The model will be serviced in the Bentink Modelspoor workshop in Apeldoorn, so that it looks exactly like the STAR. “Our employee Robert who does that is a real artist,” says Marcel van der Bent of Bentink. “The locomotive is already supplied by ROCO with a brown chassis, but it is still a shiny locomotive as if it came new from the factory. We paint and convert it into the STAR version down to the smallest detail.”
This is done with water, traces of lime, grease on the buffers, real coal on the tender of the locomotive and traces of soot around the chimney. This conversion is a time-consuming and expensive job. Because it has to be completely taken apart, everything has to be done by hand and the different layers of paint need drying time.
In the past, model trains were built as if they left the factory shiny and brand new. But real steam locomotives were often not as beautiful and shiny in black and red in daily use. Certainly not in the GDR. Model train enthusiasts have therefore been ‘polluting’ their model trains for years to make it look more realistic and model railway suppliers and builders have responded to this. Model railway collectors also place increasing demands on how the models look.
According to Van der Bent, it will be a very small and exclusive edition. It will probably remain under a hundred copies. “Last year we released a locomotive from the STAR colleagues of the Veluwse Stoomtrein Maatschappij. To our satisfaction, 150 were ordered. That was a model that we had to work on less, so it was also cheaper in price. But If the basic 52 8082 version at builder ROCO runs out, we can no longer convert it to the STAR version. And if successful, there will be no second series, it must remain exclusive.”
The first orders for the STAR model have already been received from customers in Germany. For those who find the converted version too much for their wallet, there is also a version as if the locomotive came new from the factory. With hand-painted license plates and STAR lettering.
Lars Blaauw from STAR plans to give it a festive touch in Stadskanaal when the first model is ready. “The model and the real thing should just come together,” he says. He is happy with Bentink’s contribution for every model sold. Maintaining a museum railway and running steam trains is an expensive affair.
In the meantime, the great example is simply driving his rides. After 34 years of standstill and 7 years of tinkering by STAR volunteers, the real steam locomotive was back in operation in 2022. Since then, the 136-ton iron monster of 23 meters long has been pulling the STAR museum trains on the railway line along the Drenthe-Groningen border. “The 52 8082-1 will pull the trains until Ascension Day and again after the summer. In the summer it will be the turn of our other capable 52,” says Blaauw.