Layout notes · Amsterdam
A branch line that never existed, built under a roof in the west of the city.
Notes from a shared attic layout in west Amsterdam: an HO Dutch polder branch line, its ballast, its canal bridges, its wiring and its timetable.
Amsterdam, Noord-HollandNetherlandsBoards laid in 2019
The line, end to end
- 0.0 kmOostweteringOff-scene junction and fiddle yard. Trains are released from here.
- 1.4 kmCanal bridgeScratch-built lift span in brass, raised by hand for the barge.
- 3.2 kmBoterpolderA halt: one low platform, one shelter, no siding and no staff.
- 5.6 kmKalverzijlBeet siding and loading dock. Most of the evening's work is here.
- 7.1 kmGrienddijkTerminus: three roads, goods shed, run-round and a water column.
Working notes · departures
Everything written up so far
- 0516 Jun 2026Writing a timetable that four people can run without arguingHow a numbered sequence of fourteen moves replaced a failed clock timetable and gave everyone in a small attic something to do all evening.Operating9 min
- 043 Dec 2025Weathering a polder line: mud, lime and a damp attic winterPainting forty years of very little maintenance: the two dirt colours of the polder, mixing washes in a cold room, and learning when to stop.Weathering7 min
- 0322 Apr 2025Why our shunters stalled at walking pace, and what fixed itTwo winters of stalling traced to damp rail joints, dead frogs and lazy cleaning, and the fortnight of unglamorous wiring that cured all three.Wiring and running8 min
- 025 Nov 2024A lift bridge over the canal that has to work twice an eveningReplacing a fixed girder with a lift bridge that actually rises: drawing it from the towpath, soldering it in brass, and making it survive handling.Scratch-building8 min
- 0118 Apr 2024Ballasting the polder branch, and the two attempts that liftedThree goes at ballasting a quiet Dutch branch: choosing a colour under attic light, laying it dry, and the glue mixture that finally held.Track and ballast7 min
Entries are written at the benches and typed up a week or two later. Dates are the evening the work happened, not the evening it was tidied into sentences.
Four things pinned above the bench
A handful of us build and run an imagined Dutch polder branch line in a borrowed attic in the west of Amsterdam, and this is where I write down what the layout taught us, including the parts we had to lift out and build a second time.
- Wire it properly first; scenery hides nothing electrical.
- A slow train finds every fault a fast one drives over.
- Run the sequence before you trust the trackwork.
- Write down the mixture, or you will never match it again.