Track

Broad gauge track for the Arend

Measure	Size (mm)	1:87 (mm)
Gauge	1,945	22.4
Length sleeper	2,900	33.3
Width sleeper	300	3.5
Distance between sleepers	1000	11.5
Longitudinal min	6000	69.0
Longitudinal max	10,000	115.0
Longitudinal beam width	240	2.8

The first railways in the Netherlands were constructed in 1,945 mm gauge. That seems an odd number but in reality the engineers chose a very logical width of 2,000 mm but measured this from center to center of the rails. That meant if the rails were to become heavier and wider the gauge would also change. When is became customary to express the gauge as the distance between the inside faces of the rails the gauge was established at 1,945 mm.

I have a model of De Arend ("The Eagle") in my collection. This was the locomotive to pull the opening train of the first railway between Amsterdam and Haarlem in 1839.

I did not have a fitting piece of rail to go with this engine so I made one of styrene.

Making the sleepers.

I took a halfround profile of 3.2 mm, slightly undersize but I took the closest I could get and I preferred smaller over larger. It all quickly looks too fat. I glued all sleepers on a sheet of styrene with ordinary household glue so I could later get them off again.