WEB EXCLUSIVE: Extra pictures from the 2011 International Model Railway Event

This is an excerpt of the 2011 International Model Railway Event report first published in Collectors Gazette's June issue. To see which issues of Collectors Gazette are available to buy, click here.

While there is certainly no shortage of model railway shows most weekends in this country, it is sometimes good to see what other countries have to offer. Taking advantage of a cheap flight, I headed to Holland to sample the first day of the OntraXS! International Model Railway Event 2011.

It is held over three days at Het Spoorwegmuseum, the Dutch National Railway Museum, located at a former railway station which was served by a shuttle service linking it with Utrecht Centraal over the weekend.

Arriving just before noon, there was quite a queue to get in, the cost of admission being the museum’s usual price of €13.50.

Crossing the tracks to the main exhibition centre, a wonderful site welcomed you: the layouts, displays and trade stands were all mixed in with the locomotive and rolling stock exhibits within the spacious hall.

You walk in beneath a curiously elevated locomotive and it was difficult to know where to start. Among the full-size locomotives on display at the museum was the War Department 2-10-0 No 73755/5085 ‘Longmoor’ and a Beyer Peacock steam locomotive built in Manchester.

Next event: 9th-11th March 2012

Rene Wolf's On30 layout Wolf's Creek packed a lot of atmosphere into a relatively small space.

Guillaume Veenhuis's Langs weg en Rail layout in Oe showed his passion for Dutch trams, road vehicles and infrastructure.