Home page  Dutch HRCA  Meeting reports  Links  Price guide

Latest news   Contact

Haarlem 100 (1) (2)

As shown by the enlarged replica Hornby display board, we managed to keep the spirit of Frank Hornby alive. In this picture you have a nice view of the items on show, covering a period of 100 years model trains. To the left, behind the Hornby station, were some O-gauge trains by Bing, Issmayer and Gils, while in the centre you can see a Fifties Bub clockwork set modelled after (or rather, inspired by) the then-new electric trains of the Dutch national railways. In the distance the Hornby items are mixed with examples by Jep, Märklin, Carette and Bing.

The modern days were represented by the ACE Trains Canopy, painted in the colours of the Dutch Den Haag station.

There were some fine-scale layouts in the building too. But the sound of a vintage Hornby E220 County of Bedford, complete with a rake of Corridor Coaches, caught the most attention of some young visitors; and of many adults too!

This young man in particular could not be dragged away by his parents. Being just the right age and height to have the best look of the trains running by, he spent a lot of time at the Hornby Windsor Station.

Model trains were only a small part of the festival. From all over the country you could travel to the Haarlem station by historic trains. From there, you could catch the all-day service to the Zandvoort beach, with this "Materieel 24" electric train. This is a fine restored example of the first electric train running in the Netherlands in the early Twenties.

A restored diesel-electric Dutch Railways Series 2200 Goods locomotive from the Fifties found a place close to the Signal Workshop where our layout was set up.

From the same period, a diesel powered Dutch Railways Plan U Passenger train.

Click here to enter the WIJS foundation photo-album or here to enter a public photo-album with many pictures taken at the festival.