Merkur flat bed car

The Merkur flat bed car 9449 is excellent for moving cars about. Therefore, I filled it up with two nice ones. It is almost starting to look like a complete Merkur goods train, indeed.

Modelspoorbeurs Zutphen Spring 2015

This weekend a large regional swap-meeting was held in Zutphen. So we went to assess the offers, the sales and the displays. Our first impression was that it was less busy than in December, and there were a little fewer sales stands and more displays.

Loads of train stuff in all directions!

This British layout proves that model train layout do not depict an ideal world; a beautiful load of bricks has just fallen off the fork lift.

Look even, Dad's Army was represented on this beautifully build narrow gauge G scale British layout.

 Here a nice Dutch diorama of times gone by.

 Another Dutch diorama with a prewar local railroad theme.

 An absolute eye catcher. American trains in N scale run circles around a Scottish distillery.

 Also, plenty of old model railroad stuff was lying about; Mettoy, wind-up Märklin, etc.

Two sales stalls with old trains; to the left some recovered items unfit for operation, to the right beautiful toy trains!

As usual, I spend most of the time at the Merkur layout of "Blik en Speelgoed" and I let my son take some pictures, as I talked too much.

 Well, he certainly gave us a completely different perspective on the layout.

Which also clarified for me that he liked the silver Mikado steamer and the green large electric engine BR E52 the best.

Next to the Merkur layout, was a large Lionel - Williams - MTH - Plasticville sales stand. It had already been announced on Marktplaats, but seeing it was even more impressive. What a capital.

Later I understood this collection was a heritage that they tried to liquidate. But Lionel on swap meets over here is as uncommon as a polar bear on the Bahamas, so they mostly sold the accessories. Anyway, nice to see what one person can accumulate over time.

And at the stand of the SSN stood the hand-painted prototype of the NS 8800 (J94 for the British), the post-war austerity steam switcher. Although there are still two design flaws for Merkur to deal with, it really looks nice to see a Dutch steamer in three rail zero scale.

Overcast days are great to get things finished

It was a chilly, overcast day. So, I took my drying box with old fashioned light bulbs from the storage, properly removed the dust and spider webs and started to spray paint the roof. Three coats were necessary to make it smashing white.

Now guess, which Paya 987 coach has a newly made replacement roof? There is a stunning difference in whiteness between an original pre-civil-war coach roof with all the grime and rust spots and a newly made and spray painted example. Anyway, these coaches are one step closer to completion.

Spring is in the air

What a wonderful weekend indeed. Time to walk through the forest, feel the heat of the sun rays and see the still bare trees. But the excitement in the bird songs gives a clear signal; spring is just around the corner. Anyway an excellent Sunday to spray paint primer on my Paya replacement roof. Primer helps you to see the last unevenness. So after the roof was dry, I started to fill the rough places with filler. It will be a nice roof indeed.

Paya 987 replacement roof in primer

MSCV Herwen 2015

This weekend the local model railroad operator society (MSCV) celebrated their 35 years of existence and therefore they filled the local sport hall of the village of Herwen with toy trains, lots of layouts and running toy trains indeed! Here are a few snaphots of the train show.

It was enormous crowded, so the treasurer will be happy as well.

This is a Swiss inspired modular layout in zero narrow gauge.

This was a huge oval with a front station and a shadow station in the back on which 2 rail zero trains were run. Definitely fine scalers as you see; couple the lot with a set of tweezers.

Although 2 rail, still very impressive.

Above a diorama of the Hezelpoort in Nijmegen in 1927. Beautifully done! With cyclists, trams and trains passing by.

Another German inspired layout.

And yet another German inspired layout.

But also a modern Dutch layout, with plenty of yellow articulated passenger trains for commuters.

And finally something truly British as well, All in all quiet impressive what the various gentlemen have hobbied together during many evening hours of work.