REFERENCE to The Press centre pages of November 19, “How trains put John on track” featuring the National Railway Museum, this brought back memories of early childhood.

My father, a railway coach-builder in York, constructed a pedal-powered working model of the Mallard as a Christmas present to commemorate its achievement of having broken the steam locomotive speed record on my birthday, July 7, 1938.

My association with railways started after leaving school at 15 to become an apprentice cabinet-maker. Later, having changed direction, I was employed for 16 years at the NRM before, during and after its expansion and refurbishment, guarding these icons of railway heritage.

The icing on the cake lay in demonstrating the turntable, guided tours and operating the first miniature railway in the south yard, a train enthusiast’s vision of heaven, along the iron road, which will no doubt feature in future travel with road gridlock inevitable. Money well spent.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York.