Waterman's model railway gets a little Inspiration

Music producer Pete Waterman has added to his model railway a tiny version of a popular exhibition train touring Britain.

The full-sized train, Inspiration, is a free-to-visit travelling exhibition outlining history through artefacts and interactive games, and is part of the Railway 200 project which celebrates 200 years of the modern railway.

The diminutive counterpart was created by rail enthusiast Andrew Willsher. At 209cm in length it is 76 times smaller than its 159m-long big brother.

Coventry-born Waterman and his team of rail fans, the Railnuts, will run the model on their portable model railway throughout the year, including during Inspiration's visit to Crewe this weekend.

The life-size version is in the Cheshire town until Monday, before heading to Bury, East Anglia and the south coast.

The model version took Wilsher 300 hours to build. He matched every colour shade, 3D-printed his own custom parts and used tiny tweezers to apply nearly 350 graphics, some of which are just 1mm tall.

Waterman said: "Railway 200 is about people, 200 years of people giving dedicated public service.

"If you want a fantastic day out, nip down and see Inspiration.

"Best of all, it's free - there's some inspiration for you."

Willsher said: "It's an amazing project to be involved in.

"I'm really chuffed with myself and the positive response it's had."

Nearly 60,000 people have visited the actual exhibition train on its 60-stop tour of Britain.

It has travelled more than 7,000 miles, visiting the Cairngorms, Southampton, Llandudno and dozens of other locations.

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