The One:One Collection story

Preserving rail history for future generations

The One:One Collection is a unique collection of historic locomotives, rolling stock and maintenance vehicles – some of which are the only remaining example of their kind – founded on a passion for rail and a desire to preserve them for future generations.

These rare and exciting pieces of rail and engineering history are being brought together for the first time in Margate, Kent, by Locomotive Storage Ltd, with each vehicle in the collection painstakingly restored to museum quality.

Some of The One:One Collection is owned privately and some by the Royal Scot Locomotive and General Trust, with many pieces based at various railway locations around the UK, notably Crewe and Southall. The creation of The One:One Collection visitor attraction will give the general public the opportunity to view these iconic exhibits.

When looking for a space big enough to house these historic icons, we were thrilled to have the chance to put them on the site that has been home to Hornby since the 1950s. So, since 2018, The One:One Collection has been taking shape in some of Hornby’s original warehouses.

First to arrive was the Class A4 locomotive ‘Bittern’, the sister engine to the famous ‘Mallard’, quickly joined by guest loco BR 45379 ‘Black Five’ Class 5MT , then the ‘Cowans Sheldon’ 50 tonnes breakdown crane and several historically important coaches. The diminutive but equally important ‘Wickham Trolley’ followed soon afterwards.

More locos and carriages quickly joined them, including an early Eurostar, a Deltic, and the funeral carriage of Winston Churchill. And from time to time we’ll also be joined by further exciting exhibits.

But the story doesn’t stop with rail. Thanks to the immense strength of the warehouse structure, we’re able to reconfigure a mezzanine floor to house other icons of transport and engineering history. So our 1:1 scale trains will be joined by cars, buses and even some large scale railway models.

We have exciting plans to open the collection to the public in the future, creating a fascinating new visitor attraction for East Kent.

Keeping rail history alive

For much of our special collection, it’s not the end of the line

Getting up close and one-to-one with historic locos is exciting. But imagine seeing them out on the tracks, doing what they do best. Several of our locos, including the famous Bittern, are capable of being certificated for use on the national rail network, and from time to time they’ll leave their Margate home to delight rail buffs and nostalgia seekers on heritage rail trips.

So when we’re able to fully open The One:One Collection visitor attraction to the public, instead of a static collection, you’ll find a changing set of exhibits, giving you the chance to encounter different parts of our fascinating rail history at each visit.

We’ll also have large-scale, hand-built models and many other pieces of rail memorabilia.

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