Just the ticket: scale model of old station (From Ledbury Reporter)

Just the ticket: scale model of old station

7:00pm Tuesday 4th September 2012 in Ledbury

THERE used to be a popular song called: “There’s a railroad running through the middle of my house”. Well, Arthur Mansell has the station to go with it.

Because taking pride of place in the lounge of his home in Checketts Lane, Worcester, is a scale model of Leigh Court Station, one of the regular halts on the long defunct Worcester- Bromyard railway line.

The six-foot long, six-inch high OO-scale model is an exact replica of the old village station in all its glory.

The line closed in September 1965 and today the building, ravaged by time, weather and undergrowth, is slowly crumbling.

But Mr Mansell has been determined to protect its memory and spent five months creating his model masterpiece.

“I’ve always been interested in railways,” he said. “Soon after they shut the Worcester- Bromyard line on September 5, 1965, me and a mate walked its entire length.

It took us about six hours, which was longer than we had anticipated, because already a metal bridge had been taken down and we had to find a way around it.”

Mr Mansell, who was a panel beater with the Midland Red bus company, has made several scale models in the past and with assistance from his wife Valerie, was determined to get his copy of Leigh Court Station spot on.

The couple visited the old station, now barely recognisable under a welter of foliage, and made exact measurements, even counting the bricks.

Then he made the model out of plastercard, finishing it off in railway livery colours.

At present, Mr Mansell has no plans to pass on his work of art. “I spent so long doing it, I want to keep it for a while to enjoy it,” he added. But if the 3.10 from Yearset turns up steaming through his home he might have other ideas.