ticketed and you could get run over by a low flying car doing 150mph+.
Have fun!
Never mind…[:I](not up on my German geography)
When I was in the Stuttgart area back in the mid-late 70’s there was a large department store called Brauningerland. That’s where I got some of my model railroad stuff. I don’t know if it’s still there or not.
City center to city center (Stuttgart - Hamburg) is 415.8 miles and driving time is 5 hrs 44 min according to Mapquest. Naturally, you will be traveling at over 100 MPH on the Autobahn to get that time.
Driving directions:
Train times and fares. Price is for 1 person round trip.
Edit: Am I the only one who ACTUALLY looks this stuff up?
Andre
In terms of shops you HAVE to go to Eisenbahn Treffpunkt Schweikhardt (ETS) at http://www.modelleisenbahn.com/index_e.php. They have a location in Stuttgart, but their main store is in Waiblingen, somewhat south (I think). It is an amazing supermarket of nothing but trains… Don’t know if it can be arranged, but there is also the n-scale layout of Stuttgart. That is private, but one can always ask. The owner’s name is Wolfgang Frey and he can be reached at modellfrey@lycos.de.
Hope this helps, Peter
There will be next to Stuttgart the Messe Sinsheim from March 13 - 16, 2008 http://www.faszination-modellbau-messe.de/de/modellbausinsheim
Wolfgang
Hi,
here is a website about the city http://www.stgt.com/stuttgart/homee.htm. Here is the website from the city about the city http://www.stuttgart.de/sde/menu/frame/ns_top_11021.htm. If you are going to any city in Germany just write www.cityname.de and you will come to that particular city’s web site.
Hope it helps
Frank
All, thanks for the info. I was only able to be there Sunday thru Friday and work took up the days and into the evenings. I did find a used toy/train store near my hotel (on the outskirts of Stuttgart) but could only window shop as they were closed during the week. I hope that there’s a next time and I’ll get a chance to find some of the places you mentioned.
MontRailLink