Culham in model form
Commercial kits
We have found very few commercially available kits for buildings at Culham station. Some are no longer in production and the manufacturers have ceased trading, but a new and interesting range is being developed by Osborn's Models as seen below.
Click or tap on any thumbnail below to see a gallery of the selected model.
Osborn's Models mixed media kits
In 2019 Osborn's Models started extending the range of mixed media kits under their 'Arch Laser' brand with a number of items which are of particular interest to modellers of the Didcot to Oxford Railway. The Old Ticket Office at Culham is available in 'N' scale and, whilst not being 100% accurate, it is a beautiful and interesting representation of the building and we are pleased to have added an example of this kit to our collection. As we found when developing our pdf sheets for a card model, the chimneys proved difficult to reproduce satisfactorily. This issue has been overcome in the Arch kit by producing superb 3D printed versions which may also be purchased from them as separate items.
Other buildings in the range will eventually include the Culham Down platform building. Also of local interest are the main and island platform buildings at Radley, together with the station running in boards, platform mounted signal box and covered footbridge. All these kits are produced to 'N' scale.
Photographs of completed model © Osborn's Models
~ Scrolling through the gallery will reveal more images than shown above ~
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 we are very pleased to have in our collection this fine example of a complete unmade kit as it would have been originally purchased. It is interesting that the painting instructions included in the box say that the building is 'currently painted green and white'. The kit itself did not include any canopy valance or cast-iron support brackets, but is an otherwise accurate representation of the building.
Timbertracks laser cut wood models
Produced in 4mm and 7mm scale by Timbertracks, these wooden kits of the Old Ticket Office and the original waiting shelter on platform 1 caught our attention. Construction and painting of the Ticket Office was the subject of a detailed article in the April 2015 edition of Railway Modeller. It should be no surprise if these buildings look familiar as these kits have been used on a number of the layouts featured on the 'Introduction' page.
We simply couldn't resist making the '0' scale versions of the Old Ticket Office and Down Platform building whilst they were still available, so here are the results of our efforts. Whilst the kits are not entirely accurate in a number of aspects, and we admit to making a few mistakes whilst making them, the results are really pleasing. They were made 'as supplied' and look splendid in their 'raw' state, so much so that we are not going to paint them but leave them as can be seen here. Since these photographs were taken we have added glazing (frosted where applicable) and cast brass door knobs. The chimney pots supplied with the Down building kit were white metal castings but, as can be seen, we replaced them with ones which we turned from wood dowel.
