Culham in model form
Culham station and the Old Ticket Office in particular has featured both in railway modelling magazines and in model form over the years. Click on the menu above to read about those magazine articles we know about, to see some miniature incarnations in commercial kit form and those models which we have made ourselves.
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Navigate between pages using the drop down list on the right of the secondary menu bar
Click or tap on a thumbnail on any of the pages to see a gallery of larger images of the chosen model
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Pendon Parva - Pendon Museum
Just a few miles down the road from the station at Culham is the famous Pendon Museum in Long Wittenham.The main exhibit (in terms of size) is that of the Vale of White Horse circa 1930. It is not a model of a real location, but rather it aims to portray and preserve the essence of the Vale with very accurate and detailed models of actual buildings set in a representative landscape. The imaginary village of Pendon Parva is served by the GWR main line and boasts an impressive village station and facilities.
Whilst the station layout is fictional, the Ticket Office and Waiting Shelter opposite are based upon those originally at Culham. The Goods shed too is exactly as would have been found at Culham, with one bit of artisic licence. In order for it to fit in with the fictional station layout it is in fact modelled as a mirror image of the original. In 1988 its constructon was the subject of an article in issue 21 of Model Railway Journal. Other buildings in the group include, as in real life, the Railway Hotel, adjacent cottages, and the brick road bridge together with the original covered footbridge over the tracks.
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All photos © Pendon Museum
Gwendraeth
We were very pleased to be contacted by Michael Culham in early 2020, who lives in Canada and has an obvious interest in the station. He very kindly sent some photos of his 7mm scale layout for us to include here. The town and station are both fictitious but the layout is based on BR of the 1950s and features the old ticket office and down platform building, both made from Timber Tracks kits. He tells us that it took about three years to make and he found our website to be a great help. Gwendraeth was the subject of an article in the October 2018 issue of British Railway Modelling magazine.
A house move means that Michael now has room to expand and he is hoping to add more elements from the real Culham when developing Gwendraeth mk.2. We look foward to seeing how things progress.
All photos © Michael Culham
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Culham Ticket Office
We were very pleased to receive these photographs from Mike Towndrow showing a 4mm scale model of the Old Ticket Office which he made in 2019 using our downloadable model sheets. Not intended for use on a model railway layout, this was made purely as an interesting exercise and is displayed in a perspex case complete with name label.
All photos © Mike Towndrow
Weatherbury Magna
Seen at the exhibition at Steam in Swindon in 2017, this large 7mm layout of a fictitious West Country GWR station in 1920/30 uses Culham as the inspiration for the main station buildings. It is intended to include interior detail in the Old Ticket Office, and the wooden floorboards can already be seen through the open Waiting Room door. We were approached by the team responsible for information which we were able to provide and were pleased that they also found our website helpful. Just as in real life, the inset postbox is installed to the side of the doorway. The Waiting Shelter, whilst based on that originally at Culham, has been upgraded and now sits on a wide island platform. The fourth picture was taken from a different vantage point at a show in Reading in 2018.
Two articles covering Weatherbury Magna were included in the January and February editions of Railway Modeller magazine in 2019. The ticket office can be seen in some of the photos and we also got a mention.
Weatherbury Magna in 7mm scale ('O' gauge)
Bespoke scratchbuilt model - Kirtley model buildings
Amongst the many beautiful models produced by Kirtley Model Buildings is this 1/32nd scale, Gauge 1, model of the Old Ticket office photographed in 2009. A visit to their website is recommended as it shows some other interesting examples of their work and their range of papers, signs and books.
All photos © Kirtley Models
Culham in about 1860
It is pleasing to find a model of Culham in broad gauge days. This superb example by David and Sylvia White is built to 7mm scale and aims to show Culham as it was in about 1860, just before its conversion to standard gauge. The method of broad gauge track construction can be seen to advantage.
As seen here in 2017 it is a work in progress and will eventually grow to include more of the station, but already features the Old Ticket Office and the road overbridge. Just to the left of the first image a carriage can be seen waiting, perhaps ready to return to Nuneham House having brought someone down to catch the London train. The footbridge is a beautiful model in its own right but one would not have been seen at Culham until the early 20th century. Of course, artistic licence means that this doesn't matter in the slightest.
Broad gauge Culham in 7mm scale ('O' gauge)
City Streets resin kit
During the 1980s up until the early to mid 1990s a range of 4mm scale cast resin kits was produced under the 'City Streets' brand. Included in their range was Culham ticket office and this example was made by Derek Grant for use on his outdoor 4mm scale railway - it has weathered well over the past 30 years or so.
All photos © Derek Grant
