MODEL railway fans of all ages are being welcomed to the National Railway Museum in York this half-term for a celebration of toy and miniature trains.

The nine-day event will be opened today by the NRM’s director of fun, six-year-old Sam Pointon, and promises to bring together the biggest names in the world of toy and model railways.

Zoe Roberts, public programmes developer at the museum, said: “Following Sam’s suggestion that we give children more opportunities to get ‘hands on’ with model railway sets, we decided to run a model railway weekend at the museum last year.

“This was such a success that we thought we’d make it even bigger and better this October half-term, and run it for nine whole days.”

After experiencing the vast array of model and toy locomotives around the museum in Leeman Road, Zoe said children could get hands on and make a model of their own to take home.