{"id":213588,"date":"2026-01-02T18:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/213588\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T18:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:33:07","slug":"year-in-review-greater-waikato-railway-modellers-inc-brings-farming-history-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/213588\/","title":{"rendered":"Year in Review: Greater Waikato Railway Modellers Inc. brings farming history to life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Groups of enthusiasts have been meeting since the 1960s in different areas of Waikato.<\/p>\n

Amalgamation of the groups resulted in the formation of the Greater Waikato Railway Modellers Inc. in 2015, and Paul Murphy was elected president.<\/p>\n

The club initially used ex-dairy farmer and life member Brian Harvey\u2019s hobby room and shed, but space was limited.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always the dream to have a long-term building for the club where we can all meet and tinker,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n

The old Bowling Club clubhouse at Leamington Domain in Cambridge came up for lease, and the club moved there in December 2020.<\/p>\n

The club boasts a large permanent OO-gauge layout, which is a detailed and nostalgic recreation of English farming life around the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\" Ex-farmers Harry Davison, left, John Curtis, Brian Harvey and Dick Morton with GWRM Club President Paul Murphy (centre). Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

Fifteen years of work have gone into the display, and members run model trains from several different historical train lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have members covering a large range of skills,\u201d ex-dairy farmer Harry Davison said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people are more interested in the models and running them, others are involved in the electronics, and others enjoy constructing scenery and buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" An hour-long debate on how to build fences on hills ensued between the farmers and non-farmers over this now infamous fence. Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

Former dairy farmer Dick Morton is known as a bit of a wizard at making accurate scale buildings from scratch.<\/p>\n

Other members keep their own portable layouts at the club.<\/p>\n

Ex-coalmine engineer Alf Stubbs has built an accurate miniature layout of Middleton Colliery in Yorkshire, UK, as it was in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\" A Fordson tractor at work. Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

Historian Keith Rimmer has built several intricate layouts depicting gold mining over the years.<\/p>\n

Secretary Phil Murray\u2019s layout is the children\u2019s favourite.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only creative things happening at the club.<\/p>\n

\" Even model vehicles need the garage sometimes. Photo \/ Catherine Fry<\/p>\n

Murphy has a PhD and experience with social services and encouraged members to open it to the public on Sunday mornings and invite children to \u201chave a drive\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe noticed differences in how children interacted with the trains, and parents often confirmed that their child was autistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

After consulting the University of Waikato, two Master\u2019s of Psychology students observed children and interviewed parents as data for their theses.<\/p>\n

They confirmed what club members had observed and identified areas for further study.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, with the help of club members, two more students will investigate these areas in 2025.<\/p>\n

For public opening times, see www.gwrm.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Groups of enthusiasts have been meeting since the 1960s in different areas of Waikato. Amalgamation of the groups…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2840,1863,3390,6326,1038,2841,3685,14934,31178,6637,16655,48879,42,1861,78,420,8454,296,424,121522,6187,663,129352,3234,43,4517,46868,6289,762,3175,544,6182,1361,7563,61,40,38,41,39,1524,121521,379],"class_list":["post-213588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-across","tag-back","tag-best","tag-biggest","tag-brings","tag-country","tag-events","tag-farming","tag-favourites","tag-gave","tag-glimpse","tag-greater","tag-headlines","tag-history","tag-in","tag-inc","tag-including","tag-into","tag-life","tag-livelihoods","tag-lives","tag-looks","tag-modellers","tag-months","tag-news","tag-past","tag-railway","tag-readers","tag-review","tag-rural","tag-some","tag-stories","tag-that","tag-those","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-waikato","tag-yarns","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}