When Charlie Riggs was eleven, his dad bought him a Hornby train set. There were big dreams of the loft being converted so that the layout could have a permanent home, but nothing ever came of the idea. Redundancy and the move to a smaller house put paid to that. The box containing track, engine and some of the carriages was in the garage – somewhere. For an instant, Riggs wondered about rekindling the one-time interest, but however many plans he drew up, however hard he tried, however long he laboured, he would never have a model railway like the one that took up most of John Sebastian McGraw’s flat at Templeton Towers.

‘Have you ever seen anything like this, Charlie?’

Riggs laughed. ‘Nope. It’s a schoolboy’s dream!’

Ellis walked round the...

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