As an Internet addict I sometimes wonder how much model building I could have done if I had not had access to the web.
It is just so much easier to just spend time surfing one of the many fine model-related websites instead of going down to the workshop and actually build something.
What a contrast to the conditions Arne Nordby suffered when he built this model. Nordby was train driver with the NSB in the late . During the winters he was stationed at Finse as an engineer on snow fighting trains .
It is hard to imagine a more secluded life. No Internet, no cell phone, hardly access to a phone at all. And it could hardly have been many other model railway builders up there in the mountains. So where he found the inspiration to build a “live steam” engine in 1:24 is not easy to understand.
But with unlimited access to the railway workshop and a rather limited choice of leisure time activities it seems like a brilliant idea to dedicate yourself to some serious model building. The model is entirely scratchbuilt of steel, except for the boiler and firebox and which is made of copper. Wheel profiles are what we today would call fine scale. For a railway mechanic this was probably an obvious choice.
Even if Arne never finished the model, I guess this project was a great help for getting through those long dark winter nights at Finse. To me that is a comforting thought!
