In the garden shed, in a quiet suburb of Rangiora, Ian Galbraith (82) can often be found tinkering away with his garden railway.
A garden (G) scale railway is a 1/25th scale toy train set, running on tracks laid around a property.
It is much bigger than the usual HO or N gauge indoor model train kit sets, but smaller than the rideon steam and electric model railways found in Halswell or on steam train enthusiasts' sites.
Track gauges are 44mm wide and a batterypowered diesel locomotive replica can be 500mm in length.
‘‘In 1970, I started in model railways working with 1/64th scale NZ Railways trains and rolling stock.’’
But losing sight in one eye forced Ian to increase the scale of the trains he worked on.
Following a trip to Canada in 2006, he was totally bitten by the garden railway bug after starting with it the year before.
The retired radio and electronics technician created his first garden railway on his 14acre farm in Masterton.
While in Christchurch in 2012, he and his wife Ann snapped up a smaller property in Rangiora and Culcreuch Fold Garden Railway was relocated there.
Ian had always been a keen scratch builder, making Meccano toys, and slot cars before the train bug bit.
‘‘There was a lot of expertise in scratch building in Hawkes Bay at that time, so I learnt a lot.’’
He constructs the trains, rolling stock and buildings adorning his garden railway from base materials such as plastic sheets and wood.
He then discovered 3D printing from his son Sean who works in the aerospace industry.
‘‘I studied technical drawing at high school and loved it. ‘‘Using Auto Cad programs I learned how to design the parts I needed to print out to make the buildings and scale train carriages.’’
His first creation was a Gisborne tram. With help from the museum there, who provided him with some drawings, he designed and printed it out on his 3D printer.
He then went on to design and print out all the components needed to make replica houses, train stations, a toilet or two, a variation on a Christchurch Tram, churches and many other bits and pieces used to adorn his 75metre long railway which winds its way around his garden.
‘‘Usually, after I have done all the design work, it takes about 48 hours to print out all the parts.’’
Once word got around the small garden railway community, Ian’s skills became sought after.
‘‘There are 11 garden railway layouts in Canterbury with four in Rangiora, and soon everyone was knocking on my door to help them out.
‘‘It’s just about a second career for me,” Ian says. While he usually only has a photo to look at, Ian says he can make scale buildings that suit any sized garden railway layout.
‘‘Having the facility to draw it and then print it 3D has helped many of my friends out with replacement parts for trains or carriages that would usually be very expensive to import, if they could find them.’’
Culcreuch (pronounced Cull Cruick) Fold (a small farm) Garden Railway was named as a homage to Ian’s ancestors, who once owned Culcreuch Castle, till the late 1700s. It’s still there today, near Loch Lomond in Scotland.
