Crich Tramway Museum welcomes return of model exhibition this weekend

A total of ten tram, trolleybus and train layouts will be on show on Saturday and Sunday, August 20-21, with incredible miniature details tracking key moments in 20th century engineering and social history.

Museum spokesperson Amanda Blair said: “The model exhibition is a fantastic addition to our life size trams, which will also be running.

“There is no added cost for the exhibition, it's included in normal entry prices.”

One of the event’s standout attractions will be the Whiteleaf Tramway, scratch-built by the Buckinghamshire Garden Railway Society and modelling parts of the expansive metre-gauge tramway system which was once integral to Belgium.

This is the largest assembly of Belgium G scale Vicinal rolling stock to be seen in the UK, and portrays an electric tramway that runs through the streets and then sets off through the countryside to serve surrounding villages.

As not all sections of a tramway would be equipped with overhead wire, steam and diesel traction would be employed to serve outlying areas, a type of operation which was very common on tramways across Europe for both passenger and goods traffic.

For something closer to home, the Camwell’s View layout shows a section of street track somewhere on Birmingham’s Bristol Road in 1952, with various types of Corporation trams operating along the route.

The diorama pays tribute to the famous photographer WA Camwell, one of the most active members of the railway enthusiast community during the 1950s and 1960s, who is seen working in his day job at the Municipal Bank on the right-hand end of the layout, and to famous tram photographer WS Eades, who lends his name to a shop in the scene.

Event organiser John Huddlestone said: “We are delighted to present this exhibition again, which is popular with both exhibitors and visitors.”

Normal museum entry charges apply, open both days from 10am to 5.30pm, with last admissions at 4pm.

For more information on the show and the rest of the museum’s summer activity programme, go to tramway.co.uk or call 01773 854321.

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