It was full steam ahead as Pete Waterman hailed the result of his model train auction as "fantastic".

The pop producer's finest scratch-built model trains from his collection - seen as the Faberge Eggs of the model locomotives world and worth £1 million - went on sale in Mayfair, central London.

Two of the 56 models went for a hammer price of £100,000 each, while another went for £85,000 - but the total with buyers premium is still to be confirmed.

Asked how he felt the auction went, Waterman said: "Fantastic. The engines all realised what I wanted. I had a figure in my mind. We're certainly not far off that figure."

Alongside his music career, Waterman, 68, has also carved out a role for himself in the world of train modelling and railway preservation over the past 50 years.

As the world's leading collector and patron of modellers, he decided to sell what amounts to around a tenth of his collection in order to raise enough money to secure the future of Waterman Railway Heritage Trust, which holds his collection of full-size steam engines, housed at sites around the country.

The remaining 90% of his collection is of almost incalculable value and will never be sold, making this a unique opportunity to acquire objects of this calibre, and Waterman sees them primarily as works of art.

Specialist auctioneers Dreweatts conducted the sale on the premises at Mallett of Dover Street in Mayfair.

Before the auction, Waterman said he has full-size steam engines that are in need of repair which is "not a cheap thing to do".

The hitmaker said he is "getting old" and he is using this opportunity to raise the profile of apprenticeships and training.

"Something like this will employ four apprentices for four years," he said.

Waterman said the model engines take years to build and everything is handmade.

He predicted that there would be interest in the auction from "all over the world", adding: "People want these for investments. These are better than having a million in the bank."

The music producer said he was born next to a railway line and his first job in 1962 was on a railway.

He said he left school unable to read and write and got a job on the railway because people noticed how "passionate" he was about it.

"My passion actually got me over my educational problems and I learned very early that if you form a great team you can make a job work," he said.

Speaking about the extent of his interest, Waterman said: "There is not one minute I'm not playing trains."

But asked to choose between trains and music, he said: "It has to be music, because without the music I wouldn't have had these wonderful things. I wouldn't have steam engines.

"And if I'd have worked on the railway, as much as I'm passionate about it, I wouldn't have had the life I've had.

"And I wouldn't have had the fun I've had."

The sale included the Beyer Goods, which Waterman said was ''the greatest steam railway engine built in miniature''. It went for a hammer price of £100,000.

Waterman has been collecting for 56 years, starting at the age of 11 when he paid around £8 - twice the going rate - for a rare engine that had gone out of production 20 years earlier.

''I sold it about five years later for £30 and that's what got me started,'' he said.

He funded that first purchase with money saved from his paper round - a guinea a week - and the five bob he would get fetching coal in his sister's pram.

Another source of income was the flying choir, a venture he launched when he realised he had a good singing voice and could earn 10/6 from three weddings at different churches across Coventry each Saturday.

Speaking about the reason his love affair with trains started so early, he said: ''When you live in a council house and these things go past your door, it's your first encounter with beauty.

''There were people sitting with white tablecloths and table lamps having dinner.

''It was magical. Think of the contrast: we didn't even have glass in the windows at home.''

The music mogul has also joined up with a major rail engineering firm to open up a railway academy in Crewe.

OSL Rail Limited and Mr Waterman announced a new academy that will provide a comprehensive training utility to the railway industry.

Railway Exchange Training Academy (RETA), which will be based in Crewe, will focus on training people already employed in the industry as well as the next generation of engineers.

The academy plans to open later in 2015.

Warterman is also director of the Crewe and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership and chairman of Tomorrow’s Rail, an industry forum established to develop an agenda for the future of rail.