Islington’s miniature train enthusiasts are appealing for help in finding a haul of handmade models after they were stolen from a van near King’s Cross station.
The 81 wagons and three coaches were taken from outside The Model Railway Club’s headquarters in Calshot Street at 8.30pm on October 15.
Volunteers were unloading the vehicle after visiting an exhibition in Peterborough when a thief pinched a case containing the 84 pieces from the unoccupied front seat. Each one is about the size of a thumb.
Club president, 62-year-old Tim Watson, told the Gazette: “These wagons were made to fit our unique miniature railway model, and to lose them is terrible.”
The trains, which have an insurance value of a few thousand pounds, have significant sentimental significance for the club and the family of the late Bill Blackburn, who produced them, Tim said.
“They are his memory to the family of what he had made over many, many years of railway modelling,” he said.
“Any old fool can go and buy commercial wagons but these were handmade and that’s a very big difference.”
Susan Blackburn, 52, told the Gazette her father’s trains were due to be passed down to his grandchildren at the end of this year.
“We are as a family very, very upset that his engines and wagons have been stolen,” she said.
“These items were made with great love and painstaking care, and were going to be given to Bill’s grandchildren – to keep forever as a memento of their grandfather.”
The club and Susan are appealing for anyone with information to step forward. They believe the thief may have dumped the black, aluminium case after realising it contained trains, not electronics.
“It would be great if people could help us out by looking out for it,” said Tim.
The club reported the theft to police the same evening, but aren’t expecting officers to have much luck finding the culprit, or the goods. There is no CCTV footage of the robbery.
Instead, they are appealing using their own tracks of communication to try and bring the trains home.
“The theft has been publicised to our membership, through social media and in model railway magazines,” he said.
“The loss of the models has been very well publicised throughout the UK and all over Europe.”
A Met spokeswoman confirmed cops were called to the theft, but said no one had been arrested and no one knew what the thief looked like.
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