In this video, the French model railway club, called “Rails Miniatures de la Boucle”, from Gennevilliers, France, presents its beautiful model railroad layout named “Burgundy 1,500 Volt”. This French association of model railroading is located near Paris, France, and was established in 1982 by twenty model railroaders and railway modelling designers. The layout was built in HO scale and took approximately ten years of working time. It presents a famous French railway line near the city of Dijon inside the Burgundy region, France. This railway line is one of the major axis of the French rail traffic network, connecting Paris, Cote d’Azur in the southeast of France and other Italian destinations.
In 1950, the railroad section between Paris and Dijon was electrified by catenary wires with 1,500 Volt. Therefore, the members of the French model railway club called this layout “Burgundy 1500 Volt”. Of course, in reality this railroad track has been modernized according to the modern standards of rail traffic systems. On the model railway layout, there are some of the finest model trains made by the French manufacturer Jouef, today a subsidiary company of Hornby Railways.
The model railway layout has been built extremely detailed: The signal systems and the rails are designed very realistic. And, a very important argument, the locomotives drive with pantographs. The layout was built especially for toy train exhibitions. It is about ten meters in length. On the front side, spectators can enjoy the three-track railway line. On the back, behind the layout, what spectators cannot see, there is a large shadow station or fiddle yard where the miniature trains are parked. The whole train system is digitally controlled.