Normally at this time of year the children would be queuing up at the Spaarnwoude model railway club ‘t Y to be allowed to take a ride in one of the trains. But the park has been closed all season because the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority suddenly came up with stricter requirements for the moving attraction last December.
Model construction association ‘t Y can no longer offer rides for the time being due to stricter NVWA requirements – NH News
For example, according to the new rules, all wagons must be individually equipped with their own braking system in the unlikely event that they become detached from the locomotive. A measure that has quite a few feet in the earth.
“We bought two hundred brake shoes,” explains club founder Lex Leenaars. “And we have to make sixty brake hangers and mount the brake cylinders everywhere. So it’s still quite a circus.” A time-consuming operation, which is also not cheap: to provide all wagons with their own braking system, the club will soon be five thousand euros further.
“We’ve been driving laps here since 1980, nothing has ever happened”
The stricter requirements of the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority came as a bolt from the blue and also aroused surprise. “We’ve been driving around here since 1980,” says treasurer Nico Rozendaal. “Nothing ever happened. They are trains that run very slowly.”
Co-founder of the club Lex Leenaars also frowned when he saw the new requirements. “We drive a maximum of ten kilometers per hour,” says Lex. “And when I see what goes across the street… Boys aged twelve or thirteen without a helmet on e-bikes… They go faster.”
Financial help welcome
Since all necessary adjustments must be realized by our own volunteers, the park cannot open for the time being. “Provide all those wagons with brakes”, Rozendaal sighs. “We may not have that done until the end of the year.”
It means an extra financial blow for the club. “We don’t have any income right now,” explains Leenaars. “And all our fixed costs continue.” In the meantime, the treasurer is thinking about how the club can possibly soften the setback. “If we open again later, we might put a pot down,” says Nico Rozendaal. “With the request to donate something. Because we could use some help.”