Hi all, I would like to share a few photos I took on saturday at Ontrax, the annual modelrailroad event in Utrecht, Netherlands. The venue is quite nice, as it is hosted at the national railway museum. The modules, layouts and market stands are located right between the real life trains of the museum. Very little Z, but lots of small N scale layouts. Lots of specialized retailers and folks explaining their work. Good atmosphere. Lots of small kids! Enjoy, Matt Museum entrance. The national railway museum is located at the former Maliebaan station in Utrecht. Trains from the fifties and from the 1980s.. Micro layouts... Real life steamer! This one's for Kevin; it's the Longmoor, a so called War Department locomotive build by the British during WWII. It was in use after the war for a few years in regular Dutch railway exploitation. My dad rode the trains with this loco going to high school just after the war. They accelerated so slowly you could still open doors and get on train even when it had left the station and was already a few hundred yards on it's way... Alright then, one more for Kevin. This is the NS Dutch railways 1501, formerly known as 'Diana' and part of a small series of electric locomotives the Dutch bought of the British in 1969 or there abouts. Back to modelrailroading: A small z scale layout "waterkant" (waterfront) from Dieter from Germany. Lovely detailing! HO scale, but nice... Spot the squirls! Matt
WOW !!!!! The shadowboxes are absolutely fantastic even though not in Z-scale !!!! Beautiful work on the part of our European modelers. Very inspiring. Haha -- love the scale. Although our young lad standing next to it seems to be saying "I just saw the lady that dented the plate you stand on. She was very, very large and she went that way"...... You know Matt, I could make that scale if you needed one...
Nice! I visited that train museum in 1992, Outside on the back patio yard were lots of locomotives back then, and inside was 2 stories of displays and stuff as I remember.
Robert, it is a lot different from then, major remodelling was done in the early 2000s I believe. Still a lot of locomotives and quite a few new ones. The historic main station building tells about railroad history, but new buildings have been added to show more trains indoor and provide for more restaurant facility and more rides for kids (and grown ups ). See: https://www.spoorwegmuseum.nl/en/discover/now-in-the-museum/ Entrance price is pretty steep but imho worth it. Matt
