[Jeroen]

We have quite a few model (building) enthusiasts on the forum so I thought I would share some images from my visit last Saturday to a nice model building exhibition. Here in the Netherlands there are dozens and dozens of these sort of exhibition. For instance, there is a monthly mini-car-model fair. There are lots of rail model fairs and exibitions. Etc. Etc.

This one is organised by the NVM (Nederlandse Vereninging Modelbouw, Dutch society for model building). They cover just about every aspect of model building, any object, any scale, any material. I do prefer to see a bit of everything, rather than only model trains, or planes or RC boats. Admittedly, the model trains tend to dominate these sort of exhibitions. Model Railway is still a huge hobby for many Dutch men. Maybe the odd few women, oh and they are all my age, if not quite a bit older. The way they set up these exhibition is according to very successful format. It is a mix of vendors and clubs. The clubs pay very little for their participation. You can just rent a table if you like. The cost of the exhibition is covered by the (commercial) vendors and a small entrance fee for all visitors.

Although there are still some specialised model build shops in the Netherlands and Germany, a lot of this has moved to the internet. So it is a lot of these internet shops that are out here showing their goodies for real!

I was looking forward to this visit. I had agreed to meet up with a few friends from my Dutch steam engine forum. One them was exiting two of his locomotives too. And I guarantee you, you will be impressed!

So on a frosty and very misty Saturday morning I pointed the star on the hood of my Mercedes W123 north and drove up to Houten. What should have been a 25 minute drive, became almost 45 minutes because of heavy fog. But I got there in the end.

As this is a car forum, I popped into the neighbouring building from the Exhibition Centre. Which happens to be the one and only official Lotus Centre in the Netherlands. Always nice to have a quick look around.



As luck would have it, they had the brand spanking new Lotus Eletre on display. The very first fully electric Lotus. Prices are from euro 100.000 and up. (INR 9000000). Place your order now and you might get delivery late summer 2023.







Those of you whom have followed some of my posts over the last years, might have picket up I am, by and large, not a huge fan of any new car. There are a few cars I would really like new, but not many. Yes, they are probably more comfortable, more economic, more safe and what have you, but they all look about the same.

When it comes to this new Lotus, make up your own mind. Just remember Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus. His mantra has always been “Simplify and add lightness”. He must be turning in his grave!!

Luckily they still had some proper Lotus cars as well, a whole showroom full of them!!







The iconic Lotus Europe. I stood next to it, it is just unbelievable how low this car is!! Behind it a very nice Austin Healy.



Some Lotus mobilia




Finally, also on display and for sale, a brand new Caterham Seven. Only Euro 69.000 (INR 6000000). For that you dont get power steering, you dont get a radio, you don’t get airconditioning, you don’t even get a roof over you head. What you get is an absolute pocket rocket which is all about simplicity and lightness. These cars are an absolute hoot to drive!!



Caterham bought the right to produce the Lotus 7 under their own brandname. They have managed to improve the car compared to the original Lotus 7 quite a bit.

Anyway, time to go and see some models next door in the Houten exhibition centre.

There were two of these massive demonstration areas, for a huge number of RC cars and trucks. Some of these have truly amazing details and full functioning everything.



I took quite a few images, but this video shows it much better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8MHndB618c

Did I mention that this was a model exhibition where anything goes, be it the object and or the material, to name just a few?

So here is a Dutch dredger paper model. Yes, you can get just about anything as a paper kit model. Be it a Dutch windmill, a T-ford or a vessel. AT the back you can see various wooden models too.



I liked this model. It is actually one of the most often build boat models in the Netherlands, together with the oceaan going tug Rotterdam. This is the anchor handling Tug SmitLloyd 112. I did two tours on the real 112. One in the North Sea and one tour near Venezuela. These were, in their time, fantastic ships, incredibly seaworthy. With two Stork Werkspoor TM410 medium speed diesel and Lips controllable pitch propellors they were the best ships in the offshore industry at the time.



A close up of the aft deck and the winch control room. That’s where the chief or second engineer used to sit to operate all the different winches during anchor handling. The main towing winches are all build below the deck, the four wire reels are just for storage of wires and so on.



