Who would have thought there was a railway station in the hills of Dunedin suburbia?
Ravensbourne resident Jarrod Hodson’s yard was transformed into the Crazy Garden Railway as part of a Covid passion-project.
Two years on, Mr Hodson’s yard now features a locomotive cab, two lines of track, two jiggers, a passenger bridge to his door and a coal line in the making.
"I’ve always wanted to do [it] — I’ve been interested in rail my whole life.
"When I was young in the UK my mum and I used to travel between London and Glasgow. I have good memories of sitting by the window and being mesmerised of the scenery going by."
The set up was originally going to be a centerpiece with only one line of track, but it had grown from there, he said.
"It just kept growing and growing. I guess it has become a bit of an addiction.
"I just did what I could during Covid, and it’s just gotten bigger from there."
He thinks he must have spent about $15,000 on the station.
On his lawn, there was 30 tonnes of gravel which Mr Hodson moved with a coal bucket.
A lot of the bits and pieces used for the tracks was repurposed or salvaged.
"Everything here has a story. Although I paid a small amount for these pieces, I consider myself more of a custodian over it."
The station is also a "geocache" area, where participants from all over the world use navigational techniques to seek for locations marked by co-ordinates.
Mr Hodson is not short of projects. He is building a coal line with a fake entry made of corrugated iron.
His locomotive cab is undergoing renovations to be converted into a sleepout, complete with a platform, at one end of the track, and it could be used as an Airbnb.
