Do you recognise the location? Or perhaps the part of the country? Can you tell when this picture was taken - is it recent, or from many years ago?
The picture was taken yesterday - 26th May 2007. In Wiltshire too. Melksham. To be precise, at the Christie Miller sports centre on Bowerhill. It's a model - but a very realistic one - at a scale of 1:76.
In my youth, I used to enjoy railway modelling - and put a huge amount of time into it. Not that I was (or am) particularly good with my hands - I certainly don't have the ability, not the patience, to produce something of exhibition quality. But I fondly remember hours working on what
might have been at Swanage and Lulworth, and what
might have been at Ullapool. Studied down to the history of the proposals that were made for lines but that were never built.
Living now in "Great Western Territory" and having a fondness for Melksham, there's a temptation to get sucked in to doing *something* on Melksham. The substantial station of the mid 1900s shrank to closure in 1966, re-opening with a "halt" type platform in 1985 and a spluttering service since. So there's scope for anything from a substantial setup to a single track. But information is lacking and (at least for modern times) appropriate stock hard to find. I *am* going to say "watch this space". Not for anything huge, not for anything that's so realistic that you would have to do a double-take if you saw a picture. But I am tempted to set up a few yards of track, a model of the current station, and be able to run one or two representation trains - old and new, through it.
[
More from TrainWest.]
(written 2007-05-27, updated 2007-05-29)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
M201 - Well House Manor - Around Melksham, Wiltshire [437] Outside of the box - (2005-09-06)
[676] Melksham, Wiltshire - (2006-04-08)
[805] Melksham Carnival Parade - (2006-07-16)
[811] Melksham in Bloom - (2006-07-22)
[830] Butterflies in a Wiltshire garden - (2006-08-12)
[847] Image maps for navigation - a straightforward example - (2006-08-28)
[866] A lazy programmer is a good programmer - (2006-09-15)
[879] Tuesday night is party night - (2006-09-26)
[929] Presenting Melksham - for a weekend away in Wiltshire - (2006-11-17)
[957] Improving the historic town of Melksham - (2006-11-30)
[977] Melksham and Norwich - (2006-12-10)
[1117] Newport Male Voice Choir - (2007-03-24)
[1137] Wiltshire Circles - (2007-04-07)
[1177] Sorting out for a site map - (2007-05-05)
[1266] Party in the Park - (2007-07-14)
[1271] Till the cows come home - (2007-07-19)
[1330] While waiting for Melksham Post Office - (2007-09-02)
[1341] Moving to Melksham? Househunting map. - (2007-09-09)
[1343] Melksham Laundrette - (2007-09-09)
[1360] Asda in Melksham - Welcome or not? - (2007-09-21)
[1368] Getting the local voice heard - (2007-09-26)
[1436] A little touring help during a business trip to England - (2007-11-18)
[1451] More PHP sample and demonstration programs - (2007-12-01)
[1928] Melksham Oak Community School, Melksham, Wiltshire - (2008-12-07)
[1977] Going round the block - (2009-01-04)
[1986] Walk to Bowerhill - (2009-01-10)
[2008] The Month Ahead - What is happening in Melksham - (2009-01-25)
[2043] Confidence, Customer Service and Tourism in Melksham - (2009-02-15)
[2064] East of Melksham Countryside - (2009-03-02)
[2066] Melksham Industrial - (2009-03-04)
[2142] Riverside Development - (2009-04-26)
[2168] In honour of the photograph, I present ... a walk from Reybridge to Lacock - (2009-05-10)
[2175] Melksham in pictures - (2009-05-11)
[2253] Walks in and around Melksham, Wiltshire - (2009-06-21)
[2262] History is not always pretty - (2009-06-30)
[2297] Standing on the corner, Melksham Carnival - (2009-07-19)
[2329] Great to be in Melksham - (2009-08-08)
[2349] Businesses effected by road works in Melksham - (2009-08-11)
[2480] Pantomimes around Melksham - 2009/2010 season - (2009-10-28)
[2497] Brown horses in Melksham - (2009-11-08)
[2528] Melksham Christmas Lights - (2009-12-05)
[2585] Consultation in Melksham, on Melkshams future - (2010-01-17)
[2588] Freddies Wood and the K and A Canal - (2010-01-17)
[2665] Early Spring walk in Melksham - (2010-03-07)
