Old Solingen Central Station H0 Scale

The old Solingen Central Station is a typical modernist post WWII construction. Solingen is a mid size industrial city in the Rhein-Ruhr area between Cologne and Dusseldorf and the building style with lots of steel and glass reflects that industrial heritage.

In the second half of the 20th century new railway main lines were built around Solingen and the principal station was shifted to the new line. The old main station was relegated to a secondary local stop and finally abandoned at the beginning of the 21st century. The clock tower has been razed, but the main hall is still intact and serves as an exhibition and event hall.

I constructed the model as part of a challenge in a modeler`s forum and I used images from the internet as the only plans. Fortunately there are enough online images available to get a good look from all angles, but not too many images of the clock tower have survived on the internet.

I have tried to model the main entrance hall and the clock tower accurately, to capture the well balanced proportions and the airy look with lots of glass. However, the left side and the track side behind the main entrance hall are my own design. The left side of the original building is facing other buildings, but I have added some windows so the model can stand alone. And there is no direct track side on the original building. Instead, the tracks are at some distance from the building and are connected to the building via a long bridge walkway. This would have made for a very large model which would hardly fit any model railroad. Hence some deviations from the original, for the sake of practical use.

The model is in H0 model railway scale (1:87). I designed it in Tinkercad and have printed my copies on a Bambu Lab X1C printer using PLA filament. I wanted the model to be realistic, hence some parts have become tiny and may be beyond the precision of some printers. Ships have curved shapes in all dimensions, and this one is no exceptions. Therefore, curved parts have to be printed with supports – there are no even surfaces where the parts can be safely placed for printing.
The joints and part fittings are designed with tolerances of 0,2mm, which should give a good fit – not too tight, not too loose. You may have to cut and file some edges after print. A PDF File with step by step assembly instructions is included.

It is a rather large model – central stations usually have large buildings to handle many passengers. The dimensions are approximately 40 x 24 x 30cm, you will need a bit of space on your model railroad to accommodate it. But if your model railroad has a urban central station theme with multiple tracks you will have planned for space anyway.

The model has about 370 parts, including window panes cut from transparent slides. Some parts of the model are a challenge for assembly, especially the many glass sections with window panes. But it is worth it. It will be a nice display model or fit nicely on a model railway with a major station.
Enjoy.