With a friend I visited the Stellwerk S model railway, now on display opposite the main station building of Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof. This was our second visit. During our first visit in 2018 the layout was still located in Herrenberg and only open on a limitied number of occasions. On its current location it is placed at the heart of Stuttgart. It is a stunning testimony of the layout of Stuttgart's station at its peak and also of the perseverance of the builder Wolfgang Frey.
1 Stuttgart main station is changing quickly. A large project, Stuttgart 21, to build a through station under ground and to optimise access from its feederlines is now approaching completion. This general overview shows the complexity of the railway network in the Stuttgart area. It also shows in dotted lines the tunnelling under construction. The project Stuttgart 21 is controversial and emotions have run high. Some predict the approximately 10 billion euro spent on this project to be a total waste, others see it as an enivetable measure to keep Stuttgarts main arteries open. Whatever, personally I think 10 billion euro over a period of fiteen years is not an extreme investment compared to road investments.
2 Here the new underground IC station is already projected.The main station building (SW of the dotted lines) now more or less disconnected from the tracks but I assume the connection will be reestablished.
3 The track layout when the main station was at its peak long before Stuttgart 21. Left bottom, the main station. Left top, the freight handling station, now long gone. Right top the array of feederlines entering and exiting the station. Right centre the depot and at right bottom the mail handling station. Wolfgang Frey built his layout as a model in 1:160 of this situation and the model is now of interest as it reflects a past that is now gone.
4 A first view over the feederlines. The depot is on the left.
5 The depot
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12 The yard of the depot. In this shot alone I counted 45 locomotives en EMU's.
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16 A view from the other side
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24 A line up of various high end intercities that served Stuttgart over the course of the years
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27 An old vintage locomotive plinthed in front of the office building of the depot
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30 The mail handling facilities
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35 A typical Stuttgart tram lost its rails here
36 These tunnels and viaducts are typical for Stuttgart. They form the link between the feederlines and the depot on the one hand and the actual station yard on the other
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38 The normal scenery was not forgotten, nut considering the sheer size of the layout most structures are not elaborately detailed. From some distance this is hardly noticeable
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40 Yet, the layout abounds with cameo's
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42 A view over the yard entering the main station
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46 This used to be the administration building. The three of its four wings closest to the camera have now been demolished. The remainder facing the station is so heavily disfigured that it makes you wonder why anybody cared to preserve any part of it at all.
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48 This is how I remember the situation when I first visited the area in 2008. My friemd picked me up at the circular "kiss and ride" at the side of the main station building
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58 Most of the layout's scenery is made of card board and many years in a rather damp environment have taken their toll.
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81 The namesake signalling post "Stellwerk S". At the back there is a mirror
82 ...which shows the the post has an interior
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91 Some statistics on the layout
92 The two of us, enjoying the show
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95 A real interior in the office building
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99 The layour used to be far bigger but due to space constraints on it current location it has been split up into sections, some of which are also on display.
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112 The landmark tower. It was nice to see this layout again and I hope it resides here for many years to come.