I am always fascinated by steam engines, whatever shape or format. Just admire some of these for the level of detail that went into them. All working on real steam!! They run on compressed air here, because it is so much easier and safe. But it takes a lot of skill and knowledge to ensure that there engines do run on real steam.









Some more ships. Many of these ships are also radio controlled. This is a so called heavy lift vessel, from a company called Big Lift. The had a range of these, all called Happy “something”.



The owner demonstrated how the two large heavy lift cranes work in tandem to lift these heavy loads, in this case, some section of a bridge.



These guys specialised in building models of the old Liberty and Victory ships. Thousands and thousands of these were build during the second world war. There are only a few left. I know there is one, fully working, in the USA. I visited it during one of our West Coast tours.



Some very impressive warships too



We will see some more of these. These sort of locomotives are a true work of art. Each part, each nut, bolt is made by the builder themselves! Some of these models take decades to finish. Fully working on steam.



Here an American locomotive, all ready.



This is considered one of the more simple ones! Go figure! One of the true model steam locomotives guru’s is a Japanese guy called Kozo Hiraoka. My favourite YouTuber, Blondihacks, has just started building one of his models:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiAWsopdr0A

Here, yet another, unusual type of model build: These guys make models of old historic iconic petrol station in the Netherlands. These days petrol station all look the same, but there used to be a time, where some of these were designed by some of the top architects. This is a famous Dudok design, some 112 of these were build in the Netherlands. This one in particular I can still remember! It was not to far from where my parents lived. Build in 1955 the it was moved to the Autotron in 1995.



Another very simple, yet smart design.



Whereas in India most petrol stations are manned, almost all petrol stations in the Netherlands and in fact Western Europe are self service these days. At these old petrol station you would get proper service. They would fill up your petrol, check your tire pressure, add coolant and window washer fluid if needed.

But you could not get anything to eat or drink!! These days some of these petrol station seem to be catering more to the need of Supermarket customers than drivers.

[Jeroen]

I spend some time talking to the builder/owner of this fabulous model. It is the river (rhine) steam tug Pieter Boele. It was build in 1893. Today it’s home port is Dordrecht. If you ever find yourself in the Netherlands, forget about Amsterdam. Come and see Dordrecht, much nicer and you can go for a ride on this steam tug!!

https://www.pieterboele.eu

The wheel house:



Inside the wheel house:



Stern and rudder / prop arrangement



The rudder on the real tug is operated through this very long shaft, running across the aft deck with a huge gearing at the very end. The model has the same arrangement. But is driven by an e-motor as this model tug is Radio Controlled!.



Very carefully prying of the wheel house so he could show me the inside





Back to some more RC cars and trucks. They are very impressive!! This couple was fascinated with this truck.



Lots of driving going on behind them



I always like so called “wreckers” as the Americans call them! Lovely trucks. Look at the crate with the chains in it and the petrol cans stored underneath at he left side of the truck.



This fire engine with the miniature firemen was a real gem too.



Another shot of the large driving area for the RC trucks



A functional RC container stacker in full swing!!



Total concentration. It is much more difficult to drive one of these model trucks, than to drive the real version, or so I am told!



Some more proud builders/owners. You ask any of these guys a single question about their trucks and you will get stuck for hours!



Plenty of ready made model cars for sale as well. This one caught my eye. It’s the typical Amsterdam City bus from when I was growing up as a teenager and later student in Amsterdam!



Another fascinating model of a combine harvester. This is HO scale (1:87). So it is tiny (look at my thumb for size), but phenomenally detailled. Expensive too!!



As I mentioned, lots of different models, formats etc!!



Anybody care for a tank?



This was something new to me. I did know the brand Roco. It is a well known model train brand, both HO and N scale. I will show some of their rolling stock too. But I was not aware they made these sort of model build kits too. A Bell Hue at HO scale. You could simulate your own Vietnam war.



As you will see, there were a lot of model trains. As model trains go, apart from the ones build from scratch, this brand, LGB, builds the largest model trains. They are suitable to used outside. I know some people who have them running through their garden, even in the winter. They don’t come cheap!! Yes, those numbers on the yellow stickers are the prices in Euro’s! I have owned cars that cost considerably less than some of these locomotives!





