All aboard! Railway model helps fund Scout trip

Devonport’s Matthew Holt has fast-tracked his fundraising to get to the Scout movement’s national Jamboree.

The Belmont Intermediate student spent his Matariki public holiday with other model-train enthusiasts hosting an exhibition at the Devonport Methodist Church that drew a steady turnout of spectators, including to a special lit-up evening session.

Entry fees to the show have covered the cost of the 12-year-old 1st Devonport Scouts member attending the Jamboree in Hamilton at the end of the year.

Scouts around the country are fundraising by holding sausage sizzles and cake stalls to raise the $1500 each needs to attend.

For Matthew, the train exhibition provided a way to make the money in one hit. Although he had to spend six months preparing his model for the show, run in conjunction with the Auckland Märklin club, which his father Andrew belongs to.

Märklin is a popular German brand of trains.

Club members set up their tracks, tunnels and scenic backdrops on large display units at the church.

Matthew says he enjoys creating a miniature world for the trains to run on.

“I just like being able to use imagination in designing it and all the scenery work and then seeing it coming together,” he says.

He created a model around two metres long and one metre wide, showing an alpine village scene, complete with lighting.

Unlike others on show, it used an English Hornby train and tracks.

Matthew’s mother, Robyn, who managed the door at the show, says it was inevitable her three sons would pick up on their father’s interest in trains

She says the hobby helps with a host of core school subjects.

Matthew, a keen drawer, is interested in architecture and design.

Working out the gradient for slopes is all part of the model-making process, he says.

The Jamboree begins after Christmas and runs into the New Year.

Matthew, who started Scouting aged five as a Kea, and is looking forward to the range of activities at the first gathering since 2019, which is expected to draw around 1500 Scouts.

From the 1st Devonport troupe, 17 Scouts and two leaders are attending, with a further small group going from the Calliope Sea Scouts.

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