Recent shows and meetings of the Dutch Group
Ted Polet
2011 - an overview
The past year was rather an eventful one for the Dutch Group, although we met just once (at Daan Biessels’ place, see photo album) which isn’t unusual due to our being widely spread over the country.
Eddy Bolderdijk
In August we regrettably lost our good friend Eddy Bolderdijk, who despite living at a considerable distance in the northeastern town of Assen put in a regular appearance at our meetings and shows. I was privileged to have several long talks on the phone with Eddy and I remember his unbeatable optimism, despite his illness. They were good and lively discussions about his modelling ideas and various other topics. He was planning a narrow gauge layout with a harbour station which he built the baseboards for together with his son Martijn (another of our members). Regrettably it wasn’t to be. His pleasant and cheerful company is missed by us all.
Activities
Members of the Dutch Group have taken part in several model railway shows. Henk Wust has probably done his final exhibition tour, as he is going to take things easier. He went to five shows as follows:
Henk was assisted in the course of this tour by various people including Jan van Mourik, Derk Huisman and Jaap Stuurman. I myself had the pleasure of visiting the Chatham show after a private crossing from Holland together with my wife, using our own yacht.
Regrettably I have to apologise for the inferior photo quality: I had to use video stills for the preceding albums of Chatham and Deltaspoor.
In addition, the Dutch Group was present at other shows in Holland: Deltaspoor in Rotterdam, and of course the Valkenburg show. Photos of the Valkenburg show by Jan van Mourik and Harald Wingchen, with thanks.
Valkenburg photo album (Jan van Mourik)
Valkenburg photo album(Harald Wingchen)
Rae Bridge finally has been invited to the Wigan model railway show in December 2011. After a stormy crossing from Rotterdam to Hull and a drive of about 2 hours, my brother Marcel and I arrived in Wigan, being welcomed by Stan Williams, Roger Christian, Garry Whiting and Bill Luty. Rae Bridge and several other layouts including Purbeck and Crumley & Little Wickhill were grouped around the 009 Society's stand. The show was very busy indeed and it seems the narrow gauge exhibits drew a lot of public. Photos by Mick Thornton (copied with permission from his roving reporter gallery http://micksrovingreporter.blogspot.com/) and by my brother Marcel.
Fotoalbum Wigan (Mick Thornton)
Fotoalbum Wigan (Marcel Polet)
Dutch Group meeting, 23th of April, 2011.
On the 23th of April we met at Daan Biessels' place in the southern town of Goes. There were nine of us: Jan Mekenkamp, Rob Reinders, Jos de Klerk, Bert van Rhijn, Dick van Beek, Hans van der Linden, Jan van Mourik, Daan Biessels of course and myself. Daan and Mrs Biessels had set up an impressive array of buns and soup to feed all the hungry mouths. Apart from the meeting itself there was a second and most important reason to hold the meeting in Goes: a visit to Daan's Bregenzerwaldbahn. Well, this is some layout! We positively gaped at the impressive Alpine landscape Daan has created in a fairly short time. The BWB is a layout with many interesting scenic features and it is a working layout as well. Apart from this, Jan Mekenkamp had brought not only some rolling stock, but also his new layout which at first sight looks like a rabbit warren. However, it isn't, as all the curves and gradients will be below the landscape. They serve to get trains up to the future station from the low level holding tracks. A short video of the layout can be found HERE. In addition, the extensive underfloor mechanical point controls could be admired when Jan put the layout on its side. Jos, Bert and Rob had brought rolling stock. Bert has made a trio of diesel locomotives of various sources that, thanks to the red livery and the high level of workmanship, went together very well. Jos had brought a number of handbuilt H0e carriages that he had found in the Czech republic. Finally, I myself brought my new demonstration layout that needs a lot of work to make presentable for the September Valkenburg show. In the evening we had our traditional Chinese meal in the town centre of Goes, which is only a short walk away.
Model railway show, Rijswijk 11/12 December 2010
The Dutch Group again flew the flag at the Rijswijk, Netherlands, show of December 11th and 12th, with Punta Marina, Uivernest and Rae Bridge. Also present was Derk Huisman with the standard gauge portion of Mariahöhe. Jan van Mourik was assisted by his son-in-law Erik, and Bert van Rhijn helped me set up Rae Bridge on the Friday. My most able back-up operators were Arjan Straathof (on Saturday) and Hans van der Linden (on Sunday). Thus I was able to make my own photos this time. There was a huge secondhand market next to the layouts, enabling us to to buy a few items. Several Dutch group members visited the show, including our new member Jan Mekenkamp, who brought his first 009 locomotive for a test run on Rae Bridge. Again this was a well organised show (with thanks to the organisers who included Gerbrand Haans).
