LÖYLYMÄKI

 
 

Löylymäki is the club and exhibition layout of Pienoisrautatiekerho ry, Helsinki, Finland. It is based on modules and can be divided to app. 120 by 70 centimeters segments for transporting. The layout includes a fiddle yard and a small station with large scenery. The track plan of Löylymäki is based on the principals that small stations were built in Finland, but a real of Löylymäki does not exist.

Löylymäki is a small village in Eastern Finland. Time has stopped in the 1950's. Better times after the Second World War are entering. Lots of people still travel on the Finnish lakes by steam ships, but roads are being built and a road bridge over the station area is under construction. Löylymäki was originally built as an end station of a branch line, but now the line has been extended and the traffic keeps growing.

Löylymäki cannot be found in the real world, but all the items on the layout have their prototypes in the real world. The wooden buildings follow the traditional Finnish architecture and standard drawings made for the railway buildings of the era. The station with its surrounding completes a harmonic area with all necessary facilities for managing the railway traffic. Around the layout can be found all the typical elements of a Finnish countryside. Naturally you can see a Finnish sauna with naked ladies and men, but also some more hidden secrets as a private spirit distillery on its location on the hills of Löylymäki. The line passes a river and a lake and enters to a tunnel. A wooden church dominates the landscape of the village and the co-operative store stands near the station for everything from imported fruits to horseshoes.

The base structure of the layout is steel frame. Over the steel a plywood structure is built to support the track. Scenery is based on styrofoam and polyurethane foam. The alignment of the tracks is based on steel pins. The fiddle yard that is being rebuilt recently is equipped with Lenz digital controlling for switches to reduce the amount of wires.

Most of the woods are scratch built from copper wire. Woodland Scenic's landscape materials has been used to finish the landscape, but also plenty of natural material from Finland's real countryside has been used, as the real sand samples around the tracks and on the roads.

Löylymäki will again be permanently exhibited in the Museum of Play next to Espoo's WeeGee House starting February 4th, 2023.

The club has published a book abot Löylymäki, "Unelma Löylymäestä — Dream of Löylymäki". It tells a fictive story of this real model railway. The second edition has a summary and captions in English, German and Swedish. Sale and enquiries: Finnish Railway Museum Hyvinkää.
ISBN 978-951-96543-8-6.