Some more warships. This is a whole series of war ships of the same era. Beautifully made!







Another famous Dutch sea going tug, the Holland. It is arguable one of the prettiest tugs in existence. The original one is still going strong, as a museum ship. You can book a trip on it very much like my trip on that other marvellous museum tug boat, the Elbe,

https://www.team-bhp.com/news/drivin...ay-sailing-tug



https://www.zeesleepbootholland.nl

It was build in 1951. It is actually both a passenger as well as tug! In its day it accomplished well over 200 successful salvages on the North sea! Not only is it a very pretty vessel, it is also quite fast. Top speed was 18 knots which is a lot for a vessel less than 57 meter overall length!

[Jeroen]

Some more shipbuilding! This is a typical Dutch “platbodem” or flat bottom. These vessel could be found all over the Dutch river and canals. you might find this type of vessel from Germany, the Netherlands and even the UK. At one time there were thousands of these vessels. Usually owned and run by a family. Dad/mum and kids. There are still a couple of hundred of these vessels around. You will find them all over the Netherlands, near large marinas and lakes. these day they are museum ships, many of them take passengers for a few hours or even trips of a couple of days along the Dutch river ways.



I only spotted a few of these old sailing ships. Still, magnificent detailing. If you want to see lots of these sort of models, go a visit the maritime museum in either Rotterdam or Amsterdam.





Lets have a look at some more of these ships. Some are just static models, but many can take to water, float and are Radio Controlled. And they come in all sorts of sizes!



I absolutely loved this little wooden Navy tugboat. Look at the weathering. It looks so real!!



The Dutch have a very rich naval / maritime history. So a lot of the boat model building centers around Dutch vessels. With tug boats being the most popular. But some prefer war/navy vessels.

This is the zeven Provinciën (Seven Provinces), build in 1910, sunk in 1942, salvaged and sunk again. (It wasn’t a very lucky vessel). The name Zeven Provincien is a bit of tradition in the Dutch Royal navy. We had about eight of them, starting in the early 1600s.





Some prefer to build a French war ship, such as this battle ship the Jean Bart. The French, funnily enough, call all their ships Jean Bart. She was launched in 1940, but had to sail with only one of her main turrets in place, due to the Germans invading France. She has a very interesting history, look her up on, the usual things, she was never completely finished, French crew defecting etc.



Not quite sure what this is, but I believe it to be a pretty recent Dutch Frigate, still under construction.



When we lived in the USA I always wanted to see a proper Mississippi Steam Paddler. Never got around to it. I did visit a nice little museum in Missouri. So the next best thing is to buy a kit and build your own paddler. I have been looking at several. This is one of them, ready built here. Life on the river and these paddlers was extremely harsh. We (at least here in the west) tend to have a very romantic view about these steam paddlers. From Wikipedia:

Between 1811 and 1853, an estimated 7,000 fatalities occurred as a result of catastrophic boiler explosions on steamboats operating on the Mississippi and its tributaries. Due to a combination of poor boiler construction and unsafe operation, steamboat explosions were a frequent occurrence. Charles Dickens commented on the issue in his 1842 travelogue American Notes, writing, "...[American] steamboats usually blow up one or two a week in the season."

Not only did they blow up, they also tend to ran aground or impale themselves on floating tree trunks.

I just had to take a picture of this little boat! I was surprised to see a proper American flag, rather than a confederate stars and bars. Can you hear them Banjo’s?



Of course, if you bring floating and RC boats you need a place to float them and to RC them. So these guys bring their own model boat demonstration mobile basin.



Lets have a look at some of the ready made car models. We have a whole dedicated thread for those. Here are some, that for various reasons I found attractive and or interesting.

LaFerrari. Nothing to add



Sort of on the other end of the car spectrum; A Trabant
It’s actually sort of Lego model, but not really proper Lego. It’s also a limited edition. I think because nobody wants imitation Lego or a Trabant. But I might be wrong. In the next village along our dike there is a guy who owns at least 20 of these Trabants. Take all kinds as they say.



