David Curwen, regarded as the doyen of the miniature locomotive world, has died, aged 97, at his home in All Cannings.

Mr Curwen was born at Sydenham, Kent, and spent his early years fascinated by all things mechanical.

He was educated at King’s School, Canterbury, and in local garage workshops.

He fell in love with the internal combustion engine and rode, drove or maintained numerous motorcycles and cars before joining Short Brothers as an aircraft engineer in Rochester in 1935.

For the next ten years he worked on the design and production of flying boats and, in wartime, on the Stirling bomber.

In 1946 he set up an engineering firm in Baydon which employed about a dozen men.

In 1950 he became chief engineer for the Tal-y-Llyn railway revival project and he and his wife Barbara, an actress, moved to Wales for a year.

The couple returned to Devizes in 1951 where Mr Curwen went into partnership with the late A E Newbery to create Curwen and Newbery.

Mr Curwen left the partnership in 1966 and set up a workshop at his home in All Cannings where he built more than 50 models, driven by steam, petrol and diesel.

Most are still operating at parks and private railways in Britain, Europe, the USA and Australia.

Perhaps his most fruitful partnership was with Lord Braybrooke at Audley End, where many of his locomotives are running including his swansong, a loco named Barbara Curwen built in 1996.

His workshop in All Cannings is a remarkable Aladdin’s cave of tools, parts and treasures, and his name and locomotives are known to enthusiasts the world over.

Mr Curwen’s other interests include birds, gardening, ghosts and the church.

Two books have been published about him and his work, his autobiography, Rule of Thumb, came out in 2006, and The Miniature Locomotives of David Curwen in 2008.

His funeral will be held at All Saints Church, All Cannings, on June 1 at 2.30pm.