Villa Kleiboer (exterior)
The model of dth villa on the edge of the club layoutbaan of the Twentse Modelspoorweg Club (Model Railway Club) TMC in Enschede.
Short history of the villa
The original villa Ledeboer, later better known as boarding house or villa Kleiboer, was located on the corner of the crossing of Deurningerstraat and Molenstraat in Enschede. The building was erected shortly after the fire of Enschede of 1862, as an office annex wharehouse for the textile firm Stroink & Co.
After the dissolution of the company, Molenstraat 1 came into the possession of Abraham Ledeboer. He refurbished the office into a residence moved in with his family in 1896. In the 1920's his widow Auguste Ledeboer-Harting moved to the summer residence of the family. The building on Molenstraat was let to Jacob Kleiboer. He used it first as his residence and office, but started a boarding house there during WWII. That is why older residents of Enschede still refer to it as ‘pension (boarding house) Kleiboer’.
The villa was eventually demolished in 1972, to make room for a reconstruction of the crossing Molenstraat – Deurninger-straat.
Exterior of the model
The outer walls are made of 5 mm thick sheets of expanded pvc (Forex). The doors and windows were drawn in SketchUp, with the help of the original drawings and old photographs and then 3D-printed in PLA.
Further details on the facade are made out of glued-on pieces of wood and polystyreen. The pinacles of the dormer windows are mad from tiny beads. Just the four on top op the tower were turned from metal on a lathe.
The model of the villa has been exactly positioned according to the original plans; and thus did not fit completely on the layout. One corner of the building had to be cut off. We used this cutoff to give visitors a peak into the building. As the model is located on the very edge of the club layout, people could also look into the windows. Hence we decided to give the building a complete interior. More on that in the next page.
The model on the edge of the club layout. Through the cutoff corner visitors can have a look into the interior.
Specifications of the model:
- sizes main volume: ca. 33 (l) x 17 (b) x 34 (h) cm, excl. decorations like the bay windows and pinacles;
- materials: exterior walls pvc foamboard (Forex), inside walls and floors wood; windows, bay- and dormer windows and facade embalishments printed PLA; block trims polystyreen strips; roofs standaard Faller building plates;
- lighting through 11 SMD (RGB) and 13 ordinary mini-LEDS; all individually addressable via a MobaLedLib-systeem.
This model is a scale model 1:87 (h0) of a no longer existing villa of one of the 'textile barons' of Enschede: Ledeboer.
The model was made between January and October 2023 by myself and my fellow TMC-club member Cor Schreuders.
The club layout of the TMC shows - apart from station Hengelo - also the area around station Enschede in the beginning of the 1970's. As the villa Kleiboer was located next to the station tracks, we found that it could not be absent on the layout.
Almost the complete building and the interior have been made from scratch. Only for the roof and a small part of the furniture ready-made products from stores were used.
Postcard from ca. 1927 of the Villa Kleiboer, on the other side of the 'Hengelosche Overweg' (railway crossing on the road to Hengelo).
Copy of the original drawing from 1895 for the refurbishing of the office into a villa, with markings for the 3D prints added by me.
The entry side of the model. The villa had a half sunken basement that we included into the model. So the building sits lower in the club layout. This is why the bay window and entrance seem to 'float'. In this photograph the four pinnacles on top op the tower were not fitted yet.
Garden
Allmost all images of the villa were shot from the current railway crossing on Hengelosestraat. So what the garden of the villa looked like, can only be guessed. Old photos only show a wide gate with a large gravel patch leading to the front door. This is why we invented most of the garden design ourselves; see the photo on top.
We did look into a way to copy the elaborate fencing that enclosed the villa to scale, but that turned out to be way too expensive. Therefore much simpler standard gates from etched brass made by Weinert were placed around the villa.