The Tradition

The model railroad hobby and even the job as a railroad worker has been pursued in the family with great enthusiasm for more than a hundred years.

  • Great-great-grandfather Arnold Rommerskirchen was station master in Koblenz main station around 1915.
  • During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), great-grandfather Walter von Oettingen operated a hospital train financed by donations for the Livonian Red Cross as a military surgeon. He owned a 1 gauge clockwork model railway and composed a railway song for his son Peter.
  • Grandfather Karl Frobenius owned a spirit steam locomotive of the Vulkan brand and a Märklin model train with gauge H0. Both are still family-owned today.
  • My father Hartmuth bought the first version of the Aster gauge 1 real steam locomotive Shay from 1977 in the late 1970s. This was followed at the beginning of the 1980s by the Live Steam model of the Bavarian S2/6 from Aster and several Fulgurex models of the famous Train Bleu from the CIWL.
  • So I grew up in the household of a railway fanatic. Even when the age of the steam locomotive was over, I visited various museum railways as a child. Of course, the obligatory Märklin model railroad with the metal tracks could not be missing. At the age of 16 I assembled the first Aster kit. Over the years, other Aster locomotives of gauge 1 that run on alcohol or gas have been added to the collection. In addition to a large number of Märklin locomotives from the 1960s, a coal-fired steam locomotive T3 with a gauge of 5 inches is now also part of the inventory. I have been building and selling the TRAINBOX transport boxes since 2019.
  • My son Leo is in no way inferior to his ancestors. At just 5 years old, the Brio wooden train with around 30 locomotives is his favorite toy. In addition, the Duplo, Märklin and Playmobil railways are among his favorites.

Six generations of railways

Arnold Rommerskirchen station master at Koblenz main station
Arnold Rommerskirchen, Head of Koblenz Central Station
Arnold Rommerskirchen 1915
Great-great-grandfather Arnold Rommerskirchen, around 1915
Walter von Oettingen model railway
Great-grandfather Walter von Oettingen with son Peter
Walter von Oettingen Peter's travel song
Peters travel song by Walter von Oettingen
Frobenius Ruckteschell Vulkan Spirit Locomotive
Grandfather, uncle and father with the Vulkan locomotive
Frobenius Märklin Model Railway
Father and cousin on Christmas morning 1959
Carlo Frobenius Märklin Railway
Grandfather Karl Frobenius "caught playing at night" (around 1950)
Frobenius Märklin Model Railway
... and the grandson with the original Märklin train in 2012
Frobenius Ruckteschell Children's model train
Frobenius and Ruckteschell children in the 1980s
Live steam locomotive 5 inch Friedrichshafen Germany
At the live steam meeting in Bisingen, Germany (around 1991)
dovey thomas ltd steam haulage worcester
The TRAINBOX creator on a steam truck (circa 1994)
TRAINBOX loco box gauge 1 inventor
The first self-built Aster Live Steam locomotive (around 1993)
Leo Frobenius Brio wooden train
Leo Frobenius with the Brio wooden train
Leo Frobenius Plank Vulkan Spiritus-Lok
Leo Frobeniuswith great grandfather's Vulkan Spirit Locomotive

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