Valkenburg exhibition report (9/2000)

The narrow gauge museum at Valkenburg operates a great variety of 70cm gauge stock over a 2-mile railway.

 

The 009 Society gave a good account of itself at the National Narrow Gauge Modelling show in the narrow gauge museum at Valkenburg near Leiden in the Netherlands. The show was held on 16 and 17 September, 2000 and featured layouts of four Dutch Group members, reinforced by Wessex Group member Ian Turner who brought his well-known layout Roestok and caused a sensation with his scratchbuilt South African Garratts. Below are a number of photos, most of these taken during the show by an unknown visitor who was so kind to give us a diskette straight from his camera. Click on any photo to enlarge.

Left: overview over Roestok, built in 009 by Wessex Group member Ian Turner.

Right: overview of the loco shed.

Ian favours Garratt articulated locos in which the boiler unit is suspended between two drive units carrying the water tank and coal bunker. Left-hand photo shows a NGG16 Garratt used on 2 ft gauge lines in South Africa. These locos were recently imported into Britain for use on the Welsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon).

Left: turntable with Ian's Sierra Leone Railway Garratt (a 4-8-2+2-8-4) and 'Monarch', the Meyer-type articulated loco now residing on the Welshpool line. The right-hand photo shows the coaling stage with a close-up of the Garratt.

Two NGG16s on shed at Roestok.

 

Some years ago Dutch Group member Jaap Stuurman built Schlitters, a small station on the Austrian Zillertalbahn, in H0e (1:87 scale using 9mm track). At the Valkenburg show, Jaap showed his only remaining module which he later donated to the narrow gauge museum. Jaap is currently building a new layout featuring Welsh slate and a canal, inspired by the Glyn Valley theme.

Overview of Schlitters showing the Alpine scenery to advantage.

 

Jan van Mourik is another Dutch Group member who has been building freelance Dutch steam tram models for several years. His interest lies with the Rotterdamsche Tramweg Maatschappij (RTM, or Rotterdam Steam Tram) which had a large 3'6" gauge network to the South of Rotterdam up to the mid 1960s. All his locomotives and rolling stock have head and tail lights, and interior lighting. recently he started a new layout called the Regionale Tram Mouburg (Mouburg Regional Tramways). His terminus station has track and a turntable installed, and a typical large loco and carriage shed already has walls standing. Photos made by Ian Turner.

Left: overview of Mouburg. In the foreground a freelance steam tram engine with clear RTM parentage. Just behind is the chassis for a new Fairlie locomotive made of Fleischmann components. To the right is Jan's Garratt locomotive inspired by the only Garratt ever to run in the Netherlands on the standard gauge Limburgsche Tramweg Maatschappij.

 

We were lucky to also have Otto Schouwstra backing us up. Otto is an 009 Society member, but he is especially known for his animated large scale dioramas. His present diorama 'Eneret' in 1:35th scale is very well known and has been exhibited in England. Otto uses sound effects in addition to his working models, and his noisy blackbird is well known to everyone who has seen the layout at work. Eneret illustrates a narrow gauge feeder transporting peat to a small carbon industry. The photos were made by Otto himself.

Left: a tipper truck is discharged using the rotary tippler, as in prototype practice. Right: an overview of the diorama.

  

Ted Polet has been a member of the 009 Society since the early 1990s. He has however worked on his Craigcorrie & Dunalistair Railway (CDR) for over 30 years. The CDR builds on a Scottish theme inspired by a mix of the Campbeltown & Machrihanish and the standard gauge West Highland line. Ted's layout is situated in an attic room, but occasionally the harbour station of Dunalistair has been on show, both in the Netherlands and in Britain. The CDR has been the subject of several publications in both countries.

Left: paddle steamer 'Lochalastair' ready to sail from Dunalistair.

Right: overview of the station, with the dockyard area in the foreground.

Left: a tug is being repaired at the slipway. This small shipyard was copied from one in the Netherlands which Ted photographed shortly before its closure in 1988.

Right: sleepy waterfront scene, with a 'Clyde Puffer' loading at the coal jetty.

Left: 'Inveraray', inspired on the much smaller engines built for the Festiniog Railway in 1865, approaches the home signal. This loco is fitted with lights and a smoke unit.

Right: the lighthouse dominating the headland to the left of the harbour.

The Caledonia Foundry does contract work for the railway, the shipyard and the collieries on Inverlochan Moor. Its vertical boiler loco 'Jock' has a smoke unit and working vertical motion which makes it popular with the children.

 

'Robert the Bruce' heads a passenger train out of Dunalistair. The Garratt waits in the harbour road. Photo by Ian Turner.

 

Despite not yet being an 009 Society member, Henk Wust's layout should not be forgotten in this account of the Valkenburg show. Henk is a member of FREMO, a primarily Swiss-oriented modelling group, and this is his first layout. It features part of the Rotterdam Steam Tram as it once looked, in the area where he lives. Track gauge is 12mm, and Henk rightly won the 'Best in Show' award because of the quiet rural atmosphere it recalls. Jaap Stuurman has put some pressure on Henk to also join the 009 Society, and we hope he does so soon…

Left: a barge being loaded with RTM and German goods stock in the background.

Right: a bit of rural Holland brought to life.

Left: a small bridge crossing a weir, right is a delightful old farmhouse typical for the area.

More detail views.