Enthusiasts give tours of HQ near St Albans

10:04am Friday 2nd January 2009

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REAL steam locomotives were pulling passenger trains through Colney Heath yesterday, albeit in miniature.

Enthusiasts from the North London Model Engineering Society were driving their locomotives, some fully steam-powered, complete with fireboxes stoked with coal and twin boilers billowing, round a half-mile track at their base in Church Lane.

Chairman David Harris told the Review: "We have been here 40 years, and we have some 230 members.

"At the moment I am working on a model of Brittania -a Pacific- class loco that was pulling trains from Liverpool Street to Norwich right up to the end of steam in 1968.

"It should be finished in a few weeks - it will be over six feet long and probably worth about £10,000.

"But obviously we are not in for the money, but because we love it.

"It has been a retirement project for me."

Visitors were given rides and shown round the layout, complete with religiously observed signals, station and a tunnel, as well as a lake, used by model boats.

Mr Harris said: "Quite a few members have their own model boats, but we would need a model ice-breaker today!"

Although several members of the public were shown round and given rides, some were turned away, owing to confusion over whether the event was a "members' day" or an "open day".