BAGBOROUGH WEST - NICK SALTZMAN

This is a fictitious terminus of a branch of the Bristol and Exeter Railway in Somerset. Lord Bodger, the local landowner and entrepreneur put up the vast majority of the money needed to build this line in order to have his own access to the railway. He had his own private saloon and took his horse and carriage with him when he travelled. He may be found around the station in his distinctive top hat.

This layout has been built as an exercise in modelling the Broad Gauge in 3mm scale. The track and wheel standards are the same as used for fine scale but to a gauge of 21mm. All the stock is hand-built with some modification of standard gauge kits. The track is constructed using Broad Gauge Society 4mm scale bridge rail soldered to copper clad sleeper strip. The railway buildings are models of Broad Gauge prototypes. The station building is from Watchet on the West Somerset line, the goods shed is from Henley-on-Thames and the engine shed is based on a picture of the original one from Watchet.

It is hoped that it invokes the spirit and flavour of the Victorian era as epitomised by Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Broad Gauge.

General View of the layout.

0-4-4T 3560

Station Buildings

B & E R 4-2-4WT in works grey.

EDGWARE ROAD - PAUL MARCHESE and MIKE JOLLY

This model is a mixed-gauge, 7mm/ft replica of a station and railway Works on the World's first 'Underground'. The site was in open excavation with the line entering and leaving via brick portals taking it under the line of London's streets in 'covered ways'. (It continues in existence today as part of London Transport's Hammersmith & City line, albeit with the site unrecognisably and poorly re-developed). Since last shown the model has acquired platforms, working illuminated signals, track detail and fiddle yards. We now have two complete passenger trains running, one GWR broad gauge and the other Metropolitan of narrow (standard) gauge. Most of the extensive Works buildings are well under way to completion, construction being facilitated by casting each of the many identical window units and retaining wall sections in plaster from silicone rubber moulds. The considerable outstanding work consists of station area, surrounding detail and back scene. Planned for the future are GWR and Great Northern stock, both passenger and goods. Apart from the broad gauge aspect, covered admirably by our society, this interesting mid-Victorian period seems sadly neglected by railway writers and historians, and details are proving difficult to unearth for our model.

View of some of the mixed gauge pointwork by the works.

Part of the works buildings.

Loco shed with the station beyond (and Canon's Road behind that).

BG train in the station - an article on these coaches appeared in Broadsheet 50.

NG train outside the works.

BG train in the station.

CANONS ROAD – BRIAN ARMAN

Despite the fact that Bristol is the home of the GWR the City of Bristol has, curiously, never been particularly well served by the railway. This emphatically was the city’s own fault. They blocked Brunel’s plans to build his terminus within the city bounds and banished him to some distant water meadows at Temple Meads. Then in the 1850's and 60's the city fathers successfully thwarted several attempts to build a line from Temple Meads into the city, the most promising of which would have resulted in a small city terminus being built under Brandon Hill on land owned by the Canons of Bristol Cathedral. Sadly for the populous of Bristol and for the Cathedral coffers - who were at the time raising money to build the cathedral nave - nothing came of the plans; until that is a 21st Century Canon decided to re-write history!

The layout had a painful birth. I had no previous experience of building bulk road trackwork and made numerous errors in construction accompanied by several false starts. Initially I used Bob Harpers method of track construction with wooden bulks & track glued to the bulks. I am afraid that I soon gave up that otherwise good idea because it demanded an initial exactitude in laying out the bulks, which I seemed incapable of achieving. Once the bulks are in place there is no flexibility & although I managed to lay one pure broad gauge point successfully using this method, mixed gauge trackwork defeated me completely. So it was back to copper clad paxoline, solder and bags of sweat & tears. Ask me how its done & then go and compare it with Paul Marchese's beautiful workmanship, all I can say in my own defense is that, miraculously, it works reasonably well & when ballasted and or set with cobbles it won't look too bad.

Locos and rolling stock are really my forte but here progress is very slow. Thus I am indebted to Alan Garner who has very kindly allowed me to borrow some of his BG rolling stock, otherwise operation would be frankly monotonous since I have only two BG locos, Dragon and Plato and two NG ones. However much of my rolling stock is scratch built which accounts for the slow progress. The society’s kits are also well represented, what a boon they are & Victoria Models tilt wagon can be examined in several different guises! A final word of thanks must be given to Peter Totman, several of who's beautiful hand built wagons are on display & John Hembury who has been supportive in every way possible. Without his enthusiasm, wisdom and guidance nothing layout would never have been constructed.

Armstrong Goods in the station with a passenger train (all AFG stock).

BG 1076 0-6-0ST standing by the bridge which covers the approach to the station.

Banking class 0-6-0ST "Plato" built by BA from a Society kit.

Closer view of "Plato".

Horse boxes stand at the end of the platform - built from Society kits by AFG.

Fish truck - scratch built by BA.

Fish truck - scratch built by Peter Totman.

IKB MODELS

KEVIN ROBERTSON BOOKS

DISPLAY 1850's CARRIAGE ARTWORK & ETCHES

Eddy Brown's display of his artwork and etches for an 1850's carriage.

B. G. S. TRADE & PUBLICATIONS

Jon Hewlett is presided over a selection of Society products, including the latest additions to our range.

Chris Saunders made available the full range of the Society publications and also the new 4-ring binders in which to file them away. These match the existing Broadsheet binders that are also available. In addition ther were some fine copies of Bourne prints for sale.

Jon Hewlett on the BGS Trade Stand.

MILLENNIUM PROJECT AND DATA BASE

It may be over a hundred years since the end of the broad gauge, but there are still hundreds of artefacts scattered around the country. The BGS is keen to see all of these identified and documented to assist future historians and modellers, also to identify vulnerable ones in order that they may be conserved. The display gave some idea of the range of structures to be found, from culverts to complete stations.

In addition we are trying to prepare a database of all known images of the Broad Gauge. This includes not only photographs, but also prints and plans. So far there are over 1700 images listed, but there is still a long way to go. If you have any images in your collection that have not been published, let us know about them.

FIREFLY TRUST

The Firefly trust is now well on the way to achieving its aim of a full-size replica of one of the first mass-produced locomotives in the world, Daniel Gooch's "Firefly". This class was the backbone of the G.W.R. locomotive department for the first few years after the opening from Bristol - Paddington. The replica is now taking shape at Didcot.

Firefly Trust stand with Robin Wallace-Sims signal box and signals for his garden railway.

CPL PRODUCTS

This is the place to find scale rulers in most scales, GWR transfers in 7mm and 4mm scales as well as buffers, couplings etc.

CPL stand.

WELSH RAILWAYS RESEARCH CIRCLE

Wewere pleased to welcome the WRRC to our show for the first time. A display of photographs and drawings of the Broad Gauge in South Wales was put on display. They produce an excellent magazine and also have an extensive database of photographs of Welsh railways.

Part of the display of photographs put on by the Welsh Railways Research Circle.

© Broad Gauge Society (BGS)