Lionel Day is a Clyde man who never properly grew up - much to the relief of the children in the Central Otago town.
Day loved playing in Westport's rail yards as a child, so when the Government started decomissioning trains, he thought he'd make his own.
You'll often find Day in his shed working with old engines, making them new.
He's mostly self taught, but says his old man was "a bit of a tinkerer with things" too.
Hundreds of hours go into these jobs. In the mid 2000s Day decided to make his own train.
"It's a real live steam engine," says Day. "Took years of work to do."
Then he made another one. And another one.
Unsurprisingly, his train started attracting local kids.
The train is a replica Vulcan railcar with some Kiwi modifications.
"[It has] a 300cc Kawasaki quad bike engine," says Day.
To build the train, Day confesses he "cheated a bit, looked in some magazines".
It took nearly a year, with the track, tunnel and bridge taking even longer.
"Bit of a job. Wouldn't have done it again if I had thought about how much it would take," he says.
"Years of work really. It took a whole summer to build that tunnel."
Day's better half Maryanne helped every step of the way.
"He just likes to think that [if] he can build something he will do it," she says.
"Between the two of us, we would do about 16 metres of track in a day."
Having grown up playing in the railyards of Westport, Day has been on a full-size Vulcan railcar.
"I had a few rides on them when I was a kid," he says.
"[When I was older] I wanted to muck around with trains so I built my own one."
Day's train experience has become a staple of childhoods in Clyde, with the town's kindergartens, playcentres and schools now regulars.
"Kids love it and I like seeing them happy," Day says.
"I don't like being idle."
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