Miniworld

Yesterday we visited Miniworld in Rotterdam. Its entrance is conveniently located on about one third mile west of the Central Railway station of Rotterdam. It has the surface area of a sport hall and is chuck full with model trains. Dutch model trains to be more precise. They recreated parts of Rotterdam city, the harbour and near-by locations like Dordrecht and Zeeland.

The entrance to Miniworld Rotterdam

The pictures below show some great modelling work done in half zero two rail, so probably based on Fleischmann and Roco rail and model train systems.

To show the size of the layout, here is a picture with one of the overviews. Since, the Netherlands is predominantly a flat country, the modelling is relative easy.

About every 20 minutes in turns night in Miniworld and the sunset and sunrise render excellent photo opportunities.

Martinus Nijhoff bridge in Miniworld during sunset.

Rotterdam police office at night

There are quiet a few accidents in Miniworld happening simultaneously, which suggests that the drivers are relatively reckless. 

An underpass too low at Miniworld

The good observer will spot that retired Dutch cows are enjoying their pensions at Miniworld, which is quiet a difference from the more common slaughterhouses in the real world.

Rotterdam Central Station is well-modelled at Miniworld, also the adjacent 'Great trade building' is well done. The latter building is a landmark of Rotterdam's resurrection in the early post-war years. 

In the lower gallery of this great building a convenient Subway was located and since we were hungry after our visit, it served us well.

Lionel 814 boxcar restored

Here it is, a shining restored 814 Lionel boxcar, finally finished. It involved an intensive cleaning procedure. First thick layers of brown and black children paint were removed with hot water. Then the spot-rusted yellow paint was removed by boiling it a little longer and then the bare metal was sanded to remove years of steady corrosion. Then the nickel and brass items were cleaned and polished. Here the black grime was so thick that we could not call it patina any longer.
Well, I am happy to show the result and I hooked up to Merkur 9406 closed goods wagon (as we would like to name a boxcar) to compare both models

Red Merkur 9406 boxcar and yellow Lionel 814 boxcar

The Lionel 814 is prewar and it has nickel and brass shining details. It is produced from tin-plate and although this is a more rugged pre-war Lionel car (in comparison to the 650 and 1680 series), it still feels flimsy in comparison to the Merkur boxcar. The Merkur wagon is contemporary and is less shiny but it is made from much thicker steel plate. It feels and handles like a true railroad carriage. The paint is heavy duty power-coated with silk screen printed details. In case of an accident, I would reckon the Lionel car ends up being dented and the Merkur car just leaves a crater in your flooring and survives unscratched.

Freight train composed of Lionel and Merkur cars

Line up of Lionel and Merkur trains

Tribute to Weaver model trains

Earlier this month, Weaver model trains announced to cease production. This news trickled down slowly over the pond, only receiving me a few days ago. From the Internet buzz I understood that the owner is retiring and could not find a successor. Well that is sad news. We will miss Weaver trains for their quality, precision and the new models they placed on the market.

So, I reckoned it was time to get a few Weaver train cars out of the boxes and honour Weaver trains and their employees with a nice picture of some of their quality craft models on the other side of the planet. We will enjoy those model train cars for many years to come. Employees of Weaver trains, thanks for your contribution to the scale zero train model world.

Swap meet in Aalten

The toy trains swap meeting in Aalten has always been a relatively small gathering. A few years ago they moved from "de Pol" to "'t Noorden". The latter being a party center complete with garden railway for children. So the move makes sense to me. Although in my perspective a name like "the East" would qualify better. Nevertheless, they have excellent hamburgers, pancakes, serve cold beers and also host a biannual toy train swap meeting.

Train nuts party center in the North of Aalten.

This year there were only three stands with toy trains, which is an all time low, but nevertheless, there were still plenty of toy trains and toy train artifacts. In fact more than that I was planning to purchase anyway.

One could argue that there was a little bit too much of Fleischmann and Roco and no zero. But I wasn't looking for zero scale stuff anyway, and needed a few switches,

During my slow search and salvage trip through the aisles, I found two objects of local toy train folk art that will blend in perfectly with my layout. Somebodies attempt to solder Andreas crossing signs and somebodies statement in wood crafting, that resulted in a nicely build wooden tower. This tower could one day be used as advertisement tower, I just would have to make the poster "Lionel trains if you got the brains". Although this might need some more consideration.

