Wood is a scarce resource

Wood seems to be a scarce commodity at the moment. Although this primarily concerns construction timber, we have also been informed of delivery and supply problems for plywood, MDF and even chipboard slats in various regions of Germany. Unfortunately, we have also had to make the experience that some types and thicknesses of plywood are temporarily not or hardly available. And this, of course, unfortunately also has an impact on our hobby.

The "Landtag intern", the parliamentary magazine of the North Rhine-Westphalian parliament, also recently reported shortages of plywood and chipboard, and industry journals also deal with wood shortages and their causes. Various sources mention damaged wood from the last two summers that was too dry and could not be removed from the forests in time, a strong increase in demand especially in the United States of America and China, and in this context also long-term delivery obligations for state-owned forestry in favour of these two countries, which additionally hinder the satisfaction of the meanwhile increased domestic demand.

We cannot conclusively prove any of this. For model railway enthusiasts of all gauges, the good advice remains not to plan too short-term and too tightly, to examine alternatives and thus to remain as employable as possible in one's own hobby cellar!