The National Narrow Gauge Museum organises a yearly narrow gauge model railroad show. I attended the 2013 edition.
1
2 The ship is built from cardboard from an original drawing
3
4
5 The three way point is a piece of flextrack that is simply operated by a rod (disappearing in the foreground). Simple and robust.
6
7 Some Magic Train locomotives have been converted to tramway style engines. The modelling may be crude but the overall impression of the layout is great.
8 Unloaded locomotives disappear in this shed for storage. Once all locomotives are unloaded an appropriate pause is observed and then the locomotives are reloaded onto the ship. During the show this cycle is repeated over and over again. Simple but it never fails to capture attention.
9 Part of the attractiveness of the layout is the abundance of figures, be it human or animal, and detail.
10
11 Only for the close observer: over a 150 animals populate the layout
12
13
14
15 Herbert's Crossing, in On3 by René Paul, is centered around the operation of the three most known (and built) geared locomotives: Shay, Climax and Heisler
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34 This layout is also rich in detail. Here a group is struggling to move a fallen tree out of the way.
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45 This Mudhen (K-27) also made an appearance on this layout. The motion of the four cranks is always fascinating.
46
47
48 A Swiss themed layout
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62 The whole scene in one shot.
63 Center piece of the diorama is this Me 110 (correct?) equipped with the then crude radar antennae for night reconnaissance
64
65 The Fleischmann Magic train based Heeresfeldbahn kept running in circles without pause or purpose.
66 The middle soldier on the first car is obviously sick of it.
67
68 By this time the staff had the left engine running
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79 Having seen the layouts we couldn't resist going outside as the weather was glorious.
80 The recently new built engine shed for the large collection of mini diesel engines. These tiny engines mainly served contractors on building and digging sites until the seventies.
81 A hand winched transfer table provided muchfun for this juvenile who was bearing his responsibilities with utmost seriousness.
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94 This UK built example show its hard working life.
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103 I have never seen this shed before so I presume this one was also recently built. A panoramic overview from the entrance (hurrah for the modern photographic options in my new camera). The Narrow Gauge Museum owns no les than 18 steam locomotives.
104
105 No50, built in 1936 by Orenstein & Koppel. In terms of industry steam this is a muscle car: 160hp is a whole lot
106 This 1910 Maffei engine might do with a few repairs. It looks terrible but I glanced along the loco and found it was mostly the sheet metal work that was in bad condition. Assuming the museum also has the drive and valve gear rods in store this engine is not lost.
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136 I like to photgraph details of steam locomotives just for the sake of it. The play of the sunlight captivates me.
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152 Though relatively simple in construction and equipment this side of the loco shows enough details to be a modeler's nightmare.