Toy trains in the back yard

Today it was finally good weather. We took a lot of the Lionel stuff outside and laid a small layout with tubular track on the brick pavement in the back yard. That was fun. Although some overcast clouds threathened to spoil our train party, it remained dry and occasionally saw a bit of sunshine.

It was good that we tested the trains, because the MTH Camelback steamer had a poor battery and will get it replaced soon. The Lionel 289E runs but not optimal; at full throttle it will run, but not as hard as it should, so I better start to figure out what is refraining the toy train engine from running fast. All in all it was a relaxing afternoon in the back yard.

Toy trains behind bars

What will happen with your toy trains after your death? This might look like a bizarre question, but it occured to me, while visiting the National railway museum in Utrecht. In the middle of the main building they have rebuilt the good shed "Nijverdal" and on the second floor of this building they have displayed many toy trains behind a fence. It struck me as cruel. The best of the model trains and superb scratch-built toy trains are in a separate display behind glass. They clearly do belong to the museum inventory and some models show important steamers that have been scrapped many years ago. The quality of these models and the importance of these model trains for the Dutch rail history secure that these models get a good location in the museum. But what happens to the slightly less important models, or those models that were scratch-built with enthusiasm, but were not of the highest quality standards? They end-up in "Nijverdal" behind the fence. Personally, I would rather see them running on a layout and carefully maintained by a group of toy train enthusiasts then behind bars.

As a salute to those nice toy trains in scale zero and other larger scales behind the fence of "Nijverdal", I made some pictures of them. That is the least I could do for them. I wonder about how they got locked in. Would the family of the departed toy train collector have given them to the museum with the best intentions, but without realising where they would end up? Wouldn't they be much happier if these trains were cherished, maintained and run? Would they decide differently now that they know what the fate of these toy trains in the museum is?
So I will make sure that none of my toy trains will end-up in a museum behind a fence; toy trains should run!