Video: from Ergernisse II via Looseinde to Valkenveld

Marco produced this video of his NS 2400 pulling a train over the layout he, Jasiu and I exhibited at Eurospoor and the open day of the OMC club. The train first switches on Jasiu's "Ergernisse" modules and then runs via Marco's "Looseneinde" into my Valkenveld layout.

Unusual visitors

During the Open Day of the Omroep Modelspoor Club (OMC) I had the opportunity to take some images of a fellow club member's Canadian National locomotives. The two GP9's fit quite nicely to the Valkenveld color scheme and the silos that are also common on North American layouts.

Maybe an inspiration for a future module?

Canadian National GP9 No. 1701

Photo Shoot: NS 2437 working the Valkenveld team track

NS 2437 working the Valkenveld team track

Rob, Marco and I did a photo session one day before the open day of the OMC club on 12 November. This image of the Valkenveld team track was taken by Rob. It features my newly weathered NS 2437 on which I have also painted the handrails in the red-brown of the locomotive body.

Weathering NS 2437

I did a first layer of weathering on my Roco NS 2437. I applied a light wash of Humbrol enamel mat black and Humbrol enamel thinner to remove the shiny plastic look and blacken/highlight the gratings and doors. Excess paint was removed with a cloth. I also treated the bogies with the same black wash to remove the shine. However, more weathering still needs to be done to add a brownish, rusty color typical for bogies.

I prefer a visible, but quite "light" weathering on my engines. I also want to take some pictures on the layout with the proper lighting before continuing. This will give me a better view on how much more is needed to achieve the look I finally want to achieve.

The workspace ready for weathering.

 

The body of NS 2437 as it came out of the box, i.e. before weathering.

This image and below with the black wash as first layer of weathering.

Current state of NS 2437 on the layout.

Updated track plan

I received a number of questions concerning the track plan of Valkenveld at the Eurospoor exhibition. So here is an updated version.

Here a plan in Anyrail. Valkenveld was not built using individual RocoLine tracks as this plan suggests. 

I adapted the original Inglenook plan to accomodate my needs:

1) The original plan was 4 x 1 feet (ca. 120 x 30 cm) which is fully sufficient for short British freight cars. For my Dutch 1960s layout I added another foot in length to allow usage of longer cars. As the two shortest track have an effective length of 36 cm, the longest three cars on my layout can be 12 cm each.

2) I placed the yard lead towards the back end instead of the front. This gives me better viewing of the trains with most scenery in front of them. This also allows better photography angles. Many model railroads have the track too close to the front edge which gives a toy-like feeling.

3) I wanted to have the longest track most to the front. Most of the switching is taking place on that track giving me easy access. Also, it allows me to model it as team track giving me plenty of opportunities to vary scenes of loading and unloading of various car types. In terms of variation and freight traffic I am a real fan of team tracks!

Eurospoor 2016 conclusions

Three days of Eurospoor (plus one for setting all up) are an intense experience, but definitely worth it. Especially when you can enjoy operating a shelf-switching layout with a length of almost 7m with two other great guys, Marco and Jasiu.

I am really pleased with the looks and the technical performance of Valkenveld! Three days of smooth operations without a single technical problem. All engines crept slowly over the tracks switching and dispatching cars to the other modules. We mainly operated with Roco NS 2400 locomotives which are a real joy. The light and sound effects installed by Marco drew the attention of many visitors.

Valkenveld and the other modules received a lot of compliments and positive feedback which is really encouraging. It was great to hear that many visitors saw our modules that fit almost any home as inspiration.

Many commented that the impression of depth was really good, despite the real layout depth of only 30cm. They also felt that the scenes were not overcrowded and represented the 1960s in the Netherlands well.

Our next outing will be the Open Day of the OMC on 12 November 2016 in Hilversum.

The whole set-up with 5 modules, except the fiddle yard on the left.

Impressions from EUROSPOOR 2016