|
27 June 2007
Railway Museum to Display Model Ship
The Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust's museum at Washford, on the West Somerset Railway, now cares for a scale model of the steamship Julia. The original SS Julia was built in 1904 specifically for the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway's cargo service in the Bristol Channel. She was designed to carry rails, and other cargo such as coal, to Highbridge Wharf for the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway, and for the London & South Western Railway (joint owner of the S&DJR and of SS Julia). She also sailed to Fremington on the Taw, and other Bristol Channel ports. She was withdrawn in 1933 and scrapped in 1934. The model was made by the late Chris Handley to 1:50 scale. The Trust has put it on display in the Museum, after a refit by the Trust's maritime model expert, Peter Davis. Mr Handley also made a model of the S&D's other cargo steamer, the Radstock, built in 1925, also to carry rails. That model is now in the care of the Radstock town museum. Chris Handley's book, Maritime Activities of the Somerset and Dorset Railway, contains photos and plans of both ships and detailed information about the rest of the S&D fleet. It is available from SDRT Sales.
|
