Train fan spends £250,000 to build biggest model railway

Simon George, 53, even spent the last six months hiding his 200ft-long project from his new girlfriend as he feared she would dump him if she learnt about his “dull” hobby.

Mr George, who funding the project by selling his share in a supercar driving experience company, told his partner Marie he was renting part of a mill to store and sell wine.

Instead, he was creating a replica of a train line, set in 1980s Yorkshire, which he remembered from his childhood.

The set accurately depicts a 1.5-mile stretch of real track at Heaton Lodge Junction, Mirfield, from 1983.

He said he set out to create the set because he was nostalgic for his childhood when he used to watch the locomotives passing through the busy stretch of line.

He said: “It all started because I used to spend a lot of time at Heaton Lodge as a 12-year-old kid watching the trains go by.

"It depicts the 1980s as it used to be with lots of coal trains before the miners’ strikes.”

The railway is on display at Wakefield’s Market Hall until December 21.