What many people doubt about, Marcel Veldhuizen eventually did: he realized his childhood dream of opening a model train shop. He gave a well-paid job as an IT specialist at the forefront. “In my old job, I went on a plane, out on a plane. Until corona literally stopped the flywheel,” says Marcel. “I came to rest, picked up my old train hobby again and decided to make my childhood dream my profession.”
This summer it will be exactly one year ago that Marcel started his model shop in Waalwijk. “Due to the pandemic, I came to the conclusion that I had to make my dream come true and ‘just’ jump in at the deep end. After a lot of searching in Waalwijk I was able to take over a model shop and I have absolutely no regrets. It’s going very well.” Before his career switch, Marcel was an IT expert at a large international company and has therefore lived in many different countries.
The ‘boys’ dream’ is going so well that next to the current accommodation of Marcel’s model shop, an old hall has been transformed into a new modern ‘station hall.’ The enthusiasts of model building and trains will soon be able to indulge their passion in this. “There will also be a test track there to try out trains. People want to see a locomotive run before they buy it.”
“This week we are going to try to transfer the enormous amount of stuff from the current store to our new hall”, says Marcel enthusiastically. “A huge job because the current range of modeling supplies exceeds ten thousand different items.” Fortunately, the brand new entrepreneur can also count on a few super volunteers in his train shop. “They are all worth gold.”
Due to the popular TV program ‘De grote kleinetrein Competition’, which was broadcast by Omroep Max in the autumn of 2021, interest in the train hobby has increased again. “It was always a bit of a hobby for the ‘elderly’, but because of the program you now also see young people taking up this hobby. These young people are completely at home in controlling the model railway by computers, you don’t have to explain to them what is possible digitally.”
“I even have a regular table for my regular customers in the business, at which the latest news and tips are exchanged every week.” One such news is that there will be a second season of the ‘MAX train show.’ “I have a lot of customers who took part in the first season,” says Veldhuizen. “They have built very nice things, but the technical possibilities are now virtually unlimited.”
Shops that really specialize in model railways are not widely spread in Brabant. “As far as I know, I have colleagues in Den Bosch, Roosendaal and Uden, those are the real ‘train shops’”, says Marcel. “So we don’t get in each other’s way and that’s not the intention.”