Hello from The Netherlands

[Janbouli]

Hello, let me introduce myself
I am a n-scale model railroader from the Netherlands, my name is Jan, and thats a male name in the Netherlands, equivalent for John. I started modelling the midwest Kansas City - Newton area 3 years ago, my layout will be freelanced but with prototypical influence, living in the Netherlands and thus not having all the resources available made me choose for this form. If I can get enough material for instance on a building I will try to build it as prototypical as possible ( I've been trying to find blueprints of the Newton, Kansas station but will probably have to do with the 40-50 fotos I have ), but with not so signature buildings I use kits and scratchbuilds that are close enough.

Building structures is for me the best part of model railroading. I have built kits from all kinds of manufaturers, from budget Model Power to Laser cut wood kits, its just as much fun trying to make a plastic kit look a million dollars as it is building a craftsmen kit.

My website is at http://www.janbouli.com. Constructive critics are always welcome, don't be too hard on me I'm still a beginner ( aren't we all forever )

Other hobbies are Golf ( also my job ) and Military Modeling
I hope to learn a lot here and hopefully contribute too.

Greetz Jan

[ACL1504]

Jan,

Welcome to the forum. There is some great modeling on here. I see by your site that you are no slouch in the modeling department! Fantastic job on the layout back drop and the structures.

I see golf is your job. I got my handicap down to 2.1 but walked away from it four years ago and never looked back! I know what it took for me to get the handicap down to 2 and didn't want to commit the time to go lower. I came home one day and told my wife I was through with golf. She asked why. My response was this, "When I play well, I don't get excited and when I play bad, I don't get upset and I just spent 5 hours of my day I could be doing something else." Enough said!

That something else is now my layout. I devote my golf time to the layout!

Anyway, again, welcome to the forum!

Tom

[ReadingBob]

Welcome Jan,

Building structures is for me the best part of model railroading.

You certainly picked the right forum! Most of us would agree whole heartedly with that statement. Not that we don't talk about the other stuff as well but we love structure building here. So glad you decided to join us. I'll have to check out your website when I get home to see what you've been up to.

[NEMMRRC]

Welcome aboard Jan. We are glad you joined.

Jaime

[Zephyrus52246]

Welcome, Jan. I gave up golf 25 years ago, but I still remember all the bad words I used while playing. If you haven't already tried/joined them, perhaps the Santa Fe historical society http://www.atsfrr.com/ could help you with the station plans, if that's the RR that built the station.

Jeff

[roughneck]

Welcome to the forum Checked out your site and it is impressive. Very nice work. Your layout is bigger than I expected from someone living in the Netherlands. What city do you live in I'm sure you will like the members here, they are helpful and fun Again welcome

Cuzzin David

[rebel]

Welcome Jan, I don't know where you were born, but you are better at English than most Americans and your website is well thought out and it was nice to see someone do things in logical order in building a layout, people like me (who know better) start anyway with the track work and hope to add the backdrop later without messing up what has been done.

[bparrish]

Welcome aboard...

Great modeling... You seem to have a pretty good sense of American architecture. Necessary to model the US but difficult to fine with Faller or Kibri.

You have a great start, keep posting photos.

thanx

see ya
Bob

[Janbouli]

Thank you all for the hearty welcome,
answers to a few questions
I live in Heerlen , most southern point in Netherlands, but its still only a 2 hour drive from Amsterdam.
Yes I have a large layout space, in fact the benchwork and backdrop covered on my website is only 1 of the 2 rooms I have, I am single and when I bought a house 4 years ago the only druther I had was enough space for my layout. So now I have 4 bedrooms , 2 for the layout , 1 as modelling area with all my tools etc. and 1 , yep you guessed it , I also have to sleep
Yes I am a member of the Santa Fe Historical Society
Alas I am not a golf pro, but the manager of the Golfstore at our 45 hole course/resort.
And Bob yes it would be difficult to model the US with Faller or Kibri, although you'd be astonished at how much European buildings look like American buildings when fitted with flat roofs. I get most of my stock from WigWag and Modeltrainstuff, 2 firms that I have learned to trust from the states. German modeling would be quite easier , I live about 5 miles from the German boarder and there are 3 LHS's withing 10 miles, alas for American themed material I have to go to Dússeldorf, about an hours drive and so expensive that it pays off to have it sent, even with additional Postage an Customs costs.

When I get round to Scratchbuilding the Newton station and Kansas City Union Station ( compressed ) , I'll do a build topic here, but that won't be soon.

Oh , I'm also a member to a Dutch forum on American Themed Model Railroading http://www.amerikaanse-treinen.nl/forum/, and I linked this forum there, lots of oooohs and wows and thank you's there for the link , so I guess they like the work shown here.

As you have noticed I'm not easily in loss of words, and my English is whats left from living in Canada between my 5th and 10th, playing hockey and baseball almost all my life, having english speaking friends and customers and also a bit from school. I also speak fluent German ( as long as I don't mind the grammar), some French and Spanish and of course Dutch.

Thanks again for the welcome, greetz Jan

[bparrish]

Your language is very good and your knowledge of other languages is quite amazing. I grew up with German and Greek and have since lost all of the Greek. The German I learned is schwabish and few people understand as my grandmother came here in the 1880's and locked it up at that time and nothing evolved further.

I worked for Mercedes Benz during the 70's and 80's and only ever ran into one representative that I could clearly understand. Er war aus Stuttgart. I have some friends in Molln Germany near Lubeck that I write to regularly and my spell checker really does not like German. Nor does it have an umlaut. So I am sure that they laugh at me a lot of the time. Their English is better than my German as they speak very high German.

How long is the delivery time when you order something from the US?

My railroad can be seen here.......
http://pnr.nmra.org/3div/bn&o.html

Great to have you along.

see ya
Bob