New Zealand Model Railways
Every train nerd worth his salt needs to play with toy trains once in a while.
My brother Paul and I used to hang out with Rhys and Evan Batchelor playing war in the sandpit and wargames in the house until finally my parents got sick of that and bought a Hornby trainset out from its box on 11 July 1981. The rest as they say is ...a terrible, terrible mistake.
A quick primer on modeling NZ railways: Somewhere between the pioneers who built absolutely everything that went into their models from bits of old sewing machines and disused tractors; but before the widespread availability of kitsets today (and money to pay for them); the average schoolboy modeling the NZ railway scene normally started with commercial equipment from the US or UK and built an oversized top for it to represent a vehicle sitting on NZ's 3 ft 6 'narrow' gauge tracks.
Thus the most common size is "Sn3.5", which is S scale (1:64) bodies on HO (or English 00) track. Those with a spare barn-sized room together with some welding equipment lying around and metalwork skills may be tempted to try "9mill", a 9mm to the foot (approx 1:34) scale body on 32mm O gauge track. A more recent, and considerably more practical development, is NZ120 = or TT scale (1:120) tops on N scale equipment, which grew in popularity over the 1990s. I have elected to dabble, I mean, research all three and present my findings below.
Apologies for the crappy scans in most of these pages, they will be redone at some stage. Click on a green arrow below to begin the journey...
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The infamous Otaki to Cass NZ120 modular layout built and exhibited around New Zealand in the early 1990s by the Dynamic Duo of Rhys Batchelor and myself. |
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I built this 3 by 6 foot NZ120 layout in New York. It later appeared in the NZ Model Railway Journal |
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9mm scale DG loco from a gorgeous RK Models (Bob Allen) kit |
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Sn3.5 models from the 1980s. |
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NZR Rolling Stock - some pics for modelers |
