Frocks and Shocks and old towns
Gilbert’s partner, Sharon, not only looks after the running of Obsolete Iron Motors but also has her own store, Frocks and Shocks, which sells retrostyle giftware and barista-made coffee. The town of Pleasant Point is home to about 1400 residents and is on the tourist trail between Timaru and the Mackenzie Country, the road following the old Fairlie railway branch line, which operated between 1884 and 1968.
The complete absence of overseas tourists has had an effect and the early 20th-century restrained classical revival– styled Nelligan’s Railway Hotel in the main street has, apparently temporarily, closed. The brick 1928 Italianate Town Hall is closed because of earthquake concerns. The vintage railway and museum, just across the highway from Gilbert’s garage, as featured in Issue No. 92 of has regular steaming days and this attracts crowds of visitors. Obsolete Iron has hosted many car and bike clubs, which come to check out the vehicles and memorabilia.
Gilbert has been working hard to establish Obsolete Iron Motors and says that he is ready to return to Bonneville when that becomes possible, perhaps sharing a container with another New Zealand team.
Apt choice
Before he bought Pleasant Point Motors, Gilbert had been looking for some time at other large, historic buildings in South Island rural towns. Pleasant Point seems the ideal choice, with its attractive buildings and vintage railway. It is also where local farmer Richard Pearse may have been the first person in the world to fly in a heavierthan-air craft, nine months before the Wright brothers.
This mirrors Gilbert’s interest in old engineering in general, and old cars and bikes in particular, and his involvement in salt flat racers with their cuttingedge technology. The combination of innovative and retro engineering is precisely what Gilbert Bailey is about.