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Following my recent holiday camping in Churwalden, canton Graubunden, I thought I would record my experience of shops selling model railway equipment in eastern Switzerland.
We managed to find shops selling model railway kit in Chur, Zurich, Schaffhausen, Rorshack, Bergun!, St. Moritz, Vaduz and San Gallen.
The first thing to say is that every shop sold Maerklin. In fact only the model shop in Markt Gasse in Zurich and the toy shop in San Gallen had respectable stocks of any other HO scale models.
If you are the son or daughter of a Swiss banker (Zurich) or the jet set (St. Moritz) then Maerklin HO in 3 rail AC is what you are going to get. In Zurich there is a large toy shop which has a modest entrance on Bahnhof Strasse (which we missed) and a larger one on the street at the back. The model railway section is quite large and well stocked so long as it is Maerklin you want. The shop also stocks HAG but I assume that this is all the AC variants. There was no sign of Trix or Fleischmann in this store. The toy store in St. Moritz had a reasonable selection of Maerklin.
Another point to make for "shop til you drop 24/7" residents of the UK is that shops on the continent actually close. This strange phenomenon starts early-ish on Saturday, persists through Sunday and usually through all of Monday too. The Markt Gasse model railway shop in Zurich observes this pattern as we discovered last year, so this year's trip to Zurich was made on a Tuesday. Not only was the shop open, this time the weather was bright and sunny so we were able to appreciate what an interesting city Zurich really is rather than peering at from under an increasingly useless umbrella.
The Markt Gasse shop probably had the widest range of manufacturers of all the shops we encountered. It even had a Hornby Britannia on display and quite a lot of Skaledale inside. Somehow I managed to ask if they had any Roco SBB 1st and 2nd class "vanilla" double deckers in stock and established that everyone is waiting for new production from Roco. I also unsuccessful in sourcing some Fleischmann HUPAC rolling road wagons - the end ones.
The toy shop in Chur had a whole 5 Trix items, the rest were Maerklin. They also had a good range of Bemo HOm but being the centre of the RhB, that was to be expected. What was totally unexpected was seeing a good range of Bemo HOm RhB kit in the window display of a sports shop in Bergun. Bergun is not a large place but being at one end of the railway path from there to Preda must generate some kind of interest in locomotives that cost over £200 each.
The toy shop in San Gallen is located in the main part of town on a corner. There was no hint from the windows that it stocks model railways although one side was completely hidden from view by their fireworks stall; Swiss National Day, August 1st, was the following week so a large number of stores were selling fireworks. We walked inside and the floor guide told us that model railways were several floors up. Once we got there, we were confronted with a comprehensive selection of model railway equipment in scales from z to G and in both AC and DC flavours. There was no sign of Hornby, so Zurich is one loco up on them. British companies were represented by Peco, mainly in the form of their 12mm gauge HOm track. I scanned the shelves for the elusive Roco SBB double deckers but saw none. I guess I'll have to wait for my back order with ModellBahn Kramm to come in.
I can't comment on the shops in Rorschak (Zubi) or Schaffhausen as we were there on Mondays, and in the case of Schaffhausen, the shop was also closed for annual holidays.
Although this is not a scientific survey, we did walk enough streets to find wool shops in most of the towns visited. In other words we found the smaller shops which presumeably had rents that specialist businesses could afford.
The impression I am left with is - "Maerklin rules!"
David
We managed to find shops selling model railway kit in Chur, Zurich, Schaffhausen, Rorshack, Bergun!, St. Moritz, Vaduz and San Gallen.
The first thing to say is that every shop sold Maerklin. In fact only the model shop in Markt Gasse in Zurich and the toy shop in San Gallen had respectable stocks of any other HO scale models.
If you are the son or daughter of a Swiss banker (Zurich) or the jet set (St. Moritz) then Maerklin HO in 3 rail AC is what you are going to get. In Zurich there is a large toy shop which has a modest entrance on Bahnhof Strasse (which we missed) and a larger one on the street at the back. The model railway section is quite large and well stocked so long as it is Maerklin you want. The shop also stocks HAG but I assume that this is all the AC variants. There was no sign of Trix or Fleischmann in this store. The toy store in St. Moritz had a reasonable selection of Maerklin.
Another point to make for "shop til you drop 24/7" residents of the UK is that shops on the continent actually close. This strange phenomenon starts early-ish on Saturday, persists through Sunday and usually through all of Monday too. The Markt Gasse model railway shop in Zurich observes this pattern as we discovered last year, so this year's trip to Zurich was made on a Tuesday. Not only was the shop open, this time the weather was bright and sunny so we were able to appreciate what an interesting city Zurich really is rather than peering at from under an increasingly useless umbrella.
The Markt Gasse shop probably had the widest range of manufacturers of all the shops we encountered. It even had a Hornby Britannia on display and quite a lot of Skaledale inside. Somehow I managed to ask if they had any Roco SBB 1st and 2nd class "vanilla" double deckers in stock and established that everyone is waiting for new production from Roco. I also unsuccessful in sourcing some Fleischmann HUPAC rolling road wagons - the end ones.
The toy shop in Chur had a whole 5 Trix items, the rest were Maerklin. They also had a good range of Bemo HOm but being the centre of the RhB, that was to be expected. What was totally unexpected was seeing a good range of Bemo HOm RhB kit in the window display of a sports shop in Bergun. Bergun is not a large place but being at one end of the railway path from there to Preda must generate some kind of interest in locomotives that cost over £200 each.
The toy shop in San Gallen is located in the main part of town on a corner. There was no hint from the windows that it stocks model railways although one side was completely hidden from view by their fireworks stall; Swiss National Day, August 1st, was the following week so a large number of stores were selling fireworks. We walked inside and the floor guide told us that model railways were several floors up. Once we got there, we were confronted with a comprehensive selection of model railway equipment in scales from z to G and in both AC and DC flavours. There was no sign of Hornby, so Zurich is one loco up on them. British companies were represented by Peco, mainly in the form of their 12mm gauge HOm track. I scanned the shelves for the elusive Roco SBB double deckers but saw none. I guess I'll have to wait for my back order with ModellBahn Kramm to come in.
I can't comment on the shops in Rorschak (Zubi) or Schaffhausen as we were there on Mondays, and in the case of Schaffhausen, the shop was also closed for annual holidays.
Although this is not a scientific survey, we did walk enough streets to find wool shops in most of the towns visited. In other words we found the smaller shops which presumeably had rents that specialist businesses could afford.
The impression I am left with is - "Maerklin rules!"
David
