NCS78

H.A. Driesen

Model-builder H.A. Driessen from The Hague spent an impressive 7,000 hours between 1917 and 1920 working on this model of steam locomotive number 78 from the Nederlandsche Centraal-Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NCS). Locomotives of this type were originally painted mustard yellow, but were later given a dark-brown paint job. Thanks to their pointed smoke-box door, they were also called ‘Zeppelins’ in reference to the huge airships of the previous century. The model includes 3,700 rivets and 2,400 bolts and was made by hand based on some 1,000 shop drawings, an astonishing number, which the NS management was kind enough to provide at the time. The Railway Museum purchased this piece in 1928 for the then-astronomical sum of 1,400 guilders.