In 2023 I, Wouter, started making circuit boards for model trains. It all began with a BR 132 I had recently bought and wanted to convert to digital. After a lot of fiddling with wires and a few blown decoders, I eventually came up with the idea of designing my own circuit board for it.
What started as a solution for my own model train has since grown into Spoorlaar. Alongside my full-time job, I’m still busy developing and improving products for the model railway world.
What does Spoorlaar do?
At Spoorlaar you’ll find parts and electronics to improve, extend or digitise your model trains. A large part of the range consists of in-house developed upgrade sets and circuit boards for existing locomotives and multiple units.
Think of circuit boards with connections for modern decoders, separately switchable headlights and tail lights, cab lighting, and connections for speakers and power supply. This lets you add extra functions to existing models without having to work out all the wiring yourself.
There’s plenty for interior lighting too. With Spoorlight I’ve developed my own lighting system that offers adjustable brightness and connections for capacitors and current-carrying couplings, among other things.
The webshop also offers decoders, capacitors, speakers, lighting and various other parts and accessories.
Developed in practice
Many products come out of my own model railway projects. I run into something, look for a solution and see whether I can improve it with my own circuit board or part.
Not everything is perfect the first time. New designs are tested and adjusted where needed. Sometimes that means a new version of a circuit board, a different connection or a change to the manual. I try to share these developments as much as possible in the news posts and newsletters.
The goal is to make practical solutions you can get started with yourself, whether you want to digitise a locomotive, install better lighting or add extra functions to an existing model.
Spoorlaar – Digital has never been this easy.
