On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the railway modellers club HEX-VA-VE, a group of FISAIC modellers organised an international exhibition of a junior modular railway. The exhibition took place from 12 to 14 May 2017 in Debrecen, eastern Hungary, under the auspices of the International Association for Culture and Leisure of Railway Staff (FISAIC). With the participation of the Czech, German, French, Hungarian and (for the first time) Romanian modellers, they presented to the general public the interoperable network on a 1:87 scale (H0) consisting of a record number of 63 single and double- track junior modules with a total length of over 60 m. The interoperability of the modules enabled model trains of various European railway operators to travel through a various model landscape across Europe.
The name of the junior modules is usually associated with the meaning of “young” and “beginner”, and it must be said that FISAIC fully supports the work with young people and their engagement in railway communities. The initial cooperation of BSW, ČD and UAICF has been gradually extended and other countries like Hungary, Latvia, Spain and Romania have joined the activities of FISAIC with their own modules.
Taking into consideration that the group is focused on railway legacy and model railway, Hungarian railway workers prepared for their FISAIC colleagues a ride on the local steam-engine narrow-gauge forest railway of 760mm (Zsuzsi) - http://zsuzsivasut.hu/. Another highlight of the trip was a historic tram tour and visit of new modern tram and trolleybus depot.
Further international exhibitions are supposed to take place in Zschopau (Erzgebirge) in November 2017 and in Wels, Austria in September 2018, where the largest festival in the history of the FISAIC covering all fields of international leisure and cultural cooperation of railwaymen will be held.
On the occasion of the international exhibition, the 17th FISAIC International Technical Commission for Railway Heritage and Model Railway was held. The commission was primarily concerned with the preparation of a summer seminar for young modellers in France, where in addition to learning and creating a model railway, there will also be a presentation of the project called “Role of the narrow gauge railway during the 1st World War in northern France and the subsequent period of peace”.
(Source: Czech Railways)
