Thomas & Spends

Lotto winner goes loco in £40k spree on tank engine TV show

- BY DAN WARBURTON

A STEAM engine fanatic was chuffed when he won enough on the lotto to splurge £40,000 on Thomas the Tank Engine models.

Neil Leighton, 26, landed £1million on the Cash Bolt Christmas Millionaire game just two days after downloading the National Lottery app.

He used a chunk of his windfall to buy toy trains and props from the classic children's TV show Thomas & Friends at auction. Now, his four-bed home is decked out with train gear.

There is a picture of a steam engine in his porch and a poster of the Fat Controller, Sir Topham Hatt, in the living room. And models of train sheds and other buildings, miniature lamp posts and more tiny items such as bunting and a bottle of Champagne and flutes 1cm tall fill the shelves.