The old mill is a freelance creation by Henk. The “new” one was built by Jane; she was inspired by a corn mill near Market Rasen still in existence around 1955. As opposed to the original, the model corn mill has a narrow gauge railway connection to the rest of the world. In addition there is a small quay built to take away the product by barge.

Further down the road near the overbridge is the inevitable pub accommodating the mill hands to slake their thirst caused by the clouds of flour. The pub is also a model by Jane, as is the painted backscene.

The extension

When around the end of 2012 John, due to personal circumstances, decided to devote his time to a real railway and leave the model railway exhibition circuit, some sketches and ideas were waiting to extend The Corn Mill with a harbour for grain handling and an extra loop track enabling more shunting movements.

A year or two later, Henk made the first extension baseboard, once again 40 cms deep and 80 cms long, with the landscape contours in place and Derk as usual in charge of the technical side. The idea was adding a self-contained extension that could also be linked up to the original layout.

In its 'XL' version the layout now was extended with a tiny cove featuring an old wreck, an incline with an abandoned narrow gauge line and a crusher where rock is processed into sand and gravel. Actually there are three versions of rock mining and crushing: the old incline with its deserted narrow gauge line, a conveyor belt in a tunnel bringing the rock to the surface and the modern crushing plant.

The XL layout now consisted of 3 units, each 80x40cms, totalling 240cms of length. To the right a single fiddle track is used to exchange complete trains.

The track plan below shows that the layout can be viewed from the front and the sides.

Next, a fourth unit was added to the right, at a 90 degree angle, which includes a panoramic 180 degree curve. This was the XXL version of the layout, which existed only for a short time. The fourth unit has been modified since, and re-used in the Mouville project.

What was next? The basic idea was that the crushed stone would be transported to a tidal harbour by rail. Discussing the approach, Derk and Henk decided that it would be best to build two units with a fishing harbour on a new 4th unit, and a deep water basin for loading the crushed stone on unit 5. The idea was creating a new layout that could, if needs be, be exhibited separately from the Corn Mill, incorporating the units 3, 4 and 5. In 2016, unit 4 was fitted with track and then it stalled. Derk became increasingly involved in the work on his brother's farm and Henk was already busy constructing Mouville with Jan van Mourik. For some time, Derk prepared the technical side of Mouville as well, which Jan eventually completed. After a trial exhibition of Mouville in England, the Continental presentation took place on OntraXS! 2018.

Due to his other commitments, Derk had been doing few exhibitions for four years, which resulted in Jan taking over gradually. Thus it came about that Jan took over the technical work on unit 5, with Henk as usual taking care of the scenery. During OntraXS! 2018 it was agreed with the organisation that Jan and Henk would show The Corn Mill XXXL (as it was known until then) at OntraXS! 2019. In the autumn of 2018, Henk energetically set to work building the scenery of units 4 and 5. In particular, the creation of the fishing boats and the coaster from scratch proved to be a major challenge.

The result of all these efforts was the second prize at Model Railway Expo OntraXS! 2019, awarded by the public.

Rolling stock

The narrow gauge stock consists of various steam and diesel locomotives and a number of closed and open freight wagons. In addition, a number of tippers (skips) from different manufacturers are in use.

Let us begin describing the locomotives, some of which were built using white metal kits from various British 009 manufacturers or built entirely with parts from the scrapbox. The chassis came from various N gauge manufacturers, such as Minitrix, Fleischmann Piccolo, Kato, Tomix and / or Tomytec.

Diesel locomotives:

- The yellow 4-wheel Gmeinder diesel is a ready-to-run Minitrains item, weathered by Henk;

- The RTM-style diesel loco no. T2 is a freelance 4-wheel loco based on a Kato 11-103 chassis. The superstructure was converted by Jan from a Matchbox compressor trailer and completed with Evergreen styrene sheet;

- The green 4-wheel open cab diesel was scratchbuilt by Jan using a tiny Japanese Caramel chassis. This was loosely based on a Moës diesel.