WorldRailFans

Since I was about 8 years old, my parents bought themselves a house,
in which I lived together with my brothers, most of my childhood, until I got married in 1991.

Because the house had a large attic, my father spent many a holiday summertime
to make himself a large layout of 20 square meters in three layers.
There were about 120 meters of track.
It took over 5 minutes before a train was back at the spot where it started to run.



When I went to high school and university,
I spend much time in the attic, together with one of my brothers,
who was also fond of trains.
We literally 'clothed' my dad’s layout with houses, trees,
mountains, cattle, inhabitants and so on.

He did the painting, mountains and nature.



I maintained tracks, houses, lights, electronic devices and trains.
Look at the wall painting, my brother made.
The sky is all up to the ceiling, where we made lights at the northern and southern sky (the Orion and Ursus Maior).
That really gave some atmosphere...



One summer holiday, I even made a special Betriebswerk (BW) of my own, added to my dad's layout.



In 1980 we bought a locomotive of our own, both a Märklin 3029 out of a starters set.
In 1982 – on the day I passed my examinations, finishing High School,
I got my Class 50 (#3084) with 10 Fals cars.

That day I decided to start my own collection of locomotives.



Since my mother passed away in November 2004,
and my dad 5 weeks ago, and their house will be sold,
the attic must be emptied.

Tomorrow, we will start to brake down my dad's layout.
And much of our own handy work.
It won’t be easy, I guess.

Many months of labour.
Many years of pleasure.
Many memories to treasure.

I just wanted to share this with you.

Yours respectfully,
Frits Osterthun

Wonderful Frits!
While you are dismantling the lay out of your youth you might be able to salvage sections or pieces and rebuild it on a smaller scale! Keep the dream alive!
S&HRR
Rogier

That is a really lovely collection of memories Frits and though the layout must go I thank you for sharing it with us. It is a shame that these works of art are not so easy to keep as people move on, unlike a painting which you can take down and hang in a new room, a layout will always be part of the building it is in.

I am also sorry you will have to dismantle your work, but wish you all the best for your future modelling and sharing these photos with us.

Frits, that is one of the nicest obituaries I've ever seen. I felt for you as I read it. You had a nice childhood.

Sincerely

Frits,Loosing parents is never easy.To this day, after all these years there is not a day that goes by that I do not think of my own parents. when you stat to rip up the lay out, it too will be painfull as a lot of memories will cloud the mind.
Perhaps a very small section can be kept that has special meaning to you.
Robin.

Frits,

sterkte

Frits,

I "passed the same straits" years ago and I know by experience what you mean.

I tried to recover whatever time has not made too frail or obsolete. Unfortunately only some tracks, point engines and buildings survived, but I am happy that some of them are now operational in my layout and when completed, I will dedicated it to dad's memory (he was never been able to complete his own because he died far earlier than the average - I was 14 at that time).

With friendliness,

Andrea

Frits,

A magnificent tribute to your father. It is so sad that you have to take up the trackwork and dismantle the scenery and staging.

Have you thought of selling the house with the layout in it? With friends, I took down my own much simpler 1960s-'70s railway before moving house 8 years ago, salvaging the pointwork, buildings and L-girder trestles (the latter expertly constructed by my own father in his early retirement).

The train room was redecorated for selling and the man who bought the house wished I'd left the railway in it when he heard what had been there 3 months earlier. Yours looks a most attractive prospect for almost any family with children to purchase.

You have my heartfelt sympathy, particularly if you are, in the end, forced to break it all up. At least you'll have the memories and photographs.

David

I echo what has been said above: this posting is a lovely memorial to your father. You're very lucky to have such a rich inheritance of memories.

Charles

Thanks guys,

I really appreciate your precious comments.
I'll try to keep you informed.

Wednesday we just came to have a final 'round' in running some trains together (and filming the lot).

I brought some locomotives from my own collection (you probably know of my website).
That day we cleared the area in the attic, which took a couple of hours
Next Saturday we will really break the layout down (as far as we can get).

Here's a picture I took last week.
It's part of the 3rd floor with the wall painting.
What you see has been a planning. It should have become a large city in 1930 style.

The 'town' in the background (across the river) is a poster of Vollmer.
The 30 cm 'blue sky' above this town of this pictures has been cut away from roof and chimney,
so the wall painting starts right above the buildings with a mountainous area, and a sky above, right up to the ceiling.

Regards,
Frits (and brothers)

My condolences Frits. My heart just sank and my eyes welled up reading that. I don't know if I'd be able to dismantle such a labour of love if I were in your position... Take care.

Today was the big day.
I guess, the next pictures will tell their own story.



Here, my youngest brother is helping me out. We did the braking together this day.



Studying what's left of my Betriebswerk...



Bird's eyes view



Hand work to make, hand work to brake...



The shed was taken away with care. I want to use it again, sometime…



And that’s how it looked after half an hour. Now does that hurt, or not?
No Baureihe 85 will ever shunt here again…



Dust to dust…



In the afternoon we got to the oldest part of my dad’s layout.
Here’s a part of the ‘hidden’ track, whereas the trains got up to (or went down from) the next level.



Speaks for itself…



Nothing on this earth will last forever (as Psalm 115 reads)





Regards,
Frits

Time to get back to my own layout of The Cochemer Bahn!

Frits--that must have been really hard to do. I'm sorry for the loss of your father.

Frits,
A wonderful tribute to your father. He was fortunate that both you and your brother shared his love of railways and valued what you had built together.

So often families don't appreciate the value of our hobby - not only the monetary value but also the historic value. You hear stories of priceless collections of photos being sent to the rubbish dump as junk, or collections of models or rare railway books either being given to people who don't really care about them or sold cheaply at a garage sale. Because our hobby is rather expensive, we somteimes don't tell our loved ones the costs of models or books, but then they won't appreciate their value after we are gone! Obviously you are your brother really appreciate the layout which he and you built over the many years.

Our thoughts are with you at this time, and it is wonderful that at least some parts of your father's layout will live on.

Greg

Saturday March 11th...

All's not so well, that's... empty

Here are my last pictures, I took today.
The house is now for sale.
I spent an hour or so to let my mind wander through the past, the present and the day to come.



Here you can see where the layout stood.





The only thing that's left, is the painting on the wall and ceiling.
Weard feeling.

Here's the wallpainting in close up.
It's no Michelangelo, but still...






Thanks for sharing my grieve, sorrow and memories the past weeks.

Frits

Since no one has responded anymore, I will delete all the pictures above from my server this week.

Frits

How would you feel about having a shrine in honour of your father and his railway on your site? I think it would be a nice thing to do.

OK, Jan, I give it a thought.

Nice "zolder" Frits. I wish mine was that big.

When selling the house you could state in the advertising: "attic extremely suitable for modelrailway".

Frits,

I agree with Jan'proposal. This remembrance is one of the nicest
reminders of what modelrailways can achieve for following generations.

Jacq