Modellers on board for train expo

FULL STEAM AHEAD: Peter Murray is on track with fellow members for the biennial model railway show and expo in Masterton this weekend. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Model trains and track layouts ranging from a Meccano masterpiece to locomotives with digital hearts will battle for attention at the Wairarapa Railway Modellers biennial show in Masterton this weekend.

Modellers president Peter Murray says about 20 model train layouts will be on display, alongside trade stands and stalls at the two-day event that runs at the Masterton Town Hall on Saturday and Sunday.

He said the Wairarapa club had more than 30 members and modellers would be attending the show from as faraway as Wellington, Lower Hutt, Palmerston North and Napier.

The show will also include a large G Scale layout from the Wairarapa Garden Railway Group that will dominate the town hall stage and the oversized Wairarapa modellers club display that measures about 6m by 3.5m.

Mr Murray said a layout measuring about 1.5m by 900cm and worth several hundred dollars would also be up for grabs as the prize in a raffle that would run over the weekend.

The club is also in the throes of developing another large layout the public will be able to enjoy after completion, and future shows are also likely to feature train sets able to be controlled by a cell-phone or personal computer via Wi-Fi.

"Some are equipped with sound and they're all digital command control. The old system if you put two trains on a track, they move forwards or back. The new models have a digital chip inside the loco that picks up the power from the track, and you can control them independently. You don't run the track, you run the train."

Mr Murray said the club layout now being constructed would be digital and had the capacity to have six trains operating simultaneously at the command of half a dozen operators.

"Most of the layouts this weekend will be digital and the Meccano set-up is excellent. It's well worth seeing and will be the first time that layout will be seen in Wairarapa. We have the favourite layouts, including the kids' favourites, and layouts that are different and new as well."

The WBS Model Train Show runs from 10am to 4pm and costs $7 for adults, $3 for children and $15 for families.