![Wodonga's Glenn Roennfeldt sits with his two one quarter scale Burrell traction engines, built 17 years apart. Picture by Mark Jesser Wodonga's Glenn Roennfeldt sits with his two one quarter scale Burrell traction engines, built 17 years apart. Picture by Mark Jesser](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/beau.greenway/97a8b08b-3ce7-4616-91a7-84f11bf411ea.jpg/r0_0_5568_3712_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Glenn Roennfeldt's attention to detail can't be denied.
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The Wodonga man recently completed his most difficult task yet, building a one quarter scale Burrell double crank compound steam traction engine from scratch.
It took the best part of 12 years to complete.
The 19th century road locomotive was used for haulage and generating electricity.
"I had a bit of a break for about one and a half years. It's just been a hobby thing and I did it when I could," Mr Roennfeldt said.
"When you build something like this, you've got to do an awful lot of research.
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"I've been fortunate to have been overseas a few times and gone to steam fairs and all that sort of thing, especially the big one in the UK, the Dorset Steam Fair.
"I take a lot of reference photographs and just spend time around these full size things. I love researching to find out what it looked like, how it worked and then you've got to sit down with pen and paper and work out how you are going to build it."
Mr Roennfeldt spent more than 30 years in earthmoving and is a self-taught machinist.
His interest in metal work started back in 1984 when he restored a lathe and soon after he joined the Lake Hume Model Engineers Club and focused on steam engines.
![Glenn Roennfeldt in 2006 after completing his first Burrell traction engine. Glenn Roennfeldt in 2006 after completing his first Burrell traction engine.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/beau.greenway/1174abe6-c55a-4973-897b-5896b9590ade.jpg/r0_0_3348_2268_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Mr Roennfeldt said the key to any long-term project was to keep it rolling.
"Even if it's just a simple job like going down to the workshop and making handles or putting a pipe in, you've just got to try and keep that going because if you stop for too long it's hard to get back into it," he said.
"I made it rule after a while that I wouldn't let my wife know when it was going to be finished."
In 2006, Mr Roennfeldt completed a 1903 single cylinder Burrell traction engine, which took him three years to build.
He said he didn't have any other projects on the horizon and was looking forward to running his engines at steam rallies.
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