Szabolcs Szörényi’s model railway layout, covering almost 50 square metres, can be seen at the Opera’s Eiffel Art Studios as part of the exhibition “I Feel at Home at the Station” (A pályaudvaron otthon vagyok).
On the model, which depicts Nyugati Railway Station and the Északi Fűtőház (Northern Engine Shed), visitors to the Opera’s Eiffel Art Studios can see models of 16 locomotives, 97 passenger carriages and 48 goods wagons, thanks to the donation by Mária Rosta, Emese Szörényi and Réka Szörényi and to the cooperation between the Hungarian Museum of Science, Technology and Transport and the Hungarian State Opera.
The Kossuth Prize-winning composer and music director, bass guitarist of the bands Illés and Fonográf, spent several decades building his 1:87-scale, nominal H0-gauge layout in the basement of the family home.
According to the plans, the layout, featuring Hungarian, Austrian and Swiss motifs, would have filled the entire 180-square-metre basement. The most finely crafted, Hungarian-themed section of the composition has entered the collection of the Hungarian Museum of Science, Technology and Transport and features in the current exhibition.
Richly detailed, the work presents a lifelike miniature replica of Nyugati Railway Station and its surroundings, with custom-made buildings and period-accurate vehicles and figures. The vehicles were originally controlled by an analogue system similar to that of the full-size railway; the digitisation of the layout began in the early 2010s but could not be completed, so the layout can be seen in operation only to a limited extent, at special events.
The Hungarian Museum of Science, Technology and Transport added the priceless donation to its collection in summer 2025. The Museum’s staff then began a detailed survey of the object and preparations for dismantling it, as the layout had to be carried out in pieces through a door only 80 centimetres wide and up narrow, winding stairs, to be transported to the Eiffel Art Studios in the 10th district, on the site of the former Északi Járműjavító (Northern Railway Vehicle Repair Works).
The expert, careful dismantling of the layout took about a month and a half. Reassembling the unique ensemble, reconnecting the electrical network and removing the traces of the cuts then took another month and a half.
“We, too, can easily fall in love with the atmosphere that inspired Szabolcs Szörényi to create this masterpiece. An iconic piece of Hungarian railway modelling shines in its original glory before visitors,” said Dániel Erky-Nagy, conservator at the Hungarian Museum of Science, Technology and Transport.
The layout can be viewed during guided tours, building history walks and events. You can register for the guided tours HERE>>.
The general public will be able to see the layout’s night-time lights for the first time on 20 June 2026, at the Night of Museums.
Source: MTI