I am not really a model car collector. I do have some. Obviously, I have models of all my classic cars. And then I have bought some models over the year of cars I just like. I was very tempted to buy this magnificent Schuco model. I had come across it before. Really nice. But at Euro 220 (INR 20000) it is a bit steep



This one I liked even better! I loved wreckers and this is so unusual. The guy was asking Euro 70 (INR 6100). Which is good value, because it retails online for about Euro 90. I have asked my friend and model car connaisseur extraordinary Bernd to have a look if he can get these for me cheaper.



This particular bran, Autocult, made some more very unusual models, have a look:





Now we come to what I would consider the Piece de Resistance.





This Steam Locomotive was unique. It was developed in the late 30s in Germany. It had several revolutionay new design features which should allow it to compete with then new Diesel and Electric locomotives. It features four driven axles, each powered by a V8 Steam engine. It was commissioned in 1941. In 1944 it could heavily damaged due an Allied attack. The Americans, after the war, took it back to the states. Even though it was unique and revolutionary from a steam technology point of view, it never caught on. Eventually it was scrapped.

This model is being build by Rene. I know him from the Dutch Steam engine Forum. Rene is very experience builder and he has often helped me out. Since this is a true one off locomotive I thought it might be difficult to get hold of drawings. Rene told me, he actually managed to get quite a bit very good documentation without to much hassle. Due to the Germans being very German and thorough. Whether it is their engineering or their atrocities, they kept meticulous records of everything! Always!Trust ze Germans!

Here the V8 assembly. Rene has to make 8 of these!





There is a very special mechanism required to take the power from the V8 steam motor and get across to the actually drive wheel. The challenges are that it needs to be very flexible, because the drive wheels to some degree need to be able to float left to right and vv.



Just one wheel takes Rene about a day. Well, I can honestly say, it would take me many days and it still would not look as good as this. All done on regular lathes and milling machine (No CNC, all manual)

This locomotive will run on steam, so the boiler, the feed pumps, the V8 steam motor, everything will work properly, on steam.

Another model build by Rene.



Rene uses mainly Stainless Steel. He doesn’t paint his models, he likes the clean metal look and I agree with him. You can’t pain to scale. In the sense that all these rivets, bolts and nuts, would simply not look right once you paint them over. The paint would make them look to thick. I mean, in the end it is of course a very personal choice to paint or not paint. I have seen some paint work on locomotive that were works of art by themselves.

Rene is a member of a steam engine club. They have open days where they run their steam trains and the public can join them.
You can find some more information on this particular locomotive, all in Dutch, but the images speak for themselves. It shows many of the different steps in fabricating this model. From casting to soldering.

https://www.radingspoor.nl/index.php...len/br-19-1001


Did I mention anything goes, model building wise, at this exhibition. Say, for instance you want to build your own hydraulic mobile crane, completely functional and Radio Controlled obviously. Still a long way to go, but already very very impressive.

[Jeroen]

Probably about 50-60% of the exhibition was about model trains. Be it rolling stock or, scenery, parts etc. I don’t know about model trains in other parts of the world. But for some reason it has always been big business here in the Netherlands. Obviously, the other country where it is even bigger is Germany. Many of the well established model train brands come from Germany. (E.g. Marlin, Fleischman, Rapido.) Some from Austria too (Roco).

Although some people would still regard model trains as a toy for kids, you will see and learn that this is actually very much an adult type of hobby. It requires skill, patience, budget and lots of room and time!.

I was very much a railroad enthusiast from my mid teens, until a graduated from Naval College and went to sea. I worked part time in a fantastic toy and hobby shop in my home town Amstelveen. So I usually spend most of the money I made on being more model train stuff. There are a number of different scales. Apart from the very large LGB stock I showed earlier the most common scales for model railways tend to be HO (1;87), N (1:148), Z (1:220).

I chose N gauge at the time for a number of different reasons. Obviously size is a factor. On the same space N gauge will allow almost four times as much track as HO. Z Gauge is really tiny and never had any appeal to me.

The other main difference is that N gauge from early on was completely standardised in terms of the electrical supply (0-12VDC) and coupling. Which meant you could run mix and match all brands together. Whereas Marlin HO was 12 VAC with special rails and Fleishman HO was 12 VDC and they all had different kind of couplings. So N gauge allowed you to build a much larger set, in the same space and have a much larger variety of rolling stock to chose from.

