We have changed our year-round working hours (Friday/Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) during Advent (from 02.12.2023 to 06.01.2024) to new working hours:

MON-SAT (closed on Sundays) from 12-8 p.m

in order to enable as many enthusiasts of small railways and scale models as possible to see and enjoy the result of the long-term work of our hardworking employees, headed by Mr. Antun Urbić, the originator and patron of this unique project.

The novelty of this year’s Advent in our Museum will be free guided tours that will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays at 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM. The idea is to give visitors a closer look at the scenes on the model, to answer possible questions related to some technical performances and to provide as much information as possible from details that are difficult to see due to their size (the scale in which the model was made is the usual model HO standard, i.e. 1:87 ). In addition, we have updated our layout guide, which are available on this page as well as by scanning the QR code on our flyer, which can be obtained at the Museum’s ticket office.

We believe that everyone who visits us will leave, as before, full of emotions, since this is a unique exhibition that will not leave anyone indifferent, especially not our the youngest visitors.

We are looking forward to your visit!

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As we used to do in previous years, we have prepared news on our layout for this Advent as well. The biggest novelty is certainly a new mountain village with a farm. Although we already have a farm with domestic animals on one part of the layout, due to the scale of 1:87 and relatively distant position, it was mostly unnoticed by visitors, especially children. We decided, therefore, to repeat a similar topic, but much closer to the visitors. And since our obsession is dynamics on the layout, we have built a lot of moving elements into this diorama, which visitors activate by pressing a certain button. So we got also the first interactive segment of the layout. All moving elements we have installed you can see as follows:

1. grass cutters
2. wood cutters
3. farm
4. horses
5. tractor
6. mill
7. fishermen
8. falling tree
9. hunters

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As part of the covid protocol, we established the rule of circular movement during the tour of the model and certain positions, which we thought should definitely be seen during the tour, declared stations and marked with numbers 1-9, so we continued further development on the same principle. We are currently working on stations 1 and 2 and with the completion of these works, the entire right side of the upper floor would finally be finished. The works are extensive and include a lot of interesting novelties. A stage is being built for a big rock concert, fire trucks are being programmed to go to the fire-fighting intervention, a covid hospital is nearing completion with a helicopter with new patients, and the city behind the train station will finally get houses and a roads connecting it with the rest of the layout. You can see the gallery with photos of current works here. In the gallery you can also find our three currently most attractive vehicles: Coca-Cola truck, Pfizer’s truck “with which the vaccine came to Zagreb” and ZET’s bus, line 108 Central Station – Sava Bridge.

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Despite all adversities, we bravely decided to open the doors of the Museum to visitors during this year’s Advent, not wanting to break the long tradition of one of the most beautiful Zagreb, Advent attractions. And we finally experienced the queue to enter in our Museum. But that is not the most important thing, worth publishing in one post, since the queu was not only a consequence of the number of visitors, but several epidemiological measures, which allowed the entry of only one family at a time. What is important in the whole story and encouraging for us is that visitors disciplinedly waited up to 90 minutes to enter the Museum in the open, in winter conditions. However, the “icing on the cake” are the statements of visitors after leaving the Museum. “It was worth the wait”, “It paid off to freeze”, “I’m not sorry about standing in line” are statements that are currently the biggest reward for the effort and hope that this project will one day, in addition to being a top attraction, become economically justified.

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However, since we have decided, regardless of all this year’s troubles, to open the doors of our Mini train Museum – Backo mini express, the famous skating rink on Tomislavac will still be able to be seen, albeit on a smaller scale, in the space of our Museum. This diorama has been one of the leading attractions of our Museum in recent years, and this year we have further refined it, illuminating the Art Pavilion, so now it looks really impressive.

We used the period when we were closed to visitors for activities related to the maintenance of the model, but also for development, so that we will be able to show visitors something new. The biggest move has been made on the roads, so now the cars will have a larger radius of movement, and some scenes will be launched that, due to technical impossibilities, have not been operational so far. In any case, it’s worth it to come and see the largest model of the railway in Southeast Europe.

