Keretapi Minyak Sawit (2023)

Henk Wust & Jan van Mourik

Keretapi Minyak Sawit, aka the Palm Oil Layout, was conceived in 2018 on the basis of re-used layout units of the old forestry layout made 20-odd years ago. They were stripped and cleaned up before work started. The left-hand unit represents an Asian town with a tramway works and a small shed for the narrow gauge railway. These are represented in the background.

In the foreground is a shanty town next to a loading jetty for palm oil. As usual, Jan van Mourik used his talents for everything concerned with track, trains and animated displays, as Henk concentrated on design, planning, scenery and the actual layout building. The transition between the two units is made by a road disappearing into the jungle. This way, we made a natural change-over between the townscape with a jungle backscene, and the jungle in the foreground with a primitive railway bridge and a suspension bridge for pedestrian traffic.

The jungle background shows two 'kampongs' or local villages, one of which is situated on the river bank and the other on high ground to the side of the layout unit. This creates a visual barrier for the railway to disappear off stage to a small fiddle yard. The right hand unit, apart from the jungle and waterfalls, also contains an oil processing plant with an animated rotary unloading rig. This, including the pair of dilapidated locomotives and the specially designed wagons was realised by Jan.

Henk built the industry in such a way that it looks extensive without taking up too much space. The trick of creating depth in a narrow model railway is nothing but building layer by layer and using view blocks.

The original idea was thought of after reading a book by Norman Drake: The Oil Plantation Railways in Malaysia.

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