I know I am rather late, but before I forget I wanted to tell the Forum members about a chance encounter during our Eurospoor 2014 Odyssey, and involves Forum members; Mr Marklin and his son Wesley, Dreadnought, Nigel Packer and his son Ben, my son Brenden and I, and it all starts on day two of our trip when we decided to start our day visiting the Utrecht Märklin store owned by Ronald.

I do believe it was Nigel who first started talking to a fellow customer in the shop who was collecting a Growler rail car that ha been in for a Warranty repair, and one by one we were all introduced and chatted with the customer concerned. [Fellow trip members please feel free to add, correct post pictures or anything as you see fit on this thread] During my discussions he said that he lived close by, and that he had a massive layout [I recall him saying around 400m2], and a thousand locos and a very large number of rolling stock, and whilst the guy was very genuine and affable, I must confess I had some reservations concerning his claims.

After we concluded our business it was our intention to take a ride to the coast on the NS railway grab a few pictures, talk trains and maybe enjoy a beer or two. The gentleman in question followed us outside and continued chatting and suddenly he offered for us to visit his layout........................and after some deliberation we agreed. He was kind enough to offer space in his car for some and to der cab for the remaining, and off we went.

After a short journey we arrived at a smart two storey office complex with storage units at the rear, and he pointed out that he owns the whole block and that the storage units on the ground floor are rented out and he has the first floor for his layout, and so in we went and up the stairs, and we were faced with the largest private layout I have ever witnessed, the first photo is taken from the far side on the main room to give you an indication of the size;



During further discussions it was not clear, if he was the sole owner or major investor in the project but there appeared to be nine individuals who were working on the project, but it seemed it was a labour of love and he was funding a major portion of the work.

In short the complex took up the whole first floor above the storage units and consisted of the main room, which was fully equipped with benches and workstations, a kitchen, WC facilities, dining area, off the one side was a room equipped with internet access and a bunk bed for those who get to involved and forget to go home, on the other side was an ante room in which there were eight full height double cupboards full of locomotives and rolling stock, also in this room they had several workstations for building and storing models, there was also a small room within a room, with timber saws and wood working tools, for the cutting and shaping the woodwork.

The cupboards house a large collection of Märklin items, including as usual items dating back to the owns childhood. In addition there was a wide variety of unusual and often valuable are items, including numerous Trix Art Models, and an impressive collection of Metropolitan items all still in original boxes and in pristine condition. He was more than happy to run a number of interesting items for us on his test track.

Even more impressive was the sheer number and variety of the models that had been built and were waiting to be installed on the layout. It was clear that there was an overall plain for the layout but it was kept sufficiently fluid to allow for individual changes as required. There was also an interest in detail, and he was happy to show us the large collection of detailed components that had been assembled (and were stored in boxes) ready to be installed on the finished layout, and these included trees, animals, farm equipment, house drawn carriages, and some very unusual stuff. He claims to spend a lot of time looking for unusual items on the internet or commissioning some of his own item to be made bespoke for the layout, and I can well believe it. I have to be honest and say I have never seen so much landscaping materials in one place, far more than I have ever seen even in shops, boxes and boxes of trees, and grass pads, it was quite exceptional.

Within the main room, there is the main module which work has started abut there is a very long way to go this includes and extensive hidden storage area that runs almost the whole length of the room. There is a second module which is complete and is (or was) a display module, and there is a third module, which is a genuine reproduction (in Bemo) on a Swiss valley, and there are photographs showing the original against the model, and I have to say it is stunningly accurate. As soon as we arrived he switched on the main module so we could play.

I have to say his hospitality was exceptional, he took time to explain every detail, he let us play, touch, hold, answered questions and was an excellent host. The day finished with us all enjoying a late lunch (Dreadnought's kind treat) at a restaurant recommended by our host.

I would like to say a very big thank you to our host and also to Dreadnought for an excellent lunch !!!!!!!!

What an excellent day, from a chance encounter.....................more photos to follow.

BR

Glenn

More of the main layout;










The future Swiss station portion of layout;

Photos of the models;

A newly built mine head (model is cardboard from Joswood)




Various buildings waiting to be installed;





A bespoke built barge and lock scene for the layout;




A dam under construction;




A station terminus;

Mr D,

Thanks for your comments, I had forgotten about the trees and his way of using N gauge to make 3 rail track in a dock environment, I will see if any of the photos I took show this.

Just to elaborate on what Dreadnought has said with regard to the trees, he had purchased (both copper and stainless steel or nickel ????) wire at some asset sale, that had many threads spunk to form a loom that had been used in a real Dutch NS rail crossing, he brought the wire back, stripped the outer wrapper and cut it into strips and opened up the looms to form branches and then coated it with a mixture of plaster (?) and glue till it hardened, then painted the mixture with brown paint and then after drying coated the branches with flock to creative the trees.

As he said he was reusing and giving new life to old railway material.

It would be great if you could find his card.

See you at Goppingen if not Eurospoor


Edit:

To try to explain the 3 rail track proposal for dock environment raised by Dreadnought (above), I have enlarged a section of one of the photos to try and illustrate the proposal, see photo (sorry the quality could not be better);




First you take an N gauge rail and glue it vertically down the centre of normal two rail track or K track, and wire this rail with an electrical feed as you would with any Marklin centre rail. Then on the inside face of the two outer rails you attach (not sure if he proposed glue or solder?) an N gauge rail turned through 90 degrees (on it's side). You then fill around the rail track with compund to simulate concrete or paving in a dock environment (or similar), and then clean the compund off the centre and outer rails, and then clean out any compound from the groove formed by the N gauge rail installed on its side against the outer rails. The N gauge rail then forms a neat channel for the wheelsets to run in and leaves the outer rails and centre rail clean for electrical contact.

I hope this explanation makes sense.

Edited by user 06 January 2015 00:17:55(UTC)  | Reason: Explanation of rail detail added

Finally, photos of the completed exhibition module which was behind a curtain and in a corner with limited light, and so I apologise for the quality of the pictures which could have been better;

Some detail shots from the exhibition module;









Enjoy

BR

Glenn