Doncaster has long been deemed as the spiritual home of train travel in the UK.
The south Yorkshire town boasts the famous Doncaster Works site where engines such as the Mallard and the Flying Scotsman were built. The past weekend (February 7th and 8th) saw hundreds of people descend onto Doncaster from all over the country to celebrate railways in all their form – well, the miniature version.
Over 30 intricately-made model trains and railways were on display at the Festival of British Railway Modelling. This year's theme was 'Best of British' and saw modellers depict scenes from the pre-war era right up to before privatisation was introduced in 1995. Both real and fictional settings were on show in a range of scales and gauges.
Held at the Doncaster Exhibition Centre, the event highlighted the creativity involved when it comes to building model railways and scenery. The great thing about model railways is that it allows the imagination to run wild. Among the imaginary stations was Alderford which was described by the creator as a north-west village from the 1980s.
Others included the fictitious town of Florinstone, situated on the Somerset & Dorset Railway between Templecombe and Bournemouth, and Northwick, a seaside resort along the Bristol Channel.
It was not just specialist layouts that were on display as the Doncaster event had a host of rare engines and other kits, parts and accessories. Visitors were able to purchase one of the 13 limited edition 'Cadbury of Bournville' wagons along with a number of other models to add to their own personal collection.
Speaking to the Sheffield Star, Lauren Wright, exhibitions marketing executive, said: “We are extremely pleased how the weekend went, the show was a huge success for all the visitors and those that were there trading, which is our main goal.
"There was a fabulous display of “Best of British” layouts which all the visitors greatly enjoyed."