So lets have a look at some of these model trains and their accessoires.

The Dutch model railroad enthusiasts is big enough for many brands to build dedicated Dutch Railroad rolling stock. You can get just about any Dutch (NS Nederlandse Spoorwegen) Railroad stock in both HO as well as N gauge.





You can get rolling stock from just about any nation, any period. There is vast number of different companies catering for every need, model train wise!!

Here a very nice set of some Swiss locomotives, including the famous Crocodile Locomotive.



Some American stock:





A my favourites, proper steam engine locomotives in all sizes:



There were a few odd sizes models too. Not sure what scale this was, but it was massive. This is an old German Electric locomotive. It ran when I was in my teens and I remember my dad taking me to Dusseldorf for the day to go and see it for real!!.



Of course, with model trains, come model everything. Model houses, buildings, model stations etc. You can get anything any scale.





This model railway section was literally hundreds of different market stalls, selling and displaying anything the disconcerting model railway enthusiast could ever think of and then some!







There was so much to see it was all a bit bewildering. I took an image of these special transit. These are the special machines that install and maintain railroad tracks and beds.



When it comes to track, most brands have their unique type of track and you can’t really mix the different brands. This is Fleischman N gauge track. It is considered the best. It comes ready made with the railroad bed which makes it very stable to. My track was all Minitrix N gauge. I used to stick insulation tape to the back of it and then sprinkle some make shift model pebbles on it. It looked really good, but was very cumbersome to make.



Some more scenery stuff. When you build a scenery you need people, animals and so on.



This was not an exhibition where large model railway clubs showed their work. I have shown some of those amazing tracks and sceneries in some other thread. But there a few of this little sceneries, just for inspiration I guess.





And of course, endless parts and special bits for your trains!





The number of different variants of model turf, easily outnumbers that of the real stuff in our nearby garden centre!



Also on sale and display was quite a bit of this old classic Marlin. This type of electrical train was introduced after WW2 and was very much for kids. Nowadays this is all collectors stuff.



Marklin and some of the other model train manufacturers did make other toys as well. Again, these day these are all collector pieces and they don’t come cheap.



Obviously, at an exhibition such as this, you will be able to find any kind of special tools required for your hobby. I spend at least half an hour drooling over the Proxxon stand.



The biggest difference between model railway in my days and today, apart from a much larger selection of stock and so on, is that model railways have gone digital. In my days you could not individually control trains. You had to electrically isolate section of track and power them individually for each train in each respective section. Sort of like the traditional “train-block-safety-system”.

Whereas my dad was very much into building the scenery and the houses and building on our track, I was more involved in the technical side of automating it all. I used these so called reed-relais to allow running trains to provide inputs to various relays that would control signals and points and so on.

A reed relais is a little glass tub. The inside of the tube is vacuum and inside are two overlapping contacts. If you bring a magnet to the glass the contacts close. So I used to install the reed relais underneath the track, out of side. And each train was fitted with a little magnet. I managed to get some 12-14 trains running simultaneously with just a few crashes now and then. Which I thought was pretty good at the time.

I found some of these old fashioned reed relais. I still have mine somewhere in my garage, and the magnets too!



These days model trains can be controlled completely individual on the same section of track. Basically a high frequency digital signal is superimposed on the 2 V power. Each locomotive has its own dedicated controller build in. The amount of different system is staggering. The big brands all have their own versions, but many hobbyist will just build in these little electronic devises themselves.

In the end I did not buy anything, apart from a couple of special tweezers. I got close to various items. I spend a lot of time on this set. When I was a little boy my parents got me one of these. But my dad, never just bought the basic set. he bought another locomotive, lots of tracks, points, some more carriages.

It is a brand called Biller. They made these train sets with clockwork (spring) operated and battery operated locomotives. Very nice, very suitable for kids. They are extremely rare these days. And this set was in mint condition. But without more track I don’t think it makes any sense. And in all my years visiting these sort of exhibitions and antique and brocante fair all over Europe I have only seen the odd piece of Biller. So the chances of finding more are pretty remote at best.

But it did bring back many happy childhood memories!!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[no_fear]

@Jeroen,

Glad to see you love miniature train models. My dad is a massive collector of Roco / Fleischmann / Trix HO models and he has hoarded engines and sets for the past 30 years.

