Living near the former "toy town" Nuremberg, in Fürth, one should think it's a paradise for model railroaders. But also in Germany we meanwhile suffer the loss of many shops. In Nuremberg, there are just three left (of ten or so 20 years ago) - a bigger one and two small ones that are more or less one-room-shops. American stuff is a hard-to-get in Germany so we have to mailorder almost everything, especially for S scale, but also for US-O-gauge. Four or five years ago I bought an O-scale, 2 rail GP-35 in the bigger shop - the owner was delighted getting rid of it because no one wanted that Southern Pacific machine except me.
Regarding 1:1 railroading, there is more. We have a big railroad museum; the roundhouse with many unique steam and Diesel locos sadly burnt down completely a few years ago. But we also have two private heritage lines, one in Nuremberg, one in Ebermannstadt (Upper Franconia) where you may find steam trains in running condition. In summer we shall have a bunch of events at the weekends between June and September and maybe also a few X-mas specials. German rolling stock of course, the biggest machine is a 52 from the last days of WWII (2-10-0). Not sure if German authorities would allow me to run American locos or cars on German rails...
Regarding the quality of living: Americans will find anything relatively expensive, loans and everyday groceries eat up two thirds of my income. In Bavaria we are one of Germany's boom regions so we have to pay the price for that. Other German regions are less expensive but also the income is not that big there. After all: Kind invitation to one of the most beautiful parts of Germany. Old houses, many museums and a railroad system worthy to see...
?
Greetings from the middle of Franconia in the spring, Hans