[2691] New brochures for the Melksham area - (2010-03-24)
[2708] The bull on the footpath - (2010-04-04)
[2716] Melksham in Pictures - (2010-04-10)
[2739] Melksham Scouts - (2010-04-25)
[2829] Dauncey Gardens, Melksham - (2010-06-27)
[2854] Melksham Food and Drink Fair and Town Crier Competition - (2010-07-04)
[2950] Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, turns first sod in Melksham Link Canal - (2010-09-09)
[3023] Autumn walk from Bowerhill - (2010-10-31)
[3050] Views of Melksham - November 2010 - (2010-11-13)
[3209] Seeing Electricity Pylons near Melksham - (2011-03-21)
[3227] Her favourite store - (2011-04-02)
[3232] Around and about Melksham in more pictures - (2011-04-05)
[3248] What have these pictures in common? - (2011-04-16)
[3258] Morning in Melksham - (2011-04-23)
[3266] Easter on the Canal - near Melksham, Wiltshire - (2011-04-26)
[3305] Getting away from the madding crowd - an intercontinental journey - (2011-05-27)
[3337] Home Grown Pigs, near Melksham Station - (2011-06-26)
[3389] Plenty to do in Melksham - (2011-08-13)
[3470] Currently pictured in Melksham - (2011-10-09)
[3499] Images of Melksham - (2011-10-29)
[3502] Sunday Evening ... newest and oldest Melksham pictures - (2011-10-30)
[3507] Melksham Forward - meeting summary and pictures - (2011-11-04)
[3520] Quintessentially English - scenes from our Wiltshire town - (2011-11-14)
[3525] Melksham has a heart - come and see the pictures. Sunday, 11 to 3, Assembly Hall - (2011-11-18)
[3526] Melksham has a Heart - Montage picture for sale - (2011-11-20)
[3543] Some different pictures from Melksham - (2011-12-07)
[3569] Images of the new year in Melksham - (2012-01-05)
[3605] Snow comes to Melksham, Wiltshire - pictures - (2012-02-10)
[3644] The way of the Prioress - Melksham history pictured today - (2012-03-09)
[3646] Exploring Melksham with a film maker - (2012-03-09)
[3647] Along the brook - East Melksham to Melksham - (2012-03-10)
[3656] TrainWest 2012 - 14th and 15th April, Melksham, Wiltshire - (2012-03-16)
[3657] Basham Festival, Melksham, early August 2012 - a welcome - (2012-03-16)
[3659] Welcome to Melksham - our new communities - (2012-03-18)
[3692] Deeper than Art - An exhibition of the tattoo Canvas - Melksham - (2012-04-10)
[3697] Events in Melksham - read all about them, and tell us about yours - (2012-04-15)
[3703] A Museum for Melksham History. Open from 12th May 2012. - (2012-04-21)
[3704] The Bowerhill Villager - a newsletter for Bowerhill, Melksham - (2012-04-22)
[3712] Some unpublished and historic pictures - Museum of Melksham - (2012-04-28)
[3720] Melksham ATC - freedom of the town - (2012-05-05)
[3735] A walk around Melksham this morning. Can you place all of these? - (2012-05-17)
[3744] Short Web Addresses for Melksham - (2012-05-30)
[3771] Fine evening, country walk from Melksham - pictures - (2012-06-21)
[3822] Town Clean - Melksham - (2012-07-29)
[3837] Evening behind Melksham Spa - (2012-08-12)
[3864] Guest Guide for Well House Manor and Melksham - (2012-09-18)
[3869] How have Melksham shops changed in 60 years? - (2012-09-24)
[3897] Autumn scenes from Melksham - (2012-10-16)
[3944] Melksham Christmas Lights, 2012 - (2012-12-05)
[3949] Melksham Spa from Woolmore Farm - (2012-12-09)
[3960] Picture - between Lacock and Melksham - (2012-12-21)
[3962] Melksham welcomes visitors - new blue plaque trail and more - (2012-12-27)
[4084] New Pictures - Melksham Pack Horse Bridge - (2013-05-12)
[4119] Melksham - Flower Town - (2013-06-20)
[4141] My pictures of Melksham Carnival, 13th July 2013 - (2013-07-14)
[4145] After the storm - (2013-07-29)
[4151] Tell me a bit about Melksham - (2013-08-10)
[4169] Around and about - Melksham - (2013-09-08)
[4357] Seeing Christmas Coming to Melksham - (2014-12-20)
[4701] Pretty at the station too - (2016-07-06)
Some other Articles
PHP header() function - uses and new restrictionsWhere did the Bank Holiday go?Meet other local businesses in MelkshamSimple but effective use of mod_rewrite (Apache httpd)Where and When - can you place the picture?Arrival and Departure experiences - another hotelSpot the differenceA Fresh horseReturning multiple values from a function (Perl, PHP, Python)No switch in Python