We have the train, now we want station

How do you get a 27-tonne steam train engine, complete with tracks, into the middle of a field?

That's the question passers-by have been asking after just such a locomotive appeared next to Leicester Road, in Blaby, 10 days ago.

The answer, it transpires, is with the use of a 50-tonne crane, two massive low-load vehicles and an incredible amount of patience.

Farmer Peter Thomas, 60, said he put the 1929 engine – named Bullseye – there to call for the return of the defunct Blaby Station, which existed, just up the embankment, until 1968.

He said: "The train is waiting for the station to arrive. It closed a long time ago but there is evidence that shows it could be viable again."

Hundreds of people have come to see the engine over the past week and Mr Thomas said he was surprised by the interest.

Mr Thomas, who has a love of great British engineering, also has 20 Scammell lorries dating from the 1930s and 50 vintage tractors dating from the 1950s.

Bullseye was rotting in the field of another farmer, four miles away, when it was rescued by Mr Thomas.

It took six people five hours to get the train, and its four tonnes of track, on to two low-loaders and drive it slowly through the city.

He said: "I was surprised the convoy did not attract more attention – no one seemed to pay any notice."

Mr Thomas, who owns Glen Parva Lodge Farm, in Glen Parva, said he would like to get together with railway enthusiasts to get a track up and running alongside the railway line to run the train on.

He said: "My whole life had become overrun by farming – and these days it just becomes a nightmare. With the engine you don't have to feed it or tax it or insure it. You can just touch it or stoke it."

The engine was first delivered in May 1929, by makers Bagnall, to now-defunct company Distillers. It was later used by Proctor and Gamble.

It is a rare example of a fireless steam engine, which were used in factories where flying sparks would be dangerous. It does not have a furnace, instead running for three to four hours after being "charged" by a fire in the factory.

There have been calls for the return of Blaby Station ever since it closed. A Blaby District Council spokesman said: "We support the idea of there being a station there again. There are provisions to see how that could be achieved in the future."

A Leicestershire County Council spokesman said: "We are considering the possibility of a station at Blaby as part of our long term view."

John Calton, a member of the Leicester Railway Society, of Birstall, said he was looking forward to visiting the engine. The 67-year-old said: "We were talking about it at a meeting of the society the other night."