Uncategorized Archives | Backo Mini Express

ADVENT 2023

Zvonko Cebalo — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 17:09:38 +0000

Another Advent is front of us and we look forward to sharing it with our visitors. This year too, we appropriately decorated our Museum and finished the model with small details, as if it would be even more interesting, although, according to the reviews of our visitors on Google, it has been interesting and special in every way. Namely, the Mini Train Museum – Backo mini express was rated 4.8 out of 5 by more than 900 visitors, which is currently the highest rating for a museum in Croatia. With the activities we are planning after Advent (expansion of the model to one more room, i.e. an additional 20 m²), we hope to maintain our leading position.

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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ADVENT 2020.

Zvonko Cebalo — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:18:32 +0000

After the wonderful Advent performances of 2016, 2017 and 2018, which were recognized by the whole Europe, this more modest, marked by COVID 19, Advent 2020 follows. Will the city, given the prescribed measures of the Civil Protection Headquarters, still feel the atmosphere of the coming Christmas, we shall see. What is certain is that there will not be as many people on the streets as in previous years, there will not be a houses with mulled wine and sausages at every corener, foreign tourists, and no skating rink on King Tomislav Square.

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:

disinfect your hands with disinfectant before entering the cash register,
after buying a ticket, wait in the yard for the dispacher to call you,
You enter the museum one by one. If there are several members of the same family, they can enter together,
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,
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,
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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PREPARATION FOR THE ADVENT

Zvonko Cebalo — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 08:28:54 +0000

As we approach the famous Zagreb’s Advent, the work on the model is gaining momentum, as the Train Museum – Backo Mini Express is one of the major city attractions. First of all, the goal is to finish the reconstruction of the road, so that the future electrical cars could drive on the induced current. The induced current drive is the new invention that has intrigued the Europe’s largest model car producer, FALLER CAR SYSTEM, so this summer they sent two engineers from Germany to get more familiar with this innovation.

End of the road project will enable the launch of a new attraction on the model. It is a combination of vehicles and railways, ie. trucks will, on one of the stations, get on the wagons by themselves. When the loading is finished, the composition will be on the way around the model and bring the trucks to another station where they will, again by themselves, disembark and continue on down the road.

Another attraction will be a brand new, small scale model which will feature an already known skating rink from Tomislav Square, with its mobile skaters, but this time in a real environment. On one side will be the Art Pavilion, and on the other the train station. Finally there will be a tram line and on it an old Zagreb tram. This scale model will be shown in the newly renovated section and somehow symbolically announce the beginning of the expansion of the model to the remaining 250m², what will put it, when it’s finished, among the largest in Europe.

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ELEVATOR FOR MINI TRAINS

Zvonko Cebalo — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 07:29:33 +0000

After this summer, when we finished basement adaptation, we continue the development of our model project. The plan is that the trains from the existing premises, through a tunnel in the wall, move to the next room, where they will continue driving on the newly built part of the model. Sounds simple. But it is not. The tunnel is much lower than the predicted height of the model and a problem of how to raise the train to the required height appeared. In everyday life, to go to higher floors we use an elevator, so an idea was born to solve this problem the same way. Sounds logical, but not so easy. There are a lot of home lift manufacturers on the market, but for our purposes it was necessary to re-find a special technical solution. And so our, already a proven team of innovators, received a new task. The result of their work is a lift that can hold up to two trainsets with a length of over 3m (the length of the lift is 340 cm and has two tracks). The lifts maximum vertical distance is 140 cm, so with that the problem of different levels is resolved (connects four levels: two on a model in the new room, one in the old room and one in the basement, where one day development of the model will be continued). A computer is in charge for the control of the elevator and for its safe operation, which is for this purpose connected via 50 information channels. Well done guys!

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