Neil Leighton bagged £1m on the National Lottery in 2023 and spent £40,000 on memorabilia from the classic children’s favourite – with the haul now worth as much as a real-life train
Steam engine fanatic Neil Leighton today revealed how he invested his £1m lotto win into a collection of Thomas the Tank Engine memorabilia – now worth as much as a real-life train.
The 26-year-old had planned to shell out on a full-size locomotive after winning the jackpot in 2023. But instead he threw £40,000 of his windfall into a collection of toy trains from the classic children’s favourite. Neil said: “After my win an opportunity came up to invest memorabilia from the original Thomas the Tank Engine TV show and I’m very glad I did. While it is a bit more manageable than a full-size engine, the collection has proved a wise investment, I recently had it valued and it’s about the same as a reasonably priced real steam engine.”
Unmarried Neil, from Hereford, struck lucky on a Cash Bolt Christmas Millionaire game two days after downloading the National Lottery app onto his mobile. He used the cash to take his pals on a luxury holiday and deck out his four-bedroom home with train gear.
There’s a picture of a steam engine in the porch and staring down on the walls of the living room, a poster of Sir Topham Hat – the station controller from the TV show, Thomas the Tank Engine. But Neil’s main investment was on props from the show. He said: “I bought a load of props in an auction earlier this year.
“They include models of the carriages, main sheds the trains live in and many of the buildings you see in the background of the series. Some needed renovating but I called my friends and they’re happy to help me restore the original props. They fill my house, some filled with just lampposts, others a crazy mix of miniature items from tiny bunting to little cream cakes and foolscap folders, in keeping with the winning theme there’s even a mini bottle of Champagne and flutes about 1 cm tall.
“I also have shelves carefully packed with wonderful model buildings from the series. I spent more than £40,000 in total – a figure I couldn’t have previously dreamt of spending but turns out it was money well spent. Who knew that my love of trains and a TV show would prove to be such a good investment.”
Reflecting on life since that winning moment said: “It’s not all trains. I have been able to take my family on some amazing holidays and treated 14 mates to a brilliant five-star villa holiday complete with yacht, and I have my lovely home. The icing on the cake has to be this incredible collection of Thomas the Tank Engine memorabilia. It’s not the obvious choice for a National Lottery millionaire but if winning is about making dreams come true, it 100 per cent has made my dream come true and I’m pretty sure Grandad Bynon would approve.”
Neil told how his love of railways began at the age of three – on a day out with his grandad Bynon. He said: “One of my earliest memories was going for a Thomas the Tank Engine trip for the first time at Severn Valley Railway. I travelled on a steam train with Grandad, and he told me to look out of the window for rabbits. We never saw a rabbit but it didn’t stop him looking, and it’s still something I automatically do when I’m on a train.
“Grandad had been a farmer, but he loved trains, and built me a track with a loop, which I played with endlessly. He died in 2020 and never saw my National Lottery win, which makes me sad because he’d have loved all of the trains and memorabilia I’ve collected.”
Neil’s win – on the Cash Bolt Christmas Millionaire’ Instant Win Game in December 2023 – came as he was chatting to fellow train enthusiasts and fans of the little TV train from around the world. He said: “I was in my man cave, in the garden shed, and was playing the game as we chatted. Then it said, ‘Congratulations You’ve Won £1M’. I must admit, my first thought was trains and what I could buy.”
Since then, Neil has devoted himself to supporting many train projects.They include keeping the memory of the author of Thomas the Tank Engine author, Reverend W Awdry, alive and volunteering at the original Talyllyn Railway in Wales which inspired him to write his narrow-gauge Thomas books.
Neil said: “We run an annual Awdry extravaganza event, and I’ve been able to join the committee to run it. We recently raised £150,000 for the railway.”People come from all over the world. I’m actually asked to sign autographs because people recognise me as a train fan and a National Lottery winner.”
