Modelleisenbahnverein Landsberg am Lech e. V.

Thirteen model railway enthusiasts founded the Modelleisenbahnverein Landsberg am Lech e. V. on 28 November 1967. Twenty-two people had joined before that first evening was over. The club welcomed adults and young people from the start, with reduced fees for pupils and students.

The clubhouse is a trio of old railway wagons. A former express carriage built in 1936 by Waggonfabrik Dessau arrived first, bought in 1968. A passenger carriage from 1939 and a baggage wagon from 1932 followed. Together they hold a small kitchen, a library and a workshop. One wagon houses the stationary layout, where around seventy trains run in automatic block operation. The club digitised the entire setup in 2024. A second layout, built to travel, recreates Landsberg station as it appeared around 1910 under the Royal Bavarian State Railways. Both layouts share the same control hardware and software, and the mobile one carries seventeen trains. Everything runs in H0 gauge on direct current.

Club evenings run weekly and are open to anyone curious, experienced modellers and complete beginners alike. You can sit in without joining, and young people from twelve have a group of their own. Members divide their energies between electronics, landscape building and plain sociability. Anyone whose own layout runs into trouble at home gets help there too. The wagons themselves travelled to exhibitions near and far for years, until the tracks at Landsberg station were removed. Since 1973 the club has belonged to the Bundesverband Deutscher Eisenbahn-Freunde, the national association of railway enthusiasts. The Christmas exhibition has taken place every winter since 1974. Visitors watch dozens of trains circle automatically, and locals rank the event with the Christmas market itself.