Enthusiast recreates Carterton railway

METICULOUS: Grant Morrell, of Carterton, with an old photo of Carterton railway station and his model of the station as it was in 1965. PHOTOS/LYNDA FERINGA

A miniature model railway enthusiast has recreated the Carterton railyard as it was in 1965.

Grant Morrell, of Carterton, has been creating New Zealand railway scenes entirely by hand for the past 10 years.

"This has been a one man band ... every structure, building, bridge, foliage and scenery is all to scale and all made by me." His "railway from the ground up", as Mr Morrell refers to his creation, focuses on New Zealand railways from the 1950s and 1960s.

"The whole lot is based around the era of steam and diesel when New Zealand railway was in its peak."

Mr Morrell's models are to the "s scale" - a ratio of 1:64 to real size - and he's continually adding to the works, spending most evenings in his 12m by 6m purpose-built hobby shed.

"It's so enjoyable, I feel like a big kid."

Mr Morrell reignited his childhood passion for trains when his two sons, Josh and Trent, were born and then after they grew up he kept the interest alive by joining a model railway club.

After moving from Auckland in 2004, his new hometown of Carterton was the starting point of his evolving project.

"When we arrived here I went down to Carterton station because I knew it was in its original state."

Deciding to replicate the scene between Belvedere Rd and Pembroke St, he obtained a track plan and began sourcing original photographs.

"All the buildings facilities that were there in the late sixties I have rebuilt from photographs by hand."

Besides Carterton Station, Mr Morrell has created a forestry scene, a wharf scene, a river bridge scene and a mill.

The layout itself has a double loop track that totals about 90m.

A lot of the trains are made from kit sets and to construct a locomotive takes around 400 hours.

Mr Morrell said he would not be able to calculate the hours he had spent on his miniature rail masterpiece but guessed "it would be in the thousands".

He has also created a "Main Street", based on structural buildings from Carterton, Greytown and Featherston.

These include the Royal Hotel, the Kia Ora Dairy, Midway Takeaways in Carterton, Carterton Furnishing Company that burned down and Greytown's butcher shop complete "with finely cut sausages and chops in the window".

Main St took 14 months to complete and also has an Anzac memorial park, working street lights and a fire station with an identical replica of the Featherston siren tower.

Each scene's trees are made from yarrow, a weed which grows on the side of the road and unspun sheep's wool is used to make the ground foliage.

Mr Morrell's inspiration for trains was sparked when he was a child visiting his grandparents in Otahuhu, Auckland.

Here, he would explore the railway workshops that they lived beside.

He credits his fine attention to detail to his grandmother, who was an artist and taught him about art history.

"If you can do attention to detail, you can build anything."

The former navy man now works as a watchkeeper at Joint Force Headquarters in Trentham, and, due to his hobby, can identity most New Zealand rail wagons and locomotives.

"Getting the detail right, that's the challenging part, but if you get it right it's so rewarding."