Vrhunski modeli parnih lokomotiv, izdelani iz lesa, so redkost. Izdelovalec mora biti poznavalec lesarske stroke, če naj model z leti ohrani svojo obliko in gibljivost. Takšen izvedenec je bil pokojni Mirko Dolinšek iz Maribora, modelni mizar v železniških delavnicah in ljubitelj lokomotiv. V svojem življenju je izdelal le tri takšne modele, vse v merilu 1:20. Prva dva sta v Beogra­du, zadnji, izdelan leta 1961, pa se je ohranil v Sloveniji. Dolinšek je zanj upo­rabil več kot 20 različnih vrst lesa.

Žal sodobniki te mojstrovine niso znali pravilno ceniti in zavarovati. Lokomotiva je stala nezaščitena v izložbi železniške turistične agencije, kjer so imeli do nje dostop otroci. Z leti so poškodbe postale tako hude, da je bila malone uničena. Takšno jo je prevzel Železniški muzej SŽ. Treba je bilo rekonstruirati skoraj vse drobne dele, saj so bili povečini izgubljeni. Sreča je, da v muzeju hranimo lokomotivo istega tipa, tako da se je bilo mogoče ravnati po originalu. Restavriranje je trajalo dve leti in pol.

THE WOODEN MODEL OF THE LOCO 03-015

A top-level wooden model of a steam locomotive is a rarity. The maker has to be an expert on timber in order to make his model durable and motional in the years to come. Such a specialist was late Mr Mirko Dolinšek, a designer of wooden casting models in the Railway Workshops in Maribor and a locomotive fan at the same time. In his life he made only three such models, all in the scale 1:20. The first two are today in Belgrade, the third, built in 1961, remained in Slovenia. Building it Dolinšek applied more than 20 different sorts of timber.

Regretfully the contemporaries wouldn't value this masterpiece properly. The locomotive was standing unprotected in the shop-window of the Railway Tourist Office, where the children could play with it. In the course of time the damage became so severe that the model could be considered destroyed. Such was its state when the model was saved by the Railway Museum. Nearly all the minute parts had to be reconstructed for they were gone lost. Fortunately there is a real locomotive of the class in the Museum's collection, so the restoration works were guided by the original. It took us two and a half years to complete this task.