Valkenburg June 2003 (1)
Ted Polet
On 28 and 29 June, the 2003 narrow gauge model railway exhibition at the Valkenburg NG museum near Leiden, Netherlands took place. This show has become a regular international meeting place of narrow gauge modellers including the Dutch 009 Group and a number of British 009 Society members, and usually the latest layout that was awarded the Reinier Hendriksen Trophy (see Moors End pages) is invited to this show.
A special event was the last showing of the late Reinier Hendriksen's 009 layout Moors End, before being put on permanent display in the Museum.
Again we had a very pleasant time all through the weekend. For the participants the hours before the show opens around 10am are fairly relaxed, every layout being inspected and tested whilst outside one of the Museum's 70cm gauge steam locomotives used during the day is being fired up. After 10 things become very hectic at times, especially when a train arrives and unloads all its passengers at once. During the Sunday at one time they needed a 5-coach train to cope with the visitors, which gave the little O&K 0-4-0 tanks they use quite a job to handle.
The photos in this report were made by Mick Thornton, Jan van Mourik and German 009 member Harald Wingchen. Photos of the Dutch 009 Group layouts can be viewed in the other archive pages.
Photo report
Click on any image to enlarge (JvM=Jan van Mourik, HW=Harald Wingchen, MT=Mick Thornton).
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Dutch 009 Group layouts (description and more photos: see elsewhere in the archive pages) |
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Castle Rock (Henk Wust) |
Stichting Behoud Leemspoor (Bert van Rhijn) |
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Mouburg (Jan van Mourik) |
Bryn Goch (Jaap Stuurman) |
Moors End (Reinier Hendriksen) |
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Left: The 009 Society's promotion and sales stand was manned by Garry Whiting and Bill Luty (HW). Right: the Roving Reporter (Mick Thornton), clearly worse for wear after a day of furious picture-taking. He made about 200 shots during the entire show (JvM). |
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Inside and outside the Museum many interesting exhibits were to be seen. Top left: a 76cm gauge steam tram locomotive. Top centre: two Orenstein & Koppel 0-4-0s, both in working order. The other photos show a recently-restored Whitcomb diesel, an American war locomotive painted in US Army green and Caterpillar yellow (HW) |
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Chapel Pill by Angus and Sheila Watkins drew much interest due to the excellent ship models and the working coal tip on this interesting model railway. Chapel Pill was awarded the Reinier Hendriksen Trophy at Expo-NG, Swanley in 2002.Photos top left to right HW, MT, HW. Bottom left to right MT, MT, JvM. |
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Another crowd-puller was Deer Creek by Dave and Midge Grassing. Left: amazement at the many details. Deer Creek is portrays a 'logging camp' in the American west. Track gauge is 9mm and the model, apart from being highly detailed, features interior lights and sound effects. There are several funny scenes involving BEARS on this layout… Dave and Midge were awarded the third prize in the layout competition (below right). Photos: MT. |
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