A retired couple are forced to destroy a train built 30 years ago in their garden

A Swiss court ordered the couple to destroy a model train network they had built in their garden in the early 1990s, and their neighbor took legal action to denounce the illegality of the installation.

The pair will have to destroy their own miniature train network. Thirty years after it was built in the early 1990s, the rails, tunnels and bridges installed in the park for pensioners living in the Zurich region of Switzerland were declared illegal by cantonal justice last December. The local newspaper says that the fault of the “agricultural” status of the land prevents such construction Landbottenquoted 20 minutes.

However, they purchased this “mountainous” land specifically to develop their own railway network, modeled on a scale of 1/45. The husband, a railroad professional, has shaped the ground somewhat to be able to install two tracks 80m long and 55m long tangled between bushes and rocks. Since then, he has maintained the small grid, which the neighborhood children visited regularly.

“My hobby is ruined,” he said, as the couple declared they had no energy to appeal the decision.

The two retirees were unaware that the rest of their land was unbuildable when they moved into their home. But the municipal council (the French equivalent of the communal council) realized the illegality of the mini-grid two years ago.

He then ordered it broken up, a decision to which the couple objected on the grounds of their good faith. The first ruling then held that the injunction to destroy the facility was disproportionate: the small train appeared preserved.

And that was without relying on a neighbor’s recourse to the Administrative Court of the canton of Zurich. The court found that the couple should have consulted the area plan before proceeding with the work and even purchasing the land. And the wife considers this judgment “evil without a name.”

In addition to the dismantling duty, the pensioners will have to pay their neighbor 4,500 Swiss francs for the expenses incurred, plus 8,000 Swiss francs for legal costs.