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Before the play begins, a tiny LNER InterCity zips in front of us. Our eyes follow it from one side of the stage to the other. Miniatures fascinate, and the train reminds us of the appeal.

It means that when we meet the old boys of the Market Deeping model railway club, celebrating a second victory in Stamford’s regional exhibition, we are sympathetic to their niche hobby. Yes, it may be eccentric to spend years perfecting an OO scale motive power depot, but look at the detail and gasp!

William Ivory’s comedy is inspired by a traumatic incident in 2019, when four youths broke into the school hall at Welland academy only to find a model railway exhibition. For a laugh, they trashed it.

Combing the camaraderie of Calendar Girls with the dodderiness of Dad’s Army, the playwright makes no secret of the men’s nerdy obsession, but establishes their quiet dedication in a way that shows the life-shattering impact of the vandalism. To add gravitas to the character comedy, Ivory sets the story in its Brexit context, with Theresa May resigning and Boris Johnson promising to take back control. Where should these enthusiasts, whose motto is “Pullmans not politics”, draw the line between nostalgia for steam engines and suspicion of foreigners? If the act of building a replica railway feels peculiarly British, a quirky throwback to a Boy’s Own past, what chance of ushering in modernity to this Lincolnshire market town?

If the argument is too weighty for this gentle tale to carry, the excellent cast never let it seem so. Under the direction of Adam Penford, the seven men, plus Lucy Briers as the put-upon club secretary and the catalyst for their emotional articulacy, paint an endearing portrait of people bonding through a shared passion.

Veteran performers all, they know how to land a joke, whether it is Adrian Scarborough as the chairman clinging rigidly to the rule book, Paul Bradley as the old-timer mixing up his meds, or Babatunde Aléshé as the new boy who faces blank stares when he explains they have gone viral on the socials.

The undulations are minor, but the play is an N gauge pleasure.

• At Nottingham Playhouse until 25 July.