Here is today's loot displayed; a few switches, crossing signs, circuit for flashing lights, a relay and wooden tower with no current use yet but with potential for the near future.

Visiting toy train heaven

Last weekend, I had to kill 4 hours of precious daylight time in South Limburg. After I finished doing some obligatory shopping and visiting the most beautiful book store (yes in Maastricht), it was finally time for some serious leisure time. So, I rushed to nearby Aachen to visit Hünerbein. In my perspective the closest you can get to toy train heaven.

Märklin 16101 book stand

After many wooden display cabinets which were completely filled up with half zero, N, Z and modern European scale zero trains, I finally came to the back of the store, where they keep their old scale zero trophies. They had a blue comet of American Flyer. Truly nice, but the demanded 750 Euros were a bit steep for me. Nevertheless, they also had a nice book store of Märklin number 16101. It is a reproduction of the Märklin 2616 book stall from the 30's.For just 30 Euros that was a no-brainer, I had to bring that beauty home. It was produced in 2000 to commemorate 600 years of book printing. I reckon that is the first Märklin scale zero item that I ever purchased as mint -new from the box- object.

They also had a Märklin crane in half zero and since I always wanted to have it as a child, I could not resist for 59 Euro and added to the shopping basket.

This weekend a Lionel enthusiast came by, So I had to clean the tracks from dust and tools and it was nice to let those trains run by.

To restore or to refrain

When do you decide to restore a toy train and when do you decide to leave if as it is?
That depends on the rarity of the object, the condition and your own personal motives. Most Lionel prewar toy trains are common and ubiquitously available in the Northern America's. Consequently, many prewar wagons can be purchased for 10-20 USD. Since most toy trains have been played with, they are often dented, bended, spot-rusted and some parts might be missing. But spare parts are either available or can be machined, since they are metal-based.
The conservatives thinks that we should leave these toy trains as they are right now, with all their character, patina and age. But then we are preserving their current condition, not their original condition. They were not played with with dents and nicks. Personally I favour to try to return them back to the original condition, as close as is possible. Then you can experience the same as kids did some 80 or more years ago. The bright colours, the tin rattle on the rails, the smell of ozone.
I will make exceptions for rare objects. I would not like to touch those. But since these tend to be expensive and therefore typically end up somewhere else, this has not created any issues, yet. Since fewer toy trains survived WWII in Europe, most prewar toy trains tend to be expensive, especially from the Märklin-brand. Therefore, I prefer to avoid those and stick to cheap and cheerful mass-produced American brands.

Well, Frank, I am sure you would agree that this 814 boxcar can better be restored.

But this is not a black and white polarised discussion. With more and more prewar toy trains in poor to extremely poor condition being marketed via Internet auction sites, not restoring simply means letting it rust away. Especially for this category, a full restoration yields personal satisfaction, having salvaged it from the trash bin.

This Lionel 812 gondola has already been rescued from a rusty disintegration. There is no point to leave it in this dilapidated condition.

Painting Paya coach roof tops

It has already been a few weeks since I painted the self-fabricated replacement roof for the Paya 987 Salon coach. Since then the other original paint-chipped roofs looked like crap and I had to step in and do something about it. I reckoned that sanding the roofs smooth would do the trick, but that proved to be a mistake. The old black primer paint is not compatible with modern paint types. So, I could only do one thing. Sand both roofs back to bare metal, prime them with conventional primer paint and then spray white over them. Since it was a lovely sunny day, that is just what I have done.

Now those roofs are much better indeed on the Paya 987 coaches. I placed the Lionel 259E in front of them, since this was the original for the Paya 987 steam engine copy.

Lionel 151 Semaphores

A few weeks ago, I picked up these Lionel 151 semaphores. One operated directly smoothly. The other has a too tight return spring, which caused the signal arm to vibrate. Well that has been sorted and I will wire them tomorrow.
Last weeks I was busy with loads of other things. Like staring at cars and folks that stare towards shiny cars during the AutoRai car show in distant Amsterdam.

Autorai Amsterdam 2015

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