Hornby: 'Astonishing' model railway layout dating back to the 1940s with 131 locomotives to go up for auction after Yorkshire collector's death

Ted Kenny, a printer from York, was given his first train set for Christmas in the 1940s and spent the rest of his life as an enthusiast.

The layout is so extensive that it has taken Mr Kenny’s family three years to dismantle and remove it from his house to enable it to be sold at auction in Scarborough.

The collection includes 131 locomotives – some of which have never been run – ‘dozens’ of vintage passenger carriages, 80 goods wagons, two breakdown cranes and a significant amount of track.

Auctioneer Graham Paddison, of David Duggleby, said: “Ted’s first train set was Hornby Dublo, the leading 00 gauge system in the period 1938-1964, and Dublo would remain his great passion. The magnificent layout that he eventually built at his home was three-rail Hornby Dublo and 53 of the locomotives going under the hammer are Dublo.

“Those include a pre-war model of the Class A4 Pacific Sir Nigel Gresley, a really early model that’s actually almost as old as the real locomotive, as well as rarities such as the Deltic Diesel Co-Co ‘St. Paddy’ or a Class AL-1 electric pantograph loco.

“Ted’s interest did also extend to two-rail 00 gauge and the larger scale 0 gauge model railway system and he hunted down many collectible locomotives - even though he never had layouts on which to run them.

“So the auction includes 38 Wrenn locos, 28 Hornby locos and a dozen 0 gauge locomotives that have simply been on display in Ted’s home for decades. They haven’t pootled around a circle of track since he acquired them.”

The sale will be held on January 12 at the Duggleby auction room. The layout took up an entire room in Mr Kenny’s house, which has since been sold.

Two of the larger 0 gauge locomotives are expected to fetch up to £600 each and the prediction for the entire collection is that it could generate £10,000.

Pre-sale viewing is available at the Vine Street premises in Scarborough on January 10 and 11 from 9am. The catalogue is online.