Railway enthusiasts were treated to a rare sight in Leicestershire as a model railway convention was set up at various heritage stops.
The Great Central Railway is a big favourite with steam engine fans running from the market town of Loughborough to Leicester. It is the only double track mainline heritage railway in the whole of the UK and visitors to the various stops on this route were able to view some scaled down versions of the stations in question.
Each of the stops along the Great Central Railway held a model railway convention of replicas of the real-locations. The Leicester Mercury reported that the likes of Bodmin, Tan-y-bwlch and Deepcar were all represented while Quorn & Woodhouse station was the setting for the main exhibition. Model layouts of locations from all over the UK were depicted across the 35,000 sq ft marquee.
Clubs from all across the country contributed to the event including Soar Valley Model Railway Club. Work consisted of over eight miles of track depicting some of the most well known and loved stations the UK has to offer. A host of Leicestershire model engineering groups got involved with the day and it was hailed a major success.
Michael Stokes, Great Central Railway event organiser, told the news provider: "Different clubs and organisations have been on to us for some time to put on a model railway exhibition but, until now, we have put it off as we had never had something like this before. Although we are talking about miniature engineering here, the event has been huge."
The Great Central Railway consists of four different stations starting with Loughborough Central, the largest of the working stations, before moving on to Quorn & Woodhouse which serves the two villages. Trains then move on to Rothley before reaching their final destination at Leicester North. The latter is the latest to be opened and as of December 2012 plans were put in place to install an annex to the National Railway Museum.