Choo choo
Translated by Thomas Ansell
As reported by the Omrop Fryslân, a part of the collection held by the ‘Nationaal Modelspoor Museum Sneek’ is to be sold to help with funding during the Coronavirus pandemic. The items will be sold via an fair to be held in the museum- so if you’ve had your eyes on a piece from the museum’s collection, now is your chance! “We have to put everything together to get through the next few months”, says museum director Jan Willem van Beek.
The sale is unlikely to end up in empty cases in the museum, though: “it will be for items that we’ve got multiple examples of, or that cannot be displayed in our collection. Items include model bulldozers, locomotives, wagons; books, and more. And in multiple scales- it’s a broad assortment”, says Van Beek.
The museum has decided to sell the items to raise funds: “at the moment it’s really quiet [at the museum]”, says Van Beek, “you really notice that the public are staying away.” The museum has to think of new ways of moving towards a better financial situation. “It’s absolutely not enough [visitors]. Luckily we have been supported by some government schemes, and we’ve just sent an application to the Gemeente to see if we can gain a subsidy. We hope to keep the museum as open as possible”, says Van Beek.
The Model Railway Museum isn’t the only museum that could run out of money, although it hopes that the coming holiday period could be helpful for its financial situation. “More than half of our visitors come during the school-holidays, for example at Christmas. So we want to come up with a number of good attractions for that period- especially for kids. Everything will be festively illuminated, and we want to draw the public in.”
The sale of exhibits will start this weekend: “we’re keeping the sale and the museum entrances apart. Everyone that comes to the sale will get money off their museum entry, too”, says Van Beek. For more information, check out the National Model Railway Museum’s website.
