On Sunday 29th November, Eight members of Emrig were again treated to another spectacular layout visit, this time the one belonging to Danie Wentzel whose home is situated on the extreme North of Pretoria.
The invitation was sent out to all the members of Emrig but only the first eight members who responded to the e-mail were considered, mainly due to the space limitations in Danie’s layout room. There will be follow up visits for members next year in batches of 8, as Danie has offered to open his house and layout again in the future for everyone’s enjoyment.
Danie has built his layout in a two car garage attached to his house so access is through his study. Once entering the layout room, the layout is a site to behold. It is an HO German layout in the shape of an L which stretches along
the entire back wall of the garage, with the bench work extending up the length of the one side wall.
In the centre of the one part of the layout is an operator’s pit which can be accessed only by crawling under the layout. Situated in this operators pit is all the controllers for the Lenz Digital Command system that Danie uses to run his layout.
Once Danie was in the operator’s area, he ran up to three trains on separate circuits around his layout. The scenery on the layout is spectacular and complete, but as all layout owners mention, there is so much more to do. A wonderful feature of the layout is the animation and mini scenes that are taking place all over the layout. In one section there is a fair ground where the rides are in constant motion. On another part of the layout is an industrial complex where the crane is moving backwards and forwards. Situated next to one of the main lines was a crowd of railway enthusiasts with tiny camera flashes going off every few seconds. Most impressive was the number of lights Danie had. From street lights, office lights, lights overlooking yards as well as hazard lights next to roadworks and the railway line. The first article in the layout gives just some idea of the number!
Positioned adjacent to the operators pit is a massive station complex with passenger trains parked next to the platforms crowded with people. Through the duration of the visit, Danie ran a number of passenger and freight trains around the layout. He also ran a steam train around part of his layout for us to see.
One of the amazing features in Danie’s train room which he was proud of was his truly amazing collection of Roco Locomotives and rolling stock. Next to his layout, Danie has built a number of wood and glass display cabinets where he keeps his astounding collection. There are approximately ten individual cabinets that are just over one meter wide, half a meter deep and over two meters high. Danie has about eight to nine hundred diesel locomotives, fifty to a hundred steam locomotives and hundreds of passenger coach sets and freight cars. When he was asked if they ever make an appearance on the layout, he mentioned that he will often take a few trains off the layout and replace them with another set out of his cabinets.
After we spent some time in the train room, we took a break and enjoyed a tasty selection of snacks and cold drinks, offered to us by Danie’s wife. After a short chat in the lounge, we all went back into the train room where Danie demonstrated some of his more special trains. One of these was an eight car passenger train given to Danie by the staff of Roco. The special feature about this train was the doors of the coaches that opened and closed at the push of a button on the handheld controller. The electronics and servo’s used to operate the doors is all located in the roof of the coach.
There was another special train in Danie’s collection being a single engined snow plough. This locomotive would travel down the line, and again, when controlled with the handheld controller, would stop, the entire cab and snow plow equipment would rotate one hundred and eighty degrees on its frame and then travel in the opposite direction.
There was an actual working drive in with a screen showing a train movie together with sound
As always, the day came to an end and we had to make our way back home. A big thank you goes out to Danie and his wife for allowing us into his home to share in his hobby for a short while and thank you for your wonderful hospitality.
For larger photos, remember to click on the thumbnail.
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