Miniature train set goes to Knysna

An impressive model train set constructed by a local resident will soon be on display at Knysna Waterfront’s visitor centre in the Western Cape.

Landmarks such as Tsitsikamma Forest (replete with elephants), Pezula Championship Golf Course, Kaaimans River Bridge, an old Knysna train station, lumber mill, countryside farms, and more can be seen between the two miniature tracks that go round the 4.5m x 1.6m landscape.

Vandia Grove resident, Rinke Blok, who also owns The Model Train Shop, was asked by the waterfront to make the display, and he started construction at the end of March.

“The structures are exactly to scale at 1:87 but, obviously, the landscape had to be compressed because the region is large,” Blok told Randburg Sun.

“I was told the essentials of what to use but otherwise I had a free hand and could make the set the way I wanted to. For a project this size I made it fairly quickly.”

And yet there is much attention to detail in Blok’s design.

Fynbos, which is so prevalent in the area, can be found throughout along with the pine trees the lumber industry grows.

A golf ball thief waits next to the hole, leopards prowl the hills, a couple of paddles with a crate of drinks in their boat, and workers saw and lift logs of wood in the lumberyard.

All these structures and many of the trees are hand-made.

Blok will transport it all in a trailer himself, as he goes to Knysna in the coming days.