The annual Dunedin Modern Train show was held at the Taieri Bowling Club over the weekend, and the organisers were impressed with the array of sets on display.
Asked about the appeal of model trains, organiser Trevor Buchanan said it "depended on the person".
"It could be appreciation of the modelling and what goes into it — with other people, it’s movement.
"You can have a beautiful static locomotive, for instance, and people just walk past it because it’s not moving.
"Whereas you have a Thomas the Tank Engine racing around at warp speed factor 9, and everybody wants to watch that, unless the train derails."
Trains derailing was part and parcel of an event such as this, he said.
"You start getting people watching as the operator wants to put it back on.
"I actually watched that yesterday — the train derailed, and there came more and more people turning up to watch him put them back on the rails."
Fortunately, it did not take much to recouple the model train — but he knew of very frustrating models.
"When you get to N scale or Z scale, which is 1 to 220, it gets very, very tricky to put the wee tiny wheels on to the rail."
He said while there were over 20 model train layouts on display, membership of the club had decreased over time.
He hoped the open day and other events would encourage more people to join in.
"Everybody has their own different little quirks, shall we say. Some people are into the electronic side of things, some are into scenery, some are into just running trains around and some are doing what we call switching in America or shunting here in New Zealand — the operation of it.
"And that’s where the beauty of a group of people or a club comes in — somebody can lay a track very well and somebody can do the scenery," Mr Buchanan said.
"So if they combine, they get themselves a good-looking and appealing layout rather than one person struggling with something that they’re not very good at.
"And we help each other. And that’s one of the good things about this hobby — the people that come to the show are friends."
