Monday, September 01, 2008

Another bit of history

Found in a second hand book shop that was closing down. One of only 2 books written in New Zealand about model railway modeling, Steam in Miniature for the princely sum of $6(I did not believe what the prices are like on amazon). The book is about Frank Roberts, the first modeler of new Zealand railways. some of his work with primitive tools is just incredible. For his first loco, a 2 1/2' gauge model of Wa 288, he made a hacksaw from an old table knife by filing the points into the edge. makes a dremel seem almost cheating. One wonders what the old timers would have done with the modern implements that we take for granted. He built a collection of 20 loco's over the course of 20 years. Most are currently on display in Te Papa
(Oh, and the other book is 'little trains of thought' by Merv Smith. I have not counted plan books in this total)

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