On Sunday 3th June 2018 the annual meeting took place of the Dutch HRCA, which this time was held in Zoetermeer. Host was Barend Westerveld. A select group of seven members (the rest was prevented of attending for various reasons) looked at Barend's trains collection (like almost all members he also collects a lot more than just Hornby), drove trains on Barend's layout and further spent the day enjoying a bite and a drink and having profound (or otherwise) conversations about the world of gauge 0 trains. It's a pleasant custom at the meetings for everyone to bring a few special things from their own collection along to show to the others and thus we could admire examples of not only Hornby, but also Bassett-Lowke, Stronlite, Seki, Gils, KTM and Carette. In short, we had another great day.
Barend had a few special items of his large collection displayed at a table on the ground floor. So for most of those present, the day started with a cup of coffee and discussion of the items on display.
Hans van Dissel and Barend had a discussion on the technical aspects of a Japanese made signal.
Dutch HRCA secretary Peter Zwakhals preparing for meeting report pictures in the train room.
Hans and Barend in discussion with Fred van der Lubbe on the Japanese items on show made by Seki, and some of their items sold in Great Britain as Stronlite.
All walls of the train room have shelves to accommodate the vast collection of Barend. Here you can see items by Hornby, Hornby France, Bassett Lowke, Leeds Model Company, Bing, JEP, HAG, Bonds, Lionel, Stadtilm and Zeuke.
Although the train room has a clever lifting-bridge construction to get in the room without any fuss, Niek van Ees found a way to put a new train on the track from outside the room.
Hans and Paul in discussion, probably about the scale of the items on display in the train room.
Duco Postmaa in control of running trains on the layout.
The station area of the layout with a JEP Passenger train just entering the Hornby Station, where taxis are lined up waiting for the passengers.
This is what you get if you have more signals in your collection than strictly are needed for the track on your layout.
Some of the Hornby Trainsets on display: in front a SR No. 0 and a LMS E020 Passenger trainset, while in the back 2 post-war sets can be seen, one of which is the rare SR 101 Tank Passenger set.
A separate display of accessories was set up on top of the aquarium.
Duco is viewing some of the items members brought along to the meeting. Niek van Ees bought his newly acquired Bassett Lowke BR Compound, and some additions to his Dinky collection. Peter brought an LNER E220 Special Tank and a LMS LST2/20 Special Tank in black and, as usual with Peter, both boxed.
Most of the Dinky Toys in the collection have found a place in a separate glass cabinet. Many of these are original Dinky Toys France accompanied by modern Chinese copies.
And a first for our meetings: we had some live stock in the garden during the tea break.