Although the track plan was the first step in creating this layout, it has been refined as new ideas became a part of the plan. The most recent change was to add a small village called Muffikon which will have a passing siding. The inspiration for this came from my good friend, Sam Taylor, an absolutely brilliant designer and modeler (see his layout at Sam Taylor's Layout). Sam has created a preliminary sketch of the mountain area. Sam's vision is to have a castle, Schloss Moxiberg, at the top of the mountain I'd planned for the large loop at the other end of the layout (opposite of Zürich).

A good deal of consideration was made before deciding what to use for Schloss Moxiberg. The plan is to use N scale to make the castle look quite distant. The mountain will also undergo a scale change from HO in the foreground to N as the mountain becomes higher. Sam originally designed a kit-bashed castle from several Kibri kits, but later proposed a couple of standard kits as being easier to build. I proposed a couple more, and the hunt was on to find a castle that looked the part both architecturally and ascetically. Finally, it was decided to use the Kibri Branzoll castle which will be re-released by Kibri in fall of 2006. To help us decide, I constructed a mock-up of the mountain by throwing a bed sheet over some temporary risers, and e-mailed this to Sam. Sam then used Photoshop to populate the  mountain with trees, then made an image with each of the castle candidates in place so we could get a good visualization of what the finished scene would look like.

Sam has now completed construction of Schloss Moxiberg. I placed it temporarily on the bedsheet mock-up of Mt. Moxiberg. Muffikon has grown into a fair sized village. Sam provided the bahnhof, a beautiful construction of Pola's Susch station. Bahnhof Muffikon is the Pola Susch station. This is an excellent model kit. Several other structures in Muffikon are also Sam's creations.


Schloss Moxiberg with Muffikon in the valley.

When the mountain scene is complete, visitors who do not wish to hike the mountain will be able to ride the funicular, to be placed at the left. From there it is an easy walk to the Schloss.


Bahnhof Muffikon

A final change to the track plan in the Därligen station area was made. Due to lack of room, the crossover and spur to the west end of the station were eliminated. In place of the crossover, a turnout connects the track passing closest to the station with the spur serving the cement works.