Last week we visited the Christmas market in the castle of Reichenau an der Rax. Reichenau is a market town in the South of Lower Austria.
The Christmas market "Advent in Schloss Reichenau" is as far as I know the only time in the year you can see the model railway in the castle.
The model railway layout is in scale N (1/160) and depicts the world famous Semmering railway. The railway has been built between 1848 and 1854 und the director Carl von Ghega.
It is part of the "Südbahn" (Southern Railway) that links Vienna with Graz.
The railway is famous for its tunnels and viaducts and was a technological masterpiece of it's time. 1998 it became listed as UNESCO World Cultural Heritage.
The model train layout is not very big and shows only 2 out of 16 viaducts. The train station depicted is the one of Breitenstein.
If you have the chance to be in the area in the time before Christmas you should definitely visit this model train layout. Although it is not that big, it was made with a lot of love and the friendly people who made it will help you finding the best moments and positions to film and photograph it.
The Christmas market is of course also worth visiting. But for model railway enthusiasts like me the model train was of course the highlight of my visit.