The National Model Railway Museum of the Netherlands (Walking Tour)

Published on August 24, 2024

Did you know that the Netherlands has its own museum for model trains and model rail layouts? Yes, a museum for rail transport modeling only! That is reason enough for Pilentum Television to visit the museum. In this video, we take a walking tour so you can see the large collection of trains that have run in the Netherlands.

The National Model Railway Museum is located in the railway station of Sneek, has a large collection of models of both Dutch and foreign trains as well as a number of model railway layouts, including two so-called factory layouts made by Märklin and Fleischmann. Various model railroad layouts are exhibited on both the ground floor and the first floor, on which you can make the trains run yourself by pressing buttons.

In the heart of the museum, there is a Swiss model train layout in G scale. Furthermore, a lot of dioramas by Dutch model builder Joop Bolland are on display. There are also other dioramas, for example those of Rotterdam around 1900. The museum has a large collection of model trains. In total, there are more than 10,000 models, in all kinds of scales. Models that have not run in the Netherlands, such as the famous Swiss Crocodile, are also obtained from donations.

This raises the question of why the museum was established? The Sneek antique dealer, Mr. Piet Scheltema, became interested in Dutch model trains and started collecting them. As more and more model railway manufacturers discovered the Dutch market, the collection grew to an enormous size. So Mr. Piet Scheltema wanted others to enjoy his collection by opening a museum. He opened the first museum in October 1985.

In 1987 the museum was moved to another building. Mr. Piet Scheltema died in early 1989. Then the collection was stored with the family for several years. In April 1993, the collection was transferred to a tax-privileged foundation and a new museum was opened in a basement under the public library in the city of Sneek. At the beginning of 2005, after the old train station of Sneek was renovated, the museum moved here.

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAFppisHrxg

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