Volunteers to lay 'longest' pop-up mini railway

Railway enthusiasts are assembling enough miniature track to build what they say will be the longest pop-up railway ride in the UK in decades.

The Portable Railway Club (PRC) plans to lay some 1,300ft (400m) of temporary line in a goods yard in Quorn, Leicestershire, run by the Great Central Railway (GCR).

The line will then be opened up for visitors to ride on small trains that can carry up to 20 passengers at a time.

"It's going to be monstrous," said PRC chairman Daniel Mason.

"It's also going to be complex. We'll have a lot of track and 10 sets of points.

"That means we can have passing points and shunting spaces. There will be so many features.

"It will be very realistic.

"Last year we came to Quorn and made the longest length of track anyone would have seen in years. We're going bigger and longer this year."

Six miniature railway clubs, from across the country, will contribute track and trains for the event, called the Miniature Railway Spectacular, which will run on Saturday and Sunday.

A 30-strong team of volunteers plans to lay the track out on Friday.

One of the miniature locomotives has been given a special livery to depict a 12A-type engine, which ran along the GCR line before they were taken out of service more than 100 years ago.

Mr Mason added: "We're looking to make it a lot of fun for everyone as well as try to get young people interested in engineering, passing on skills."

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