Owen Bennett is the 2011 winner of the Tauranga Model Marine and Engineering Club's Norm Decke Memorial Trophy for his building of a Phantom Locomotive model.

Owen machined every part of his Phantom Locomotive 'Murihiku Express' from scratch.

The judges say they had a tough time picking between the three finalists; Maurie Gore and his half scale working model of a Root and Vandervoort Horizontal gas engine, Steven James and his one sixth scale working model of New Zealand Railway Eo and Owen's Phantom Locomotive.

The two judges, Paul Newton of the Rotorua Society of Model Engineers and Mike Orange of the Auckland Society of Model Engineers, are both experienced and accomplished model engineers and say the quality of the finalists at the Tauranga club's annual open weekend was high. They were impressed with the excellent standard of workmanship of the three models, each deserving to be the trophy winner.

One of the factors in making their decision was that this was the first model Owen had made. Owen is a piano tuner and technician of over 40 years; he joined the Tauranga Club in 1999 with much enthusiasm, but minimal engineering knowledge.

Owen's prize-winning one sixth scale loco was recently certified and launched at Memorial Park on the weekend of his 70^th birthday. Shared with his twin sister Joan, the launch was attended by family from the South Island and Australia. All of Owen and wife Jean's children and grandchildren were there to enjoy the maiden journey of his new steam train.

With help from his friends in the local club and other model engineering clubs in New Zealand over the past six years, Owen has gained the skills to complete his project to a high standard. This help was acknowledged by Owen when the trophy was presented to him by Norman Decke's son, Brian, at the weekend presentation.

Norman Decke joined the Tauranga Model Marine and Engineering Club in 1978. He became actively involved with the building of the club's first ground level track, personally designing and building the track points, these are the devices that allow a train to change from one track to another. Norman gave many years of service to the club and was made a life member in 1998. Norman died in July 2000, and in memory of his involvement with the Tauranga Model Marine and Engineering Club, the Decke family donated a trophy in his memory.