Selwyn Times: February 03, 2021

Selwyn Times Wednesday February 3 2021
8
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Full steam ahead in Bill’s backyard
• By Susan Sandys
BILL STANLEY, 67, has created a
model train lovers’ fantasy land in
his backyard at Lincoln.
Five years ago he and wife Maggie
moved to their .2ha block.
Where most people envisioned
a flourishing lawn and gardens,
Stanley saw “a blank canvas,
just waiting for a garden railway
layout.”
He set to work, and today has
eight model trains which run
on more than 200m of track, set
amongst a 27m diorama of buildings,
settlements, fields and bridges.
The 1/24 scale trains pass
through all sorts of activity
amongst the Playmobil people,
vehicles and buildings, including
a wedding outside Lincoln Union
Church, fields being harvested,
and a quarry being mined.
Some of the buildings, including
the church, Stanley has made
himself, learning first through
the Canterbury Garden Railway
Group of which he is a committee
member, and then teaching
himself along the way.
The track and its impressive
setting, complete with a pond and
real goldfish, has been a labour of
love, and one that has its origins
in Stanley’s childhood.
“Trains just fascinated me as a
child and they still do, we have
been from LA to New York by
train,” he said.
His grandfather William Stanley
gave him a Hornby double O
railway set when he was about
five.
William had worked on the
railways, and Stanley has inherited
the whistle that William used
in his job, believed to be as an engineer,
and keeps it on his garden
railway key ring.
Stanley kept the passion for
trains and railways moving
down the generations; he and
Maggie bought their 29-year-old
son Richard his first engine when
he was a baby.
They continued to add to the
collection, and always incorporated
train travel in their overseas
trips. These were for professional
purposes in earlier years
as Stanley travelled as part of his
job as a pharmaceutical company
director.
The trip through the United
States was in the 1990s, while
they also lived in Thailand for
five years to 1998 and travelled
extensively through Europe.
“You can set your clock by the
trains in Switzerland,” he said.
While trains in Thailand at
the time were substandard in
comparison, they had been just as
enjoyable to travel on as the country’s
elephants and longboats.
Stanley sometimes has groups
come and view his backyard
garden railway creation, and it is
a hobby he enjoys with others in
the garden railway group, which
will be hosting the National
Garden Railway Convention
in Christchurch on Waitangi
Weekend.
He said setting up the train
track, which runs from a purpose-built,
life-size shed, takes 90
ALL ABOARD:
Bill Stanley of
Lincoln has
transformed his
backyard into a
garden railway
enthusiast’s
paradise.
PHOTO: SUSAN
SANDYS
minutes each time.
“It’s quite a lot of work to have
them running to precision, it’s
quite common to have derailments,”
Stanley said.
Obstacles such as stones or
grit on the track, or interception
by creatures such as the Stanley
household’s pet cats or dogs, were
the cause of such frustrations.
One of the biggest challenges
had been securing the track in
ballast that wouldn’t move when
a blower is used to remove pine
needles which have fallen down
from nearby trees.
Rolleston Drive, Norman Kirk Drive, Dryden Avenue
new intersection opening
The new intersection at Rolleston Drive,
Dryden Avenue and Norman Kirk Drive is
due to be open late next week.
SELWYN DISTRICT
COUNCIL HQ
ROLLESTON DRIVE
The Markham Way extension and the new
road layout for Norman Kirk Drive and
Markham Way will open at the same time.
Norman Kirk Drive has been realigned
with traffic lights installed at the new
intersection of Norman Kirk Drive with
Rolleston Drive and Dryden Avenue.
Traffic on Norman Kirk Drive will have the
right of way over traffic exiting Markham
Way, who will need to give way. Please
drive carefully and observe all traffic signs
and directions.
Thank you for your patience with these
road works.
NORMAN KIRK DRIVE
MARKHAM WAY
DRYDEN AVE
selwyn.govt.nz