Some of the Rolling Stock

indent The railway forms a central part of the story but only has one locomotive, "The Boland Belle".v The engine illustrated unfortunately looks more like a cartoon version of a turn-of-the-century engine than the first steam engine ever made while its train looks suspiciously modern too - so we ignored them.v Then again, one locomotive was hardly enough for an exhibition layout so we decided to set our model some time beyond the period of the adventure story told in the book, at a time when the gnome population had grown and the railway with it.v We therefore had great fun imagining gnome-like versions of "The Rocket", "Locomotion" and other very early engines, each with its own peculiar humourous twist.v The settings however, along with the gnomes and many other aspects of the book, remain faithful to Denys Pitchford Watkins' delightful drawings.v
indent My personal thanks are due to author and artist Denys for providing the inspiration for this (so far) unique model.