2mm FS gauge, by John Perrett. At our 70th anniversary exhibition on 17 and 18 October.
17 and 18 OctoberCorfe Hills School, Broadstone
Burnham-on-Sea, on the Somerset coast, was once important as the northern end of the Somerset & Dorset Railway, which linked the Bristol Channel with the English Channel.
Rails from Welsh steelworks came in over the jetty to be carried on to the growing railway network of southern England, and there was some coal traffic too. Pleasure steamers called regularly in summer. The lifeboat used the jetty as well, and had its own siding.
The station opened on 3 May 1858. Unusually, it had a short overall roof, and a long platform for excursion trains. It closed to regular passengers on 29 October 1951, to excursions on 8 September 1962 and to goods on 20 May 1963.
The model was built to 2mm finescale standards and exhibited by the late Denys Brownlee. After his death it was sold and then stored for some years. John bought it, a little worse for wear, and is bringing it back to life: first under the baseboards, and now on top. He is building the right rolling stock for the S&DJR in the 1920s and 1930s, a big job. Most of the stock so far is kit-built or adapted N gauge.
2mm finescale models are the same size as N gauge, but the track is exactly to scale, 9.42mm between the rails. It is not N gauge.