In order for you and us to stay healthy even after your visit, we have adjusted the tour of the Museum to the instructions of the Civil Protection Headquarters and it will look like this:

1. disinfect your hands with disinfectant before entering the cash register,
2. after buying a ticket, wait in the yard for the dispacher to call you,
3. You enter the museum one by one. If there are several members of the same family, they can enter together,
4. The movement around the museum is circular and takes place by visiting individual stations (stations are marked with numbers), without the possibility of returning to previous stations. The direction of movement is indicated by arrows on the floor,
5. The time spent at each station will depend on the number of visitors waiting to enter the museum, and the estimated time is approximately 5 minutes,
6. When visiting the museum, please adhere to the prescribed distance of 1.5 m.

We are looking forward to your arrival!

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On the night of July 24-25, heavy rain caused a flood in the center of Zagreb, as well as in the basement of the Train Museum-Backo Mini Express. Although we started the recovery in the morning, about 30,000 liters of water entered the space. The most affected are the playroom for children and workshops for carpentry, electronics and mechanics. A complete stock of timber, a large quantity of hand and workshop power tools, part of accessories for metalworking machines, and part of the warehouse of elements for the model itself, such as locomotives, wagons, greenery, houses and the similar were destroyed (photos you can find here). Most of the furniture in those rooms was damaged (cabinets, desks, computers, etc.). Also, due to the humidity in the air, we expect some damage to the layout itself, despite ventilation and efforts to dry the space as soon as possible. Preliminary estimate of material damage is HRK 150,000.

As it is unbelievable that in this situation we could repair the damage ourselves, we appeal to all those who spent pleasant moments in our Museum to help us get back on our feet as soon as possible and allow visitors to see the bigest layout in southeast Europe. We are grateful, of course, for every donation you can make by paying into the account:

                                                                Muzej vlakića Backo Mini Express d.o.o.                                                                                                                                                 10 000 Zagreb                                                                                                                                                                       Podgorska 11                                                                                                                                                        IBAN: HR6023600001102414863

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58 visitors proceeded to the vote. One invalid ballot was established by counting the votes, and from 57 valid ones we got the following results:

1) With 24 votes, the first place was convincingly won by the locomotive ROYAL BAVARIA (12 votes Czech RAILJET, 9 votes DRG steamer, 7 votes LYRIA and 5 votes SNCF version TEE),

2) Awards (family annual ticket) were won by: Edo Toplak, Martina Orešić and Iva Zipato

Congratulations to the winners, and they can pick up their prizes from July 6 to 10 or after our vacation (from August 2 onwards), from 10 am to 6 pm in Gundulićeva 4. We also thank all visitors who responded to the invitation to, in addition to free sightseeing of the largest layout in Southeast Europe, give their contribution to the selection for most beautiful loc of 2020.

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1) Czech RAILJET
2) ROYAL BAVARIA
3) LYRIA
4) DRG steam locomotive
5) SNCF version TEE

Photos of all the candidates can be seen here.

Admission to the Museum and viewing the model on that day is traditionally free, and 3 visitors who are lucky enough to vote for the winning locomotive and eventually drawn from its ballot box will receive one free, annual, family ticket.

We look forward to your arrival and contribution to good company and the creation of an uncertain voting atmosphere.

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But what does this have to do with the Mini train museum? Exactly in this old part of Zagreb is the largest number of museums. The vast majority of them, more or less, have been damaged and museum exhibits have been damaged aswell. But the Mini train museum, although surrounded by buildings that have suffered considerable damage, remained intact! Believers will say, “God also saves  trains!”, non-believers that we were lucky, and someone else that it is just Karma. However, the trains are intact, the fruit of our many years of work has been preserved and we cannot wait to continue working on the extension of the layout and open our doors for visitors. In the meantime, in order not to die down, a video for the latest song by Jurica Padjen and the band Aerodrom was filmed in the Museum space, which you can see here.

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Making the models lasted two months with the use of all available resources and associates. Most of the time was taken by drawing the scheme after which was later cut out the plexi, and the same applies to the production of stickers that label the road. Since we wanted the model really to be something special, as is the project of reconstructing the roundabout itself, we did not want to paint the roads, but we used stickers marked with traffic signs. When it was over, next step was the deployment of over 200 vehicles with pre-built front and rear lights on roads and around the roundabout. Tunnels turned out espeacially attractive, illuminated by corresponding LED lights. In the final stage we set up street lights, traffic lights and noise barriers, but the final appearance of the model was obtained by adding nature (grass, trees, bushes and flowers), according to the plans of horticulture that we got from the designer. In our gallery you can see the making of this model masterpiece.

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