GW175
As it is GW175 this year, we are not holding our usual show in Newbury, but instead we are joining Steam Museum at the Swindon Railway Festival on 11/12 September. With more space, we will have five Broad Gauge layouts - the largest number ever exhibited together!
They are:
- Yeoton Wharf (3mm scale)
- Cheltenham Engine Shed (4mm scale)
- Gatcombe (7mm scale)
- Teignhouse Sidings (7mm scale)
- Lelant sidings (7mm scale)
Our publications and trade stands will be there along with a demonstration of BG modelling and other displays, not to mention the full size replica "North Star" 2-2-2. Sean Bolan will also be there with some of his superb paintings. More details of the show can be found on the Steam Museum website.
The unexpected arrival of previously unknown archive material is every museum curator's dream - but it does not happen very often. However, when a visitor to Newton Abbot's Town and GWR Museum produced an album of railway photographs dating from the latter part of the last century, curator Felicity Cole soon realised that she had an important find on her hands.
The album proved to contain a substantial photographic record of the final years of the broad gauge, with many of the photos relating to Newton Abbot and the final gauge conversion of the South Devon Railway main line and the Torbay Branch.
The owner of the album generously lent it to the museum so that copies of the pictures could be made for the GWR museum's archive. As a result, the museum was able to invite local historians and the members of the Broad Gauge Society to examine the material. This album presents a selection of the photographs, with caption material provided by these researchers. It is probably one of the most comprehensive published records of the appearance of Brunel's great vision as a working railway, as well as chronicling its final downfall and conversion to the "narrow" gauge.
Copies are available from the Newton Abbot & GWR Museum
The Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life houses more than one item of major significance to the transport historian. Foremost amongst these is a full size former GWR locomotive that once operated on the now defunct and still lamented branch lines to the town. In addition there are a number of smaller exhibits, including a unique survivor from Victorian times: the notebook used by the engineer responsible for the building of the Exe Valley Railway.
This remarkable document was found in, of all places, Australia, but is now secure in the museum. Within its covers are a series of wonderful drawings and contemporary notes, never previously available to the historian or local history enthusiast, but brought to life in this new book compiled by Great Western devotee, Amyas Crump. In addition to the records within the notebook, this book contains other examples, plans, photographs and documents from the museum and other private collections, most of which have never been seen before. The result is a wonderful archive to delight both the enthusiast and resident of the local area.
This Limited Edition publication is compiled with the acknowledged assistance of the Tiverton Museum and the Broad Gauge Society.
The book has been published in association with Kevin Robertson under his "Noodle Books" imprint. BGS Members can obtain the book at a special price. Non Members can purchase it from Kevin Robertson Books.
GWR Broad Gauge "Rover" 4-2-2 Kit in O scale
The 7mm/ft kit by Martin Finney of the famous Broad gauge Rover 4-2-2s of the Great Western Railway produced is still available. He has chosen the 1880 built engines as the basis of the kit as the only known drawing is of one of these. The engines involved are; Bulkeley, Great Britain, Sebastopol, Dragon, Emperor and Alma. See Martin's Web Site for more details.
Bulkeley.
A completed Rover (Dragon) - one of two constructed by Alan Garner.
