Who is Karst Drenth

Well here is the story of our founder and CEO!

Karst started his model railroad career when he was 6 years old. Santa brought him his first Fleischmann train set. Years went by building layouts, “inventing” electrical solutions and playing intensely with his trains.

This interest for electricity and electronics brought him to Technical University, from which he graduated in 1984. Until 2003 the activity in model railroading was rather dormant. But then he bought his first Digital System, a Daisy I from Uhlenbrock. Converting locos to DCC and playing with that is nice, but the LocoNet present on that system was more interesting. Since, back then, only very expensive devices for linking train stuff to PCs existed, it was time for Karst to build something himself. John Jaber’s LocoBuffer was the piece of kit of choice.
This announced a new era in Karst’s model railroad career. After studying the LocoNet and DCC protocols, Karst started to design is own hardware. Interfaces ( LocoNet-PC-, XpressNet-Feedback-PC), Feedback modules, Servo decoders, Switch decoders etc.

Of course these activities did not pass unnoticed by fellow model railroaders. Many of them also wanted the devices Karst designed and produced in small scale. At the heydays, over 500 kits of the famous “ServoSwitch” were sold under Karst’s hobby-company KDesign Electronics.
Again that did not stay unnoticed either, but this time commercial interest arose. A company called Digirails showed interest in Karst’s designs and wanted to produce them in license. That initiative materialized and an almost 10 year long cooperation started between Karst and Digirails (later Digikeijs). Karst kept on designing: DR4088 series, DR4018, DR4024, DR5000, DR5033, DR5088RC, DR5013, DR5052 etc. etc.
In the same time period Karst also shared his vast knowledge as a designer and advisor for major model railroad companies.

In late 2019 the cooperation with Digikeijs came to an end. Both parties decided to go their own way, where Digikeijs bought the production and marketing rights for the “DR-portfolio”.
Mid 2020, Karst started designing a completely new portfolio under the wings of the Drenth Design & Consulting B.V. company, with the brand YaMoRC. Until 01-01-2022 Karst has been employed for 30 years as an Enterprise Architect in a major Dutch software company. As of then however Karst decided to devote the remaining years of his career to 100% model railroad. Be it (digital)electronics, models, scenery or what more can be thought of.

From now on, you just have to follow this site to stay informed about Karst’s activities !