- Box Station -

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This layout is now available for exhibition, for details click here.

Box Station is the club's latest 2mm scale exhibition project. The original station was on the main Great Western Railway main line between London and Bristol and was opened for traffic when the Chippenham to Bath section came into service in June 1841. The station remained in use until January 1965.

The layout runs from Middle Hill tunnel in the east to the first bridge to the west of the station and it will feature rolling stock from the early 1900s up until its closure in 1965.

With great assistance from John Cook, who has modelled Box Station twice before, we now have a vast amount of information and illustrated resources to assist in the development of the layout. Members of the project have also visited what remains of Box Station site to collect data on the landscape of the area and gather samples of the local limestone used in the construction of the buildings.

The layout made it’s first public debut in September 2019 at the Swansea Model Railway Exhibition and was met with a very positive response. Since then work has been carried out to improve the running reliability of the layout as well as makings it more portable for future excursions to the exhibition circuit.

Click photos below for annotations.

L-R: John Meredith, John Cook (builder of original model ) and Axel Richardson.

Axel (with the ruler ) and John Meredith - interrogating.

Axel trying to convince Scott ( unconvinced with arms folded - you can't see any scowl! ) and John Meredith ( refereeing, this time ! )

John hard at work with some good advice from Axel ( see the baseboard work and the overhead master plan)

Axel concentrating on his drilling.

great close-up of work in progress - see the total build concept with JC's brilliant original drawings a real find for SRMG enabling accurate reconstruction.

A copy of John Cook's article dangling on the wall - there to keep up standards. See the scale blown-up drawing - the base for the track.

Scott and john intent on the trackwork.

Scott concentrating on intricate soldering with John also frowning in concentration. We have a mystery viewer/ Who is he?

Track's all down now the SEEP point motors have arrived and awaiting installation.

Accessory decoder built from a MERG kit to aid in the automation of the layout.

Work begins on the road bridge substructure.

Construction of legs underway. Removable of course for easier transportation.

Preparing to move construction to a bigger space.

Box now setup by Dusty Roads providing more space to build the fiddle yard.

Work starts laying the track running around to the rear fiddle yard.

Landscaping begins with the cutting of the foam boards.

Box attracting attention from other club members.

Modrock and plaster is applied to further shape the landscape.

The bridge west of box station with detailed stonework applied.

Sandstone from bath being cut up for later work.

Scenery begins with grass and sandstone base for the yard.

More grass is added and platform work gets going.

Scenery beginning to help set the scene.

All the accessory decoders are now built and ready for installation.

Sidings down for box's fiddle yard. Plenty of room for many trains!

A western pulling a long goods train passes though Box Station.

A class 101 pulls into the station platform for the first time.

New fiddle yard baseboards done!

Back scene board now added.

Scratch built tunnel portal finished.

Middle Hill tunnel portal installed.

John and Allan working on one of the tunnels under the track.

West bridge coming along nicely.

plaster now forms the landscape.

Current view of the station from the bridge.

Middle hill tunnel before laying laying the grass.

Gareth making adjustments to the fiddle yard.

After another visit to the site we decided to redo the topography

The beast from the east (2018 Snow) has covered box!

New tunnel mouth under the track for the river.

Mike and Mal tucking into some electrical work.

More progress on the west bridge.

The new fiddle yard taking shape.

Fancy new lighting fitted.

Red sky at night, shepherds delight!

More of the painted back-scene & one of the first buildings being installed

All hands on deck to paint the base coat

Autumn green now covers our white canvas.

Quite the transformation!

Our new river winds it way to the back scene.

Our stone yard coated with the actual bath stone from the original site.

Not far from completion now!

Box Station at it's first exhibition.