Brad Golding and his five year-old-son Mason like model locomotive steam trains.
But for different reasons.
Mason likes to drive them, but for Brad it’s the sound and smell of the pint-sized engines as they clickety clack around the track.
The Nelson pair were in Ashburton this month as part of the Ashburton Steam Model & Engineering Club’s mid-winter steam up.
It’s an annual two-day event on the club’s track at Tinwald Domain and draws in enthusiasts from around the South Island.
Brad already has a couple of steam trains in his stable as it were, as well as a mini traction engine.
But the pair were test driving Baldwin locomotive steam train number five on the model engineers track on day one of their visit.
The Wellington & Manawatu Ry. Co. model, fuelled by coal, was scratchbuilt off plan, Brad said.
It had caught his eye and was for sale.
“It’s an addiction,” Brad said, of his growing collection.
Club member Ian Marr of Ashburton said 28 people from Nelson to Dunedin enjoyed the camaraderie over the weekend, some with their own engines and some without.
Running now for 11 years, the event was not open to the public but had grown among enthusiasts, he said.
“There’s a lot of yarning goes on,” he said.
“Just meeting up with people you haven’t seen for a while.
“It’s just getting bigger and bigger.”
The day ended with an evening dinner in Ashburton and another chance to showcase the engines the following day.
It was a non public day so kids can operate with supervision, he said.
Around the grounds there were model locomotives and traction engines in many sizes including a lovingly crafted non-certified model called Scrappy.
It was built by its Mid Canterbury owner out of scrap metal.
“We do have a 12-inch to the foot model (on site),” Ian said, with a twinkle in his eye.
“In the model world we work in inch to the foot, so those traction engines are four-inch to the foot,” he said, pointing to third full-size models.
‘‘Then you go three inch to the foot, so it’s smaller again.
‘‘But that one there,” he said pointing at the largest traction engine, “it’s still a model, but it’s 12-inch to the foot.
“It’s actually full-sized.”
