NLGM means Noppenbahner L-Gauge Meeting and is organized by you guessed it, the Noppenbahner. It’s hosted in the town of Wörrstadt, Germany, where the Lego event is now almost a yearly tradition. And that brings something unique into the event, something I haven’t experienced before.
The Noppenbahner are a group of German Lego train builders that build their models, just like most European builders, in scale 1:45. They have been around for a few years now and have built some of the most recognizable German trains in Lego. Including some TRAXX locomotives, a lot of German steam locomotives and diesel locomotives like the Baureihe 218. The individual members build their own layouts as well, which are mostly based on the MILS standard. These layouts can connect to both layouts from other Noppenbahner, and layouts built my members from other groups. Their members are based all across Germany, so they don’t meet up on a regular basis. But they decided to turn one of their meetings into an event for similar minded builders and turn this into the NLGM event. 2022 was their first time hosting this event, 2023 was their second turn at it.
They decided to host their event at Wörrstadt, which used to be a small sleepy suburb of Mainz and other big cities in the area but is now internationally known for its Lego event.
Why Wörrstadt?
Ahh Wörrstadt, the name alone brings back memories of a lot of visitors, having friends around, German BBQ at Saturday night and crashing your trains on a huge group layout. The reason why the Noppenbahner decided to host their event in Wörrstadt is quite simple.
Nick lives in Wörrstadt since his forever basically, coming even to the point that he built the Wörrstadt train station out of Lego. As he knows the small town in and out, he was able to secure the towns venue, a beautifully restored town hall, for the event. Luckily for the Noppenbahner, the town of Wörrstadt really liked the idea of having a Lego train event there and supported them by giving them the keys to the location for affordable conditions. The major also gave a short speech to open the event both years. The even included the town symbol of Wörrstadt in their 1×6 sand red event brick at the 2023 event.
Like mentioned before, the 2023 version was the second time the Noppenbahner organized this event and it was again organized on the last weekend of April. Before we get to much into the event itself and all the cool Lego stuff, there is something else I would like to point out.
Visitors.
I have been to quite a lot of events/conventions in the last six years. As far as I can remember there aren’t any events that I have done where I wasn’t satisfied with at the end of the weekend. But one thing always stands outs to me at events, and that is the reaction and behavior of visitors. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a creep who likes to stalk all the visitors and observe them (maybe.).
Visitors always bring a certain atmosphere to an event. Your goal is always to impress them and give them their “money worths”. There is nothing cooler than having a group of visitors around that are interested in what you do as a hobby, ask in depth or interesting questions and most importantly enjoy your exhibit. There have been so many events around where I was able to meet other builders who like to learn from us or want to check out our stuff in real life. Their where times where I missed a large portion of an event because I was just talking with visitors for most of the time.
A good example of this was a model railway event I attended with the LLMTC early this year, so many of the “normal” model railway builders were asking in depth and interesting question and where really keen on learning what we do. And they just loved recognizing all the details we have built into our models.
However, an uninterested group of visitors can really turn an event down. I have been at events where the visitors where just not interested. I have been at a event where the number of stands where you were able to buy Lego outweigh the amount of MOCs that were on display. This made most of the audience/visitor’s keener on a bargain than seeing interesting MOCs. A “children” event like LegoWorld attracts more visitors which aren’t interested in MOCs but just want to play and built with Lego at the event itself, the consequences of this is that you have a audience of visitors which ask more questions like “” why isn’t that train running?” instead of being interested on how that train is made.
Luckily, I can say that the visitors at the NLGM in Wörrstadt belong to some of the most kind, interested and well-behaved visitors I have ever experienced. The amount of question and interest in us was overwhelming, it’s also turning in something well known in both the area of Wörrstadt and Germany itself. Some visitors travelled very far just to visit this event. The car park was so full that people decided to use the nearby basketball field to park their car. And visitors are now calling it a yearly tradition, where even the elders in the village asked if the event is really going to happen again next year.
Beside visitors travelling far, befriended builders from across Germany travel to see this event and hang out and talk to us. Something that I can say is very unique to see in a field of MOC building that isn’t that very big or well-known compared to others.
One of the things that stood out at the event was how well behaved and polite the visitors where (might have to do with the fact that they are German). There were some area’s that visitors weren’t allowed to walk through or enter. I have experienced at other events that we had to uses gates (sometimes even riot gates) to prevent people to enter these areas, with visitors still ignoring the gates. But in Wörrstadt, a simple sign on a piece of paper that said (in German of course) that visitors weren’t allowed to enter was more than enough.
2022 event.
Back to some Lego stuff. The 2022 event was held on the 30th of April until the 1st of May. Back when covid was still a thing and it was mandatory to wear a coffee filter on your face in Germany, me and six other members from the LLMTC decided to travel to Wörrstadt. The principle of Wörrstadt is very similar to what other events like the event at Schkeuditz maintain, they create the possibility for builders to create a layout at home to a modular standard of their choice and bring it to the event. Where the organizers try to get as much different layouts possible connected to each other to form one huge group layout.
