Here is another British Pathe film, on the Dutch model village of Madurdam. It is built to a scale of 1/25th, and shows the progress of the town from 1000 AD to the present day (1955).
There are streets filled with houses, roads, railways, a port, and a modern airport. Many of the models work, with trains and vehicles running, ships moving through the water, etc.
The Lord Mayor of Madurdam was the then teenage Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, who was Queen from 1980 to 2013. Relatively long for a Pathe film, at four and a half minutes.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
Madurodam is in my native The Hague and we used to go there at least every year to see the new additions. Since that clip was made, a great many famous Dutch buildings have been added. To a child the place seemed vast. Returning after decades with my own children, it looked surprisingly small. But doing the tour took just as long and there was so much more to see. Sadly the specially-built cars of yesteryear had been replaced with plastic kits and maintenance was slightly lacking here and there but other than that still most impressive and my boys loved it. And then at dusk the lights came on and the old magic was back in full!
ReplyDeleteBest -- Paul V
Thank you for the update on Madurodam. It looks amazing, and with the lights on at night it must be magical, especially for the little ones.
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