For sale: One backyard railroad, only one careful owner
Ian Jones has spent 11 years turning his backyard into a miniature railway, complete with tunnels, bridges and over 300 metres of track.
Behind the corrugated iron fence of a Whanganui home sits one of the country's quirkiest gardens - with its own working miniature railway.
Built track-by-track over 11 years, it has been the passion project of 70-year-old Ian Jones.
Jones' love of trains started when he was a 10-year-old boy, he told Morning Report.
The property with working railway is now for sale.
Ian Jones
“I got a train set for Christmas. I'd never seen such a thing, but I loved it. And then when I was a teenager, I joined the railways as a coach building apprentice and did the apprenticeship. I've always loved trains.”
Eleven years ago, he bought the quarter acre, residential block of land and put a bus on it, he says.
“It was just beautiful, overgrown, never had a house on the property.
“And then on Trade Me, a little locomotive came up. So, I put a $2,000 bid on it, not expecting to win it, and I won it.”
A friend had 300 metres of track and so the project began, he says.
“And of course we test drove it. I thought, wow, I've got to build a railway.”
It was a “joy to make,” he says, “I've always made things all my life, welding, cutting metal.”
“So now I've got 370 metres of track, 10 tunnels and two bridges through the property.”
People from all over the world have had rides on the railway he says, and Jones doesn’t charge anything.
“I often go down to the local cafe and round up families, say, do you want to come for a train ride?’ What train? We'll come and see.
“And it's quite a surprise. It's a fabulous property and a 12- minute ride.”
But the time has come to sell, he says.
“I've got heart problems. I've got other properties and motorbikes to play with. I've got so many things going on.
“And I fear that if I hit the deck, my kids who are grown adults in other towns will be faced with sorting it out.”
Ian Jones has constructed 370 metres of track, 10 tunnels and two bridges through the property.
Ian Jones
Jones is hoping the buyer will keep the railway running.
“Ideally, an older gentleman, possibly with grandkids. The bus on the section is fully liveable with a bathroom and kitchen and toilet, all that sort of thing. So possibly someone who wants to go off-grid a bit.”
And he’s had no problems with neighbours, even when he sounds the train’s horn.
“I'm in contact with one neighbour, she loves it. She comes over beaming, she says it's just so nice to hear all the happy voices and the laughter over the fence.”
