Witnessing History
in HO Scale
La Gare de l’Est
Paris, 18:45 hours, 28 June 1914
In twenty-nine minutes, at 19:14 hours, the “Orient-Express” will depart the Gare de l’Est bound for Constantinople. None of the passengers gathering on this platform in Paris would be able to imagine that an assassination in Bosnia might change their lives. At this moment, only two of these people know that it happened. Too many of the others won’t care. . . . READ MORE
Their Stories
In the following twenty stories you’ll meet some of the population of The Collection. They offer glimpses into lives poised on the threshold of loss, of longing and nostalgia. Perhaps they’re the great-grandparents you never knew.
The quarter coin in this picture indicates the minuscule scale of The Collection's population.
Monsieur Étienne Dekobra - Your Host
Please permit me to introduce myself
When the Kaiser Comes to Call
Impatiently resigned to remaining
in Baden-Baden
A Beloved Alsatian Product
The best pate de foie gras in the world
A Little Boy with a Grim Future
Ambition to be an engine driver
A Pause on the Way to Dinner
Uniforms on display
The Prince Goes Fishing
Brooding upon His Emperor
Avricourt–The False Frontier
A flagrant reminder
Brothers in Arms
These are prosperous times
“By Their Own Follies They Perished, The Fools”
It was no surprise
Engaged to be Married on August 13
Bombardment of dreams
Prinzenplatz in Stuttgart
The four Jewish gentlemen
“The Lamps are Going Out…”
Britain declares war on Germany
The Romanies Have Come
An ancient part of European life
The Spirit of a New Age
She’ll change the world
The Station at Mommenheim
A German name, an Alsatian heart
Paulus Park
A commemoration of poet
Eduard Paulus
The Empress the World Still Loves
Empress Elizabeth of
Austria-Hungary
The Iceman Cometh
Calm before the coming storm
An Ancient Farmhouse in Württemberg
A relic of the distant past
When the War is Over
He captured her heart
