Buyers Will Be Chuffed At Home For Sale

A luxury Edwardian home on the outskirts of London has gone on the market for nearly £1 million.

Although the price may not seem unusual for a six-bedroomed country house within 40 minutes of the city,it is not the house or the 4.7 acres of land which are causing the most interest.

Buyers are being offered the chance to fulfil their childhood dreams by becoming a train driver on their very own "Puffing Billy" miniature steam railway which is cleverly landscaped into the back garden.

The house is the home the of a nationally renowned light steam railway,comprising 1/3 mile of track,embankments,branch and circuit line.

Designed and constructed by the late owner Joseph Ballantine-Dykes,it also features four stations and signal boxes,two tunnels totalling 40 metres in length and two turntables.

It has been run for private and leisure purposes for the past 22 years,being maintained by friends and steam train enthusiasts.

An adjoining 1.2 acres of open and woodland are also being sold as a separate lot for an expected £100,000.

Hugh Ballantine Dykes,who inherited the house from his civil engineer father,is selling up following the death of his mother Mary last December.