1 Ontraxs is the yearly event by the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht which aims at getting high quality layouts from all over Europe together.Over twenty layouts are on show so it is impossible to put them all on record. I picked out a few which I liked in particular. A completely biased choice of course.
2 An overview of the main hall with many dioramas on display.jpg
3 From the same standpoint a view in the other direction
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5 The layout is basically an S-curve ...
6 ... with the bridge as the centre piece of the diorama
7 Personally I could find the diorama typcially South Africa
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18 Only the occasionally passing train gave a clue about the location
19 All in all a good diorama. Still I was a bit disappointed, I had hoped for one of South Africa's magnificent steam locomotives maybe even a Garratt
20 The Worls End is a layout rather than a diorama, centred around Knaresbotrough Station and its bridge
21 The Station Road (front) and Hill Lane (back) with the station in between is instantly recognizable id you look it up on Google street view
22 A Google street view from the real thing.
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24 The layout offer many see-throughs which makes a facinating layout to look and look again.
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29 The bridge over the river Nidd
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31 The namesake pub
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33 This is not a particularly good photo, but I left this in to demonstrate how daft it looks when the backdrop is kept too low. I appreciate that the operators want to enjoy the layout and need to oversee the running of the trains. As a consequence they the operators stayed behind their imaginary defence line. But really, it looks stupid, please make the backdrops higher and have some members in the front to oversee the operations and talk to members of the public.
34 Neiter can you easily get a low perspective view
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36 The nearby castle was scene of some real life role playing
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43 A meticulously detailed polish steam locomotive. See the hair thin grease pump lines.
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45 The layout depict a polish country station with transit from standard to narrow gauge
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48 A corn train approaching the station
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50 A reminiscence of a world at war
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56 Tripton by the sea, by Ton Trip, what's in a name, is a gorgeous English layout. A must see for every show.
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61 A well detailed steam railway crane
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65 Red Hook Bay as bsed on an Amercan them. A small layout, just a tad bigger than a sizeable diorama, but crowded with detail. I heard some people commenting that it was overcrowded. I think not. The harbour area it depicts is overcrowded, and that air of business is conveyed well.
66 And despite the crowdiness the was a splendid amount of detail to be found
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70 It took some trouble to get to the railway activity. Very purposefully the railway activity was only a part of the display, a keynote maybe but not the focus point, the centre of the world.
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76 A gorgeous American layout
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79 Look at the crashed steam locomotive in the gorge below.
