Wandering minds

One of the reviews in the journal was a discussion of a UK book by Wee Duggie, Penrhyn Quarry Railway Modellers Guide. This sort of item seems to be reasonably common in the UK. In fact, the UK book market seems to be able to support all sorts of odd books on esoteric subjects. The book contains a selection of prototype photos, a few maps, some plans and in inventory of locos and wagons. There are several how-to modeling projects. The reviewer makes the comment that its something that should be able to be done in this country, given a range of potential subjects.

So, what are local topics that would fit into this sort of format. All the usual suspects would be Mt Somers, The Puponga coal company, And the Ongarue tram. Two of the three have been covered before quite well, but without the modeling highlights. The Ongarue tram should be covered, and now that it has been converted to a cycle track of sorts it might be time for something suitable. Another couple of suggestions I would make would be;
-The Waihi gold mine tramways, which look quite interesting from the limited reading that I have done.
-The Castlecliff line, which has somewhat survived to the present day.
-The Kaitangata coal company. Who could resist a railway running down the main street. A plus for this subject is that it used NZR wagons and ex NZR locos, making the modeling part of it easier.

To amble on to a final point, I found the other night in the library (of all places) a 50 odd page boo on the Wanganui tramway. This has a very good selection of photographs, several plans and a track plan. Its a good read and awfully tempting modeling wise. The center of town would not be easy to model, but it was quite rural in places, and had several interesting railway crossings (both over and under passes).

I think I've located chassis that will work for the trams as well. Damn my modeling promiscuity. Its time to get back to the bush tramway and get that done at least.

However, with bits of kit like this, who could resist?