Kate Lewis is 92 - and still playing with trains. And so is husband John who is a mere 82.

On Sunday, the Didcot couple's tiny, miniaturised scale-model of a typical railway scene on the Bavarian-Austrian border will be among 24 layouts on show at Banbury.

Banbury and District Model Railway Club's annual Banrail '99 at Broughton Hall, Banbury School, will include working model railway layouts of every gauge from across the country.

But Mr and Mrs Lewis's Z-gauge layout - of a typical Black Forest scene - represents the smallest commercial size of model railway. Mr Lewis said: "The layout is 220 times smaller than real houses, trees and trains."

Mr Lewis, a former radio fitter at MG, Abingdon, has dabbled with model railways since he was 12, although he did not start creating a Z-gauge design until he and his wife saw a similar layout in a shop in Cologne while on holiday.

Fortunately, Mrs Lewis has come to share his hobby.

She said: "I enjoy visiting different parts of the country for exhibitions - and I love watching the faces of children when we demonstrate the tiny trains." The couple, who live at Green Close, Didcot, like the small gauge because it fits more easily into their home and packs away in their car.

The baseboard of Mr and Mrs Lewis's layout measures only 5ft by 2ft on which they have built a scenic Alpine railway on two levels with six trains.

Mr Lewis has created an operating system so that all the trains can run automatically - without the risk of a collision or derailment.

Meanwhile, Banbury and District Model Railway Club is looking for new headquarters since the Joiners Arms, Bloxham, was sold and the new owners want to extend the dining room into the old stables used by the club. Club chairman John Scales said: "We need a room about 40ft by 20ft where our three layouts - including Thomas the Tank - can be stored."

The premises should be in or near Banbury.

Anyone who can help should call 01295 250297.

*Banrail '99 is open from 10.30am.

Admission is £2.50 and £1.50 for children and OAPs or £6 for a family.

Story date: Monday 01 November

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.