Wednesday 30 May 2012

Monty on Tour: Militracks 2012 in Overloon

Last weekend a very special event took place in Overloon (Netherlands):


While the war museum at Overloon is by itself worth a visit, once per year enthusiasts of military vintage vehicles meet there and show their treasures. The event takes place in the Liberty Park which surrounds the museum and offers a large militaria market, catering, an auction and -of course- a track where the vehicles show their serviceability.
After having read of this extraordinary chance to see some of our well loved model live and in action, some fellows and me decided to take a trip to Overloon this year.
Our gang: Michael with his lovely wife Natalia, Daniel our Terrain-Builder, Auld Nick and me in front of the SdKfz. 7 we rode later that day
It started in the early morning when whole Bochum was sleeping the sleep of the innocent. Whole Bochum? No! At Monty's Manor an alarm clock teared the silence and heralded an eventful day. So the orient sun and me got up simoultaneously as well as sedately. Since my eyes were misted by doziness her's where dulled with clouds. But the forecasters predicted nice weather...
However a quick shower and a strong cup of coffee called up my spirits and after having prepared some tea (which I usually prefer to coffee) and sandwiches for lunch I sat sail to Düsseldorf. There I picked up Niclas (aka. Auld Nick, whose prior appearances in Monty's Caravan you might remember) and Daniel (another friend of ours and member of our 20mm WW II gaming group) and we went on towards Overloon.

Around ten o'clock we arrived at Overloon and first stopped at an ice cream parlour to get some insider information from the locals. We loosend the waiter's tongue with the purchase of three balls of delicious ice cream and learned the possibly shortest way to the event site. So we drove straight to the allocated car park which was 2 € for the whole day of watched parking. Fair deal!
After ten minutes of march we reached the gates of Liberty Park and were impressed by the extremely long queues in front of the ticket desks. Fortunately things went on faster than we though and after 15 or 20 minutes we had our tickets (admission was 10 €) and entered the area.

For the next ours we promenaded between vintage vehicles, other exhibits and tons of uniforms and militaria stuff for sale. I don't have words to describe all the impressions without echoing. Therefor you might rather enjoy some pictures:
A lot of Kettenkrads. Most of them from the Crompton Military Vehicles Collection

Another SdKfz. 7. There were different two of them present and running.

A SdKfz. 250...

... and its larger brother: SdKfz. 251.

The dashboard of "our" SdKfz. 7. Rpm in the green "Sparbereich" (fuel-saving) means that it neads only about 80 ltr. per 100 km... Otherwise consumption can rise up to 160 ltr. per 100 km...

Additionally a kind of modelling fair takes place at Overloon within the framework of Militracks. Unfortunately only on Sundays since the exhibitors and modelling traders use the same stands as the militaria traders use on Saturday...

After our return home we rounded the day in a nice Mexican restaurant in Düsseldorf where my lovely wife joyned us. Later we picked up our daughter at my parents-in-law's and headed back to Bochum. It was a absolutely nice and entertaining trip and I can recommend this event to all who are interested in WW II vehicles and want to see them in action.

Post scriptum:
In addition to the photos I took some videos of the moving vehicles. Unfortunately they got rahter large so I have to cut them before posting. I'll do my very best to get that finished within the next week and will try to hand them in later.

14 comments:

  1. Very nice photos indeed. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Lovely pictures Monty, real beauties including the vehicles!

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  3. Great report! If going to Overloon is not too far for you, you'd might like going to IMPACT: http://impact.hiredguns.nl/en/nieuws.html it's not that far from Overloon.

    Cheers Sander

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    1. Thanks for the hint. Unfortunately I'll not make it to Impact since Sunday is already booked up. But I'll keep it in mind for next year.

      Cheers
      Monty

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  4. Fantastic post and great reference pictures.

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  5. Agree with all the above, a superb report and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

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  6. It was a funny day. Monty, where are the pictures of the impressive russian T-34/85 tank and the german Hetzer? Hope you will post a video with these beasts.

    @Sander: Thx for the pointer!

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    1. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the T34 and the Hetzer since I've got lots of them from inside the museum already. But I took videos of the vehicles in action which I have to cut still. I hope to get that managed this weekend...

      Cheers
      Monty

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  7. A really great post Monty, Wow I didn't think there would be so many kittens still in working order? The guys who have restored them have done a fine job. Nice to see the 250 and 251 late versions also. Any chance you have some more pics of the Famo? what a beast that must have been!

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    1. To be honest the event wasn't ideal to take details pictures of the vehicles. Most of the time they were moving around the track and the area where they parked to let people mount and dismount was fenced in. Additionally there were always people walking around and blocking the sight.
      Therefor I concentrated on taking some videos of the driving vehicles. To be honest I rely on having enough museum pictures of these vehicles anyway...

      But I'll digg through my older pictures wether I could post one from Koblenz. At the "Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung" they present a SdKfz. 9 if I remember correctly...

      Cheers
      Monty

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  8. Excellent to see these up close and personal! Thanks for sharing.

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    1. I'm pleased that you like it. Although Monty's Caravan is not ment to be my personal diary I don't avoid to include some kind of personal touch here and there...

      Cheers
      Monty

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  9. Hi Monty,
    No worries with the pics, was just really excited to see 1 rolling around in 2012! I have enough pics myself in countless books. You just forget how big they were.
    Nice report!

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    1. Definitely the SdKfz. 9 is really large. This made me check my older pictures again. And I mentioned that I made a mistake at Overloon. There were two SdKfz. 7 running but no FAMO.

      Please excuse my fault...
      :-(

      Cheers
      Monty

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