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At the digital control unit: model railroader Herbert Becker in his kingdom under the roof.
© Ronald Klee
Steam horses make their way through landscapes and cities.
“Märklin” is Herbert Becker’s passion.
Now the railway has to move.
Verden – It has something of a creed.
Similar to fans of football clubs, you sometimes wonder how someone comes to your club: Herbert Becker's denomination is “Märklin”.
“I’m a model railroader,” says Eitzer, and he knows exactly why this particular brand was chosen.
Back then they said it was the best, he remembers his childhood.
So Märklin H0.
For the last 18 years he has been tinkering and working on his miniature world in the attic.
But now he is looking for an alternative, because his days under the roof in Verden-Eitze in Lower Saxony are numbered.
“I am a model railroader”: days of the miniature train in Verden-Eitze are numbered
As is the case, especially with a “toy”, the former head of the Volksbank in Verden was infected with the model railway virus in childhood.
Neighborhood children had something like this, but for the offspring of a farm near Lüchow-Dannenberg, the expensive basic equipment was not available.
“That was around 1955,” remembers the retiree.
At the time he started school.
The budding passion was then reinforced by shopping trips by train to Hamburg.
There was a discounted offer once a week.
Back then, the wagons were pulled by steam locomotives and the ABC shooter was particularly fond of them.
The hissing, the clouds of steam on the platform and the glowing embers of the coals when you get out in the evening are the impressions from your childhood.
The fascination has not been lost in all the years that have passed since then.
Not when the banker worked in Hanstedt in Nordheide.
Then he started collecting locomotives and finally acquired the coveted basic equipment: Märklin H0, not Fleischmann and not Trix.
“Those were the competing brands back then.
I bought a used pack that was advertised in a newspaper,” says Becker.
The passion came to Verden in 1989
The passion remained, even when Becker took up the position in Verden.
That was in 1989. In his free time he visited model railway fairs in neighboring cities and every now and then a new treasure would come along.
The hobby only really took shape when Becker retired in 2009.
Today an impressive system is spread out in the attic that was specially converted for this purpose.
A world in the format of the track width of 16.5 millimeters.
A landscape in which several digitally controlled trains roll independently over the rails at various levels.
“Everything is steam locomotives and the style of the buildings is also based on the steam locomotive era,” explains the model railroader.
While tinkering with the tracks, he realized that he enjoyed building the landscapes and houses just as much as the model trains.
The start is at the train station and it looks exactly like the Dannenberg station from Becker's childhood.
His parents' farm is also a little further along a railway embankment.
The 77-year-old controls switches and signals, as well as the individual locomotives, centrally from a digital console.
A whole phalanx of switches stands next to it.
She is responsible for various lights and ensures that the sawmill hums in style and other functions are carried out.
Attic world can't move with you: help wanted
However, this inventor and hobbyist paradise will have to move in the foreseeable future.
“We want to move to a smaller apartment in the city,” explains the senior.
And because his attic world cannot be transplanted there, he now hopes to be able to team up with like-minded people.
He has a club in mind that could then perhaps look for a suitable space where model railway enthusiasts can indulge in their hobby.
Becker can also imagine a school group that he could use his system and experience to help get started.