Russian model-train makers show off their work in a new exhibition at the Polytechnical Museum.
Green-painted carriages chug past cottages, water towers and a railway station with a war memorial – a familiar view on any Russian railway line. But in this case, the landscape fits onto several tabletops in the Polytechnical Museum, which is now displaying the work of local model makers.
The exhibition, titled "Russian Railways in Models", opened last week and attracted a crowd of small boys and their parents on Sunday. Members of the All-Russian Society of Railway Enthusiasts operated the electric trains on the intricate tracks, one of which included a bridge passing over a river complete with cargo ships.
Glass cases display individual train carriages and engines, exact copies of prototypes dating from the 1930s to the 1980s. There is even a model of the BZhRK nuclear train devised to transport and launch ballistic missiles in the Cold War.
Many of the layouts, which are constructed in sections by different model makers, come from the Central Museum of Railway Transport in St. Petersburg, said Dmitry Minin, a member of the Railway Enthusiasts who was operating a switchboard.
He estimated that there are no more than 500 serious model makers in Russia.
One of the model makers, or modelisty, Viktor Nikishin, took a break from operating a layout to show his miniature Soviet train carriages and engines from the 1980s. An enthusiastically friendly man with a moustache, Nikishin said the driver's cabin in each model was fully equipped with controls and even lighting.
Nikishin used to be a train driver and now works for the Moscow metro on automatic speed-control systems. His love of trains began in his childhood, when he lived beside a rail intersection, he said. "Back then there were still steam trains".
He used to collect German-made model trains, but then decided to make his own. "From then on, I got more and more into it", he said.
Each model carriage or engine takes from 200 to 250 hours of work, he said. Since he fits his hobby around work and family life, that means each model takes about one year to finish.
He has a plan – not yet put into action – to model every carriage of the Moscow metro, from its founding in 1935 to the present day.
It's only at such exhibitions, which the society puts on two or three times per year, that Nikishin can see his trains in motion, as he does not own a layout himself.
His friend, Alexei, a train driver in his professional life who collects model trains in his spare time, said he also did not have a layout at home. The problem is our "small living spaces", he complained.
Asked why he collects models when he drives real-life trains, he said jokingly, "We are sick. We just can't get by without this".
"Russian Railways in Models" (Rossiiskiye Zhelezniye Dorogi v Modelyakh) runs to Nov. 2 at the Polytechnical Museum.
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