Regrettably my photos are of mediocre quality as I had to use the flash. The photos of Gerbrand's 'Irgendwo' layout were no good. Look at the Rail2010 report for better photos. Of Punta Marina and Mariahöhe good photos were published in the Valkenburg reports of 2009 and 2006 respectively.
Punta Marina (Valkenburg 2009)
Expong, Swanley 30 October 2010
On Friday the 29th of October, three cars departed from different parts of the country, all headed for the Channel ports and Swanley. Henk Wust and Jan van Mourik took Punta Marina and Uivernest, my brother Marcel and I myself brought Rae Bridge, and Dick van Beek and Bert van Rhijn were visiting. On arrival we were welcomed as usual by Hazel Brewer of the Greenwich & District Narrow Gauge Railway Society. Regrettably someone had double-booked the side court where our layouts had to be set up, so we started late and had to finish setting up in the morning. Despite this, the show was a success especially for Henk Wust, who deservedly was awarded the Reinier Hendriksen Trophy for Punta Marina. Expong is very busy due to the short period of time available if you want to talk to everyone you know - I only met some of my friends very fleetingly. As usual the day was concluded by the excellent dinner organised by the GDNRS. On the Sunday we returned home tired, but well satisfied with another excellent weekend.
Narrow gauge model days, Valkenburg 11/12 September 2010
An exhibition we never miss is the Valkenburg show which the Dutch Group has attended for about a decade. Layouts present were Stichting Behoud Leemspoor (Bert van Rhijn), Uivernest (Jan van Mourik), and Dunalistair (my own), supported by Hans van der Linden and Dick van Beek. From England we had two layouts: Tom Dauben's Dunbracken and Lee Bryant's Coil End Lane, supported by Chris Matthews and Mick Thornton. There were several other well-known participants like Don and Val Sibley from Belgium, and Ruud Wittekoek and Guillaume Veenhuis. Gerbrand Haans showed 'Pays Perdu' by the late Peter de Vries. On Friday night prior to the show, Mick, Lee, Tom and Chris were at my place to visit the Craigcorrie & Dunalistair Railway (minus Dunalistair which had been set up in the museum). On Saturday night we were treated to the traditional barbecue and the steam train round the lake. The atmosphere and organisation, as usual, were excellent due to the efforts of the museum people.
Rail 2010, 12th to 14th of March, 2010
The Rail 2010 show in Houten near Utrecht was a three-day affair celebrating the 25th anniversary of this international model railway show. Most of the content wasn't narrow gauge, but the excellent modelling seen in the huge number of layouts assembled was enough to prompt a special report featuring narrow, standard and broad gauge layouts. The 009 Society flag was flown by Jan van Mourik's 'Uivernest' layout (Jan was assisted by his son-in-law Erik) and my own Rae Bridge (with help by Jaap Stuurman). There were several other narrow gauge layouts present, like Gerbrand Haans' 'Irgendwo' and the 'Erzan Mine' by Leon. Also present was Rob Kievit's well-known Isle of Waan layout based on the Manx tramways. Inevitably we only covered a small number of layouts, but enough in the face of the overwhelming number of layouts present.
Dutch Group meeting, 16th of January, 2010
On January 16th, 2010, not less than 10 members of the Dutch Group arrived at Jan van Mourik's place in Bergen op Zoom for a long overdue meeting. Apart from Jos de Klerk, Dick van Beek, Bert van Rhijn, Rob Reinders, Hans van der Linden, Eddy Bolderdijk, Peter Soonius and myself, we welcomed Daan Biessels and Rod Furey as new members. Rod has been a railway modeller for a long time and wants to extend his work to 9 or 12mm gauge narrow gauge. Daan is working on a large home layout based on the Bregenzer Waldbahn in Austria. He has a very nice website at http://communities.zeelandnet.nl/data/bwb, which is well worth a visit. Jan had set up his well-known Uivernest layout to run a few trains and show his new industrial diesel tractor based on a Caramel chassis. Hans showed us a baseboard unit of his projected Darjeeling Himalayan layout. Dick, Bert and myself had brought a selection of rolling stock. Eddy showed us his son Martijn's NGG16 Garratt which is almost completed from a Backwoods kit. A true mammoth achievement. Rob had brought a photo album full of professional model photos, many of which were made of his Austrian shunting layout 'Dislbach'. He even had a few black and white photos reminiscent of the style of O. Winston Link and Ted Benson, with the stock lighted up as if by a battery of flash guns in the dark. After a pleasant afternoon of railway talk and admiring each other's modelling, and not forgetting the pile of cheese and ham buns made by Jan and Elma, we left for our traditional Chinese dinner. This time we had rather a shorter time to wait than almost a year ago. Although one wag tried to remind us of that occasion. I forgot who HE was…