I guess you have been to Miniatur Wonderland in Hamburg. It was fun seeing all the trains and dioramas there.

[W.A.G.7]

This is a drool worthy collection of toys and scale models. Many of the pieces are very cool but costly! Thanks for sharing these unique exhibition & sale photos. It was a great pleasure to view all these models. I always wanted to build a model train set complete with the scenery, stations, rolling stock and everything; but I never got a chance to do it. Maybe when we rebuild our house, I will dedicate a full room to it and build a nice train set!

[Newtown]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

This is the anchor handling Tug SmitLloyd 112

Is this replica plastic? Look at those bollards - They almost look like they are made of real steel. What a wonderful exhibition this seems to have been.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by no_fear

I guess you have been to Miniatur Wonderland in Hamburg. It was fun seeing all the trains and dioramas there.

No I have not, but I have watched many YT video’s. We have something similar here in the Netherlands in Rotterdam.

BUT, I am already booked to visit Hamburg this coming May for the harbour festival. I will be spending three days in Hamburg and Wonderland is high on my agenda. I am already booked to go for a full day sailing on the museum Frieght Ship San Diego too. Really looking forward to it.

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

. Maybe when we rebuild our house, I will dedicate a full room to it and build a nice train set!

Best way to do it. My parents gave me the little loft room in our home.
I know a guy who had a massive emplacement. Built on a wooden frame hanging from the ceiling in his living room. He could move it up and down with a clever system of pulleys and ropes.

Not ideal, but hey, if it is a hobby, anything goes. But as I mentioned, available room is a consideration about which scale you are going to work with.

Our loft was tiny, and odd shaped. perfect for an N gauge track set up.

Jeroen

Originally Posted by Newtown

Is this replica plastic? Look at those bollards - They almost look like they are made of real steel. What a wonderful exhibition this seems to have been.

Yes, it is mostly plastic. The original building kit is called SmitLLoyd 109, but all SmitLLoyd 100 series were near identical, so you might come across them iunder various names.

Here a link to a Dutch website, but the photographs speak for themselves and give some idea on how this model is constructed. It is 1:100 scale

https://www.vmbchetanker.nl/knowledg...-danny-bimmel/

You can also buy just the drawings and built everything yourself.


Jeroen

[Knightrider]

Thankyou for sharing! It's been a dream to build a model rail-road and diorama. I so wish such stuff was widely available in India and at affordable rates.

[cka]

Sorry for slightly OT.
I am searching to buy a model train for my 7 year old son. Can someone suggest link/website where I can buy scale model trains at reasonable price.

[no_fear]

@Knightrider / cka,

The rail models especially HO gauge are frightfully expensive. However there is an Indian company that is making HO gauge models for Indian trains. You can check them out

https://precisionmodelworks.co.in/

[Amrik Singh]

Building such precise scale models not just require great skills but patience too. Since no blue prints for WWII era are available, to create a replica model from just pictures to such precision is fantastic.
Thanks for sharing.

[Mundkaite]

Wow!! Thank you for sharing.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Amrik Singh

Building such precise scale models not just require great skills but patience too. Since no blue prints for WWII era are available, to create a replica model from just pictures to such precision is fantastic.

You would be surprised what is available though. But just about all of these projects start with a lot of research into the history of the object you would like to build. Internet is hugely important as it will also allow you to hook up with other builders around the world. Some of these builders have amazing stories on how they obtained their information and go through any length to get more information on the tiniest detail of their object.

The NVM (Dutch Model Building Society) has hundreds if not thousands of drawings of ships, bridges, buildings, trucks, wind mills, planes and so on.

There are many model build clubs around the world and their respective members have an awful lot of knowledge and experience too and are always willling to share.

Most steam engines predate WW1 and some even WW1 and there are lots and lots of drawings about.

3D printing is becoming very popular in all modelbuidling too. Which means more and more digital 3D drawings are floating about the Internet.

So it all depends. But whichever way you look at these are all fantastic achievements. Especially if there is little or no information available on the object you want to build. Then it is down to photographs and in some cases even paintings.

Jeroen