Awesome Model Railroad Layout of Old Nijmegen: Optical Illusion of Forced Perspective
Published on September 23, 2024
In this video, we discover a model railroad layout built according to the principle of forced perspective. What does that mean? Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of scaled objects and the correlation between them and the vantage point of the spectator or camera.
Loek Bronkhorst is a model railroader living in the Netherlands. He is well known in the European rail transport modeling community because he builds model train layouts with sophisticated drive technology. In addition to conventional electric model trains, he also uses magnetic drives, ball bearings and chain drives to move objects. His latest model railway layout, called “Rijk van Nijmegen”, is a fantastic diorama depicting the Dutch town of Nijmegen at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Maas en Waal steam tramway, which ran west of Nijmegen between 1902 and 1934, is depicted directly in the foreground of the diorama. Behind it, on the left, is the river Waal with a large railroad bridge and the town of Nijmegen as it looked at the beginning of the 20th century. While houses, trees, vehicles, trains and streets in the foreground are constructed in HO scale (1/87 scale), about half a meter lower down in the diorama, the miniature world is designed in N scale (1/160 scale). In the far background, the landscape is constructed in Z scale (1/220 scale).
The background has also been designed in a very tricky way, for example on the railroad bridge: The steam train crossing the bridge is designed to be even smaller than 1/220 scale. Only on closer inspection does it become clear that it is not a real model train on rails, but a silhouette (paper cut) that is moved by a magnetic drive.
Loek Bronkhorst has created a beautiful and impressive masterpiece with a clever staggering of buildings, vehicles and trains that get smaller and smaller towards the background. The boats on the river and the swans on the pond move with equal skill. There is even an airship in the sky above Nijmegen, which dives deep into the clouds.
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMW4Yz-fXcA
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