GEOFF HUNTON said his parents were farmers, but he grew up with the railways, as he recalled his childhood memories on Acres House Farm, at Naburn, near York, that are like scenes from the classic family film The Railway Children.

He said: “The main line ran past our farm.

When I was a teenager, while my dad was tending the allotment, I would stand at the fence spotting the steam engines as they raced past.”

It seems fitting that Mr Hunton’s career in commercial property draws to a close as he puts the finishing touches on a deal that brings train building back to the cradle of the railway, 70 miles up the East Coast Main Line, from where he was raised.

By the end of next year, passengers making the train journey from York to the North-East will be able to look up as they approach Heighington and see a train factory.

From spring 2016, the trains that will roll out from Hitachi Aycliffe will eventually replace the shabby rolling stock currently used to link our region with the capitals of England and Scotland.

As a director at Newcastle-based Merchant Place Developments, Mr Hunton, has done more than anyone else to bring Hitachi’s £82m investment to County Durham.

But he is reluctant to hog the limelight.

“This was a team effort, I was a facilitator,” insists Mr Hunton, 68, who accepts that the project was the highlight of a career which has taken him from York to his adoptive Tyneside home, where he lives with his wife, Maureen.

A senior role with the Government’s Property Services Agency (PSA) brought him to Newcastle.

What was supposed to be a two-year tenure became a permanent move.

He later joined the Newcastle office of construction and property consultant Summers Inman, and after leaving the firm as an equity partner in 2006, he set up Development Monitoring Services LLP and then, in partnership with a London-based partner, set up Merchant Place Developments (MPD), as a sister company to Merchant Place Corporate Finance.

MPD had only two developments on its books when it bought a site in County Durham where it secured planning permission for 1.5 million sq ft of warehousing, with a view to attracting a big national retailer to use it as a distribution depot.

In early 2007, with the commercial property market booming, the notion of buying speculatively without a guaranteed occupier was commonplace.

The subsequent crash left Merchant with a potentially loss-making asset on its hands.

“It was a bold move for us, but with all of the transport links at hand we knew the site had real potential.”

Mr Hunton declines to say how much the land cost.

“My investors wouldn’t be happy if I told you.

Let’s say there are times when it looked like a frightening amount,” he said.

Hitachi’s decision to build its European train factory on the site, after surveying 42 possible locations, will have eased the investors’ fears.

Mr Hunton hopes that the presence of a Japanese engineering powerhouse will act as a magnet for other businesses to set up on the park.

Even after main contractor Shepherd Construction has built the factory, MPD has 35 acres up for grabs.

There are plans to attract a waste-to-energy plant, as well as make the park a base for firms that will supply the train factory with parts and materials.

Mr Hunton’s vision is for the site to eventually support 10,000 jobs.

He said that Hitachi will be the catalyst.

In his modest office, which is crammed with box files, drawings and press cuttings relating to the bid – whoever predicted the rise of the paperless office was way off the mark – Mr Hunton shows me a letter, dated May 12, 2009, that he sent to Sir Stephen Gomersall, chief executive of Hitachi Rail Europe.

It is headlined “Proposed site for a locomotive assembly facility” and it was the first pitch MPD made to the Japanese firm.

By the following March, Amazon Park, as it was then called, was identified as Hitachi’s preferred site.

The bid almost collapsed when Hitachi made it clear the successful site must incorporate a test track.

The problem was solved when, standing on the bridge at Heighington, Mr Hunton noticed that the single rail line had once accommodated two sets of tracks.

“Like most things it probably went with the Beeching cuts,” he said.

“But the rail bed was still there.

“I did a deal with Network Rail to lease the land to put in the test track. Having that was fundamental.”

More creative thinking led to MPD hiring a helicopter when a Hitachi delegation came to check out the site.

“We knew they had been in Leeds the day before to a site that already had buildings. All we had was a green field and some sheep.

“We marked out the development on the field in white tape so they could see where the building would be. We had to do it quickly before the sheep ate the tape.

“As we took them higher in the helicopter they could see Aycliffe where the potential workforce could come from, and how close the train line clipped the site.

“Further on they could see Darlington, Middlesbrough and Teesport.

“It gave them an insight to what the region had to offer. The Japanese delegation loved it.

“They saw then that we were very serious about this. It stood us out from the crowd.”

He stressed the important roles played by Durham County Council, and MP Phil Wilson.

“He brought the political spectrum of the North-East together, so that it didn’t become a party political thing,” said Mr Hunton.

“The enthusiasm of the region was key. And people should not underestimate the role played by The Northern Echo in showing its unwavering support.

“We demonstrated that when the North-East combines its energies it is a formidable force.”

In March 2011, it was announced in Parliament that Aycliffe had beaten a rival site in North Wales to the prize.

The full impact of what he had achieved arrived two months later at an event held at the Xcel Centre, in Newton Aycliffe, where local firms came to hear about how they could get involved in the scheme.

“We expected 300 but 1,500 turned up,” says Mr Hunton.

“It was quite emotional to step on stage and make a presentation. I saw then what we had done for the North-East.

“It’s been a rollercoaster journey. There were times when I wondered if it was ever going to happen.

“But there is a point as a developer where you are so committed to a project there is no turning back.”

Even after the Government approved a deal for the plant to make the next generation of high-speed trains, which will create 700 factory jobs, there were more twists and turns.

The decision to name the site Amazon Park resulted in a subpoena the size of a Yellow Pages directory landing on Mr Hunton’s desk.

The world’s largest online bookstore insisted the name be changed.

Mr Hunton recalls: “We thought ‘Bloody hell, what have we got involved with here? They own the rights to the word Amazon.’ We never even thought it would be problem.

“Amazon only became aware that we had used the name by reading it in your paper.

“Their solicitors could have bounced us around, but it was all over the press, they could see we were genuine and they worked with us on it.”

The site was soon re-branded as Merchant Park.

“The sad thing is we never got any orders for books,” recalls Mr Hunton with a chuckle, who looks relieved to be handing over day-to-day running of the project to colleague Andrew Steadman and his team.

Mr Hunton will continue to work for MPD as a consultant on public relations, communication and liaison with Durham Business.

“I’ll admit this has taken a lot out of me. But when I see that first train roll out of that shed I will know that it has been worth it.”