Rotterdam Centraal Railway Station - Model Rail Layout with Trams and Trains in HO Scale by Thom Raven

Published on May 11, 2023

At the model railway exhibition “Modeltrein Expo On TraXS”, Dutch railway modeller Thom Raven surprised the audience with a quite outstanding model train diorama. He recreated the old central station of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which no longer exists. The shape of the model railroad layout is remarkable: It is actually a kind of a model railway shelf layout consisting of four sections that additionally includes a highly detailed city edge layout.

The first section, located in the center of the model rail layout, consists of two platforms served by model trains arriving and departing from two fiddle yards. Those two fiddle yards represent the second and third section, installed over a length of three meters each to the left and right side. Pilentum Television did not film these two fiddle yards. However, different trains shuttle, from the left fiddle yard to the right fiddle yard and vice versa. These trains stop at the platform in the middle of the HO scale layout.

The fourth section is hidden behind the platforms. It is the heart of the whole model train layout, because railroad modeler Thom Raven has built a complete city diorama behind the platforms depicting the old station forecourt, where trams, streetcars and buses used to run. So behind the platforms is a highly detailed city edge layout that reflects the atmosphere of the 1960’s.

After World War II, the Rotterdam central railway station was built and opened in 1957. For almost 60 years, this station, designed by architect Sybold van Ravesteyn (1889-1983), served as the main station for westbound trains towards Schiedam, Den Haag and Amsterdam and for eastbound trains towards Dordrecht, Gouda and Utrecht. In 2007, the station building was closed and demolished.

The existing station became too small to handle the growing number of passengers. Therefore, a total reconstruction of the station and its surroundings started to cope with an increasing number of trains, for example the high-speed train between Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. In 2014, the six-times-as-large, new station was reopened and inaugurated by King Willem-Alexander. “Rotterdam Centraal Station”, as the station is now officially called, will obtain the status of world station, as it is on the international high-speed railway lines towards Belgium and United Kingdom (“Eurostar”).

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