The running/layout style of this event is point to point. Which means your train is able to start at point A on the layout (most likely a storage yard), travel through the entire layout to point B, where it can use the return loop, or you can choose to park it inside of this yard. This makes running trains way more interesting compared to a tradition loop layout. The play factor in setting up layouts like these is way higher compared to having your trains running on the same circle at the entire event.
So, the 2022 event, what was so special? Well, the number of layouts was so immense that they used a second smaller room to display some extra layouts. Your trains literally had to go through a walkway from the main room to the second room, a concept that adds a lot to the point-to-point driving experience. What was also very unique is that the main yard was on stage in the main room. This meant that trains which were not in use, where parked on a higher level, perfect height for visitors to look at the models.
There was a large number of interesting layouts, too much to list up in this article, therefore I highly recommend checking out Ties’ video of the event which has 20+ minutes of amazing video shots of our models running around.
2023 event.
The 2023 version was similar to the 2022 version however the number of layouts was less compared to the 2022, most of this had to do with the fact that there was another semi-big Lego show in Germany at the same weekend. Nevertheless, the event was still a heck of a lot of fun. Here is a quick list of what changed compared to the 2022 version.
Well first of all we didn’t have to wear any coffee filters on our faces anymore, which was a big plus. Second, the point-to-point driving experience was expanded compared to last year. This year the second room had a small narrow-gauge layout that was able to work together with the normal gauge layout, in short, this means that trains on normal gauge where able to deliver wagons to the narrow gauge, and narrow gauge where able to transport those wagons on their layout. This was perfect for playing around with freight wagons.
The storage yard on the stage was heavily expanded with a lot more extra space. The yard was in fact so large that a team of dedicated shunters where always ready to help out with storing trains and rearranging them. This yard solved some of the storage problems that happened previous year. Shunting in this yard was a heck of a lot of fun. Where you were able to team up with one builder on the left side operating all the switches on that side, and a builder on the right side doing the same thing. This was one heck of a team effort to shunt and store all the trains, but it was immense fun to experience.
To add even more storage space, Nicolas Tbx made a storage yard which was placed in the middle of the layout. This meant that it was the perfect space to pick up some extra freight wagons while you’re driving from point A to B. Having this extra yard plus some stations where there where storage tracks available, made it really fun to shunt trains from one yard to another. I personally spent a lot of time picking up freight wagons at the different stations and yards and driving those to the main yard.
Branch line.
One of the more unique things from both the 2022 and 2023 version that both group layouts had their own dedicated branch line. A branch line with no overhead wires, wooden sleepers and instead of double track it had a signal track. This branch line was a warm welcome to the busy and crowded mainline and was the perfect piece of the layout to take your time while driving through and take pictures at every spot. It’s very unique to see events where the number of layouts is so vast, that there is even the possibility to set up a branch line where your able to drive for a significant distance.
If you want to see more of the 2023 layout, check out Ties his 1-hour documentary:
So, what makes this event so great?
Well, it’s a combination of the factors mentioned above. First of all, the set-up of the layout, where you’re driving from point A to point B makes driving trains 10x more interesting than a conventional layout where trains just run around the same loop over and over again. With a point-to-point layout you’re really playing with your trains, combine that with the ability to shunt wagons in different yards and station, and the ability to travel with freight wagons from point A to point B and you have a weekend where you just can’t get enough of playing around. Plus add to this equation the fact that you have a dedicated branch line and multiple interesting and unique layouts and then you find yourself with one of the best group layouts to play with your trains on.
Add to this the fact that the visitors are interested, kind and really want too more about us. And genuinely enjoy watching us play with our trains for hours.
And to add this all up, you have a group of warm, friendly Lego trains builders, who want to provide you with an amazing weekend and the opportunity to enjoy it to the fullest. Attending Wörrstadt feels like you’re hanging out with your mates while you’re playing with your Lego trains. And in the evenings, you can sit back, relax and share stories and ideas for new Lego projects. NLGM is what all Lego events should be about, and the Noppenbahner did a bloody damn good job of it!!
I want to really thank the Noppenbahner for organizing and having us, I’m grateful for the friendship and the collaboration the Noppenbahner and the LLMTC have. It’s very unique to see that builders from different countries can be so close and so collaborative, I told the story about the LLMTC and Noppenbahner friendship at a model railway event earlier this year, and the other builders just couldn’t believe that we are daily working together and have such a close friendship that has been around for so many years. Thank you so much for everything!
If you’re interested in seeing more of the event, I highly recommend watching the following video’s:
I hope you enjoyed this look into this unique event, thank you so much for reading! And thank you Nick for giving this article a quick read trough to spot any spelling mistakes.
Ciao!!
Enrico