The kids froze, the adults pointed their smartphones at the railroad 1:87 scale model. The train is poised to start! The mini railroad works like a miracle. Tiny station buildings, crossings, bridges, tunnels, and semaphores all look like real. The railroad enthusiasts are focused on controls. They are switching points on the tracks and performing a host of other manipulations.
There has hardly been a person who did not dream of a toy railroad as a child. One way or another, model stations with tiny carriages rolling by fascinate virtually everyone. Train Hobby Days 2016 – an exhibit recently held at the Kyiv Electromechanical College – was mobbed. The 55-meter-long model railroad described above was the center of attention. Fathers prudently set their offspring on their shoulders, both to let them see at least something and to prevent them from being crushed in the crowd. The exhibit was held by the Ukrainian Model Railroading Club, Kyiv Module.
TECHNOLOGY AND ART
“Model railroading is quite a well-developed thing worldwide. In Ukraine, probably due to the prohibitive prices of the models, only a few can afford to join the ranks of model railroading enthusiasts,” shares Pavlo HUSHCHYN, professional architect and Kyiv Module member. The club, which has existed since 2007, unites some 1,000 participants, although only about three dozen are active.
Hushchyn’s fascination with railroads dates back to his childhood. “When I was three or four years old, my godfather gave me a German commercial kit for starters, and then he presented me with many more. With time I lost interest, but later I met some guys who loved modeling, and that’s how it all started all at once,” recalls Hushchyn. “I love it that at the club we can build something bigger than a tiny room-scale model. We can run trains of 60 carriages, just like on real railroads.”
Hushchyn has been building his own station, Pavlivsk, for two and a half years already. It is the product of his fantasy, although scale model stations often have real prototypes. “There is a lot of work to do! Pavlivsk is a huge station, eight meters long, with a sophisticated electronic system (there I get help from the guys who know about programming),” says Hushchyn. “The sky is the limit when it comes to perfection: you always feel like finishing something off, giving it a lick of paint. The more complicated the model, the more interesting it is. For instance, a nest in a tree, and an egg in the nest. Technology and art combined. People are amazed when they see tracks switching and working semaphores, and a passenger through the window of a lit carriage.” Once a group of technology college students was brought to see the exhibit: teachers used the models to show how railroads work.
DRAWINGS, MEASUREMENTS, PHOTOGRAPHS
Pavlo CHUBAKHA, coordinator at Kyiv Module, has been working on the model station Kitsman for over four years. The replica has a real prototype in Chernivtsi oblast. “The model station is made after the technical drawings, measurements, and photographs of the real station building. It is supposed to be a collective image of a smallish west-Ukrainian station with all its attributes, typical for the Austrian, Soviet, and German railroad infrastructure,” explains Chubakha. “This station still exists, not long ago there ran the Kyiv-Chernivtsi train, now there is only local and freight train service.”
It took some research to create the station building. Chubakha looked for locals who could consult him, and finally went to see Kitsman for himself. He is also planning to build an unloading ramp, a freight warehouse, and a water tower.
Chubakha is one of the pioneers of Kyiv Module, he has been there since 2007. Before that he had ship and aircraft modeling as a hobby and built radio-controlled models. But railroads have lured him as long as he can remember. Apart from that, he works as a communications operator for an intercom provider.
LIKE TWO PEAS IN A POD
Collectors typically buy pre-built model carriages, for instance, at internet auctions. Some models can cost like a Swiss watch. You can also buy a kit, assemble your carriage and paint it. Some craftsmen build trains from scratch. Each chooses his own path in collecting.
Chubakha has a fleet of some 30 to 40 carriages and 10 to 15 locomotives. They are mostly Soviet and post-Soviet trains, some can still be spotted at Ukrainian railroad stations. “It is probably a form of patriotism,” muses Chubakha. “These are the carriages which I see in real life. In modeling you need to replicate everything with maximum precision. The model carriage has to be a spitting image of its real prototype, identical to the very last screw, nut, and inscription. However, sometimes some inconsiderable restrictions are allowed. For example, to make the carriage more stable in curves, some footboards or hooks can be sacrificed, as they would hinder smooth riding.”
Hushchyn, on the other hand, likes German, Swiss, and Austrian locomotives dating back to the early 20th century. “I love following the designers concept in German models of locomotives,” shares the enthusiast. “Now all trains are standard in principle, they are more or less the same, while back then an engineer developing a mechanism for such a machine invented what never existed before him.”
By the way, Hushchyn, a Lviv dweller, often travels by train. He is quite satisfied with the Ukrainian railroads. When it comes to the improvement of railroad transport as such, he says that everything develops towards increasing the velocity, comfort, affordability, and sustainability. Although model railroading in Ukraine is still in embryo, he says he is proud of what Kyiv Module can present to the public. And the public’s interest proves he is right.
