From an early age, Ian Allan wanted to be stationmaster at Waterloo and then general manager of the Southern Railway. In the event, the publisher and entrepreneur, who has died aged 92, rose to become chairman of all two miles of the Great Cockrow Railway, a miniature steam line he bought, when its founder died, and moved to within what has since become hearing range of the internal-combustion roar of the M25. Allan transformed the Great Cockrow into a fully-fledged 7¼in gauge express line, with trains carrying children of all ages at scale speeds of 70mph through what had once been a piggery and is now a Betjemanesque Surrey garden.
This miniature railway was an achievement of which Allan was justly proud and where until recently he could be found driving steam locomotives based with pin-point accuracy on their main-line counterparts, including the Merchant Navy class pacific 21C11 General Steam Navigation and the four-cylinder 4-6-0 850 Lord Nelson, two of the locomotives Allan had watched drawing express trains in and out of Waterloo station.
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