The world's most useful model railway

Camera: Moritz Janisch
Editor: Isla McTear

With thanks to Deutsche Bahn and DB Training, AKA Bahn, the Institut für Bahnsysteme und Bahntechnik at TU Darmstadt, and all the team at the Eisenbahnbetriebsfeld!

(you can find contact details and social links there too)

[TomScottGo]

One thing I didn't get in the interview: they can train twenty signallers at the same time here, using the entire network and all the switches!

[axelhejnebo]

The model railway-nerd in me is just itching to fill this layout with scenery.

[nathanisip]

I love the instructor’s “try it” approach! Nothing like testing things out to learn from your mistakes.

[audigex]

I’m always impressed when someone can explain a technical concept in another language, and this guy does it very well indeed

[thegeneralissimo]

I love this, because the teacher says “try it” rather than explaining it won’t work. I’m very much a hands on learner.

[Marconius]

"Oh you've automated all this, that means my job will be easier now, right?"
"Nah, we'll just make you do three stations instead."

[WrrorZ]

The ending was real funny. Sure, the technology advanced, but that just means you end up working on even more stations at once!
And I was surprised how the mechanical computer locked up completely when you tried to make an invalid operation. Really cool!

[DMLand]

Tom finds the best hosts for these visits: that guy was so friendly, appealing, and informed.

[CRUX]

"The physical railway that you crash will always stay in your mind haha" - It's that kind of german humour we all love. 🤣

[papaquonis]

As a train driver, I got to spend a couple of days looking over their shoulders as part of my training program. I definitely don't envy the signal operators. Sure, when everything is working as planned, it's fairly manageable to handle all the traffic, but when something goes wrong, they're often in for hours of very stressful work. Meanwhile, I can often just sit back and wait in my train while they're clearing up the mess.

[powermetalhistorian]

One thing I really appreciate about your videos are the people in them. You rarely see this in TV, movies, and so on. In your videos we just see real hard-working people doing average jobs which many people don't know about, but who are vital to our daily life, sometimes more, sometimes less.

[dsblocks]

I hope this is part 1 in a series showcasing every model railway in decending order of usefulness.

[DragonJohn]

Tom: "What happens if I was to pull the wrong lever"
Kolger: "Try it"

Tom: "So now I can't even..."
Kolger: "Try it"

I dunno why but Mr. Kötting's encouragement to test these things for yourself really speaks to me. Its hard to put into words but it speaks of an attitude of "I like my job and I like teaching people about my job."

[vwegert]

08:30 See the blinking rainbow with the alternating horizontal and vertical bars in the lower left part of the screen? The rainbow is displayed so that the operator can verify that all of the colors are still shown correctly and none of the CRT electron beams has failed (or whatever any of these newfangled LCD screens will do). Now for the blinking... The image you see is actually two images, generated by two separate graphics cards in two redundant processing units. If the blinking ever stops, the operator will notice immediately that the system has locked up and whatever is shown on the display is no longer reliable information. If anything but the indicators starts blinking in sync with the indicators, the two processing units have come to different results when computing the state of the system, so the display is untrustworthy as well. And if one of the redundant units fails, the entire screen starts blinking. (Simplifying a bit here, but that's the general principle.)

[rngsleeppattern]

Having my hometown forever cemented in Tom Scott lore is one of my greatest honors

[vonckjenl]

I really loved the guy just saying: “try it”.

[pawel]

I have a weird love for Germans very carefully and accurately explaining in English, how things work. It's like a manual coming to life.

[DragonStar_RS]

I'm a signaller in the UK and are set up, both in terms of systems and used and how it is trained is very similar. I am however gutted that we didn't get the model railway with are training. Instead the simulators we use interact with a computer. Great video and really loved seeing how it is done in Germany.

[Robin-rkhf]

I really like this format where you're just kind of vibing with an expert and interviewing people about their Thing :) lots of nice footage in this video too!

[SoundBubble]

I always love being taught by a British person about new things from my own country that I've never heard of