A first electric railway from HEMA, in 1979

In 1979, a Dutch department-store catalogue could offer a surprisingly complete start in model railways. HEMA’s train booklet shows a steam goods set on one page and an NS passenger-and-goods set opposite it.

The steam set includes a locomotive with tender, a goods van, a tanker and a car transporter. The NS set combines four goods wagons with two passenger coaches. Both are described as 1:87 H0, with a transformer, ten curved track sections, four straights and a catalogue.

The photographs put the trains into a finished landscape: cars wait beside a loading ramp, the Shell tanker follows the steam locomotive, and an NS electric locomotive passes a line of trees.

Did your first proper electric train come from HEMA rather than a model shop?