One of the finest model railway layouts of Belgium's most famous model railroader Ivo Schraepen

If you know about the European railway modelling scene, then you have probably heard of Ivo Schraepen. He is a very famous rail transport modeller from Belgium, who specializes in the construction of very large model railway layouts in HO scale. He is present at every big model railway exhibition in Europe, and presents his exceptionally beautiful railroad layouts.

One of his great layouts is called “Kempenland”. It is a double-sided layout of more than 20 square meters of model landscape. Double-sided means, visitors can view the miniature world from both the front and the back. On the front, there is a large Belgian main station with a lot of railway traffic, and on the back, there is a rural region, partly with industrial buildings and with a railway depot.

Ivo Schraepen’s layout was built in 2008 but has been thoroughly modernized. After ten years a lot has changed, for example, the railway lines are fully electrified and completely digitized. Furthermore locomotives, trains and buildings are weathered. The model railroad layout “Kempenland” was inspired by the natural region “Campine” (French) or “De Kempen” (Dutch), situated chiefly in north-eastern Belgium and parts of the south-eastern Netherlands. Furthermore, the layout has been built according impressions from the railway line from Hasselt to Leuven in Belgium.