A short history of the club
Model railway enthusiasts from Ammerndorf and the surrounding area are recreating a long-forgotten railway in miniature.
It all really started in October 1985 – the Bibertbahn was still running from Stein to Großhabersdorf at the time – when five people from Ammerndorf had the idea of putting on a model railway exhibition at the “Gasthof zur Sonne” inn for the autumn fair. After that exhibition, things went quiet for nine years. The group met once a year (always on the “Day of Repentance and Prayer”) at Hans Schierle’s home layout, but otherwise nothing happened.
In autumn 1994 – by then the Bibertbahn had long been closed and removed – the idea came up that, exactly ten years after the exhibition, they could hold another model railway show in Ammerndorf. It needed an eye-catcher, so the plan was to rebuild the former Ammerndorf station on one module (2 m × 60 cm) in H0 scale (1:87). This grew into a modular layout 8.6 m long and 63 cm wide, showing the entire route of the Bibertbahn through Ammerndorf. It was built at home, in cellars and in a workshop. The builders – by now eight of them – presented their showpiece at the 1995 autumn fair, again at the “Sonne” inn in Ammerndorf, exactly ten years later. The show was a resounding success: 1,900 visitors came to see the former railway in miniature.
In November 1995 the club “Modellbahnfreunde Ammerndorf und Umgebung” (Model Railway Friends of Ammerndorf and Surroundings) was founded. The idea of preserving a forgotten Franconian branch line for posterity – at least in model form – was born.
After an exhibition at the Fürth district office (“Local transport in the district of Fürth”, December 1995) there was a problem: the new club and its 8.6 m of model railway needed a home where the layout could be left set up. They found it in the attic of the sports hall in Ammerndorf, which was converted into the clubhouse “Lokschuppen” (engine shed) in December 1995 and January 1996.
The organisers of the trade show in Großhabersdorf visited the layout and invited the Ammerndorf modellers to their 1996 show. As a “thank-you gift”, further modules – with the “Bubenmühle” mill and Großhabersdorf station – were added to the layout in a record amount of time (three months). Just in time for the trade show (May 1996), the club’s Bibertbahn had grown to more than twelve metres and could be admired by astonished visitors.
The highlight came with the 750th anniversary celebrations of the market town of Ammerndorf (also May 1996). Even Bavaria’s Minister of the Interior, Dr. Beckstein, paid a visit to the miniature Bibertbahn.
Carried along by the enthusiasm, the club continued building into the upper Bibert valley. The Leonrod module (with the castle ruins) and the former terminus Unternbibert-Rügland were recreated faithfully in miniature. The layout, now 20 m long, was first shown at the celebrations for “125 years of the Siegelsdorf – Markt Erlbach local railway” in Langenzenn (May 1997).
And that was not the end – the club’s 40 members (ten of them actively building) are planning to recreate further landmarks of the former railway in model form. In 2001, work began on the new module of the Fürth-Süd halt, the only place where the Bibertbahn ran through the city of Fürth.
Since 1 January 2003 the club has been a registered association, currently named Modellbahnfreunde Ammerndorf und Umgebung e. V.
Werner Fritz served as chairman from the club’s foundation. He stepped down for health reasons at the 2010 annual general meeting. Since then, Johann Schierle has been chairman.
Today our layouts reach a total length of about 70 metres. They include the former stations Fürth-Süd, Zirndorf-Altenberg, Leichendorf, Weinzierlein, Ammerndorf, Großhabersdorf, Münchzell and Dietenhofen, the ruins of Leonrod castle and the terminus Unternbibert-Rügland. At exhibitions we can present the layouts in three different arrangements.
The latest and newest modules show the stations Vincenzenbronn and Herpersdorf-Rothleiten (built in 2021 and 2025).
Can you help?
The Modellbahnfreunde Ammerndorf und Umgebung would like to ask for your help, dear readers: to reach their goal – a faithful model of the Bibertbahn – they still need pictures from the time when the railway ran through the Bibert valley. Please talk to our members. They are looking for anything (documents, tickets, plans and of course photographs) that has even the slightest connection with the Bibertbahn.
If you have interesting material for us or would like to ask us something, please send an email to info@mfr-ammerndorf.de.
… oh, and if you own rolling stock in 1:87 scale (AC, Märklin system), you are welcome to come to Ammerndorf and run “your trains” on the Bibertbahn – just give us a call to arrange a date.