FFARQUHAR BRANCH
The Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry, author of the Railway Series and creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, was a railway modeller. Regardless of what you think of the blue locomotive and his evolution in recent years, it’s hard to deny the cultural impact Wilbert’s work has had on the railway world.
Wilbert was a volunteer on The Talyllyn Railway, starting in 1952, and his days working on the railway inspired many stories in the Railway Series and is now home to a re-creation of his study. Within the collection of artefacts left to the railway is his OO gauge model railway, ‘Ffarquhar Branch’.
The historical significance, even away from the Thomas connection, is quite significant, given there aren’t many layouts of this age still around – let alone in working order with all of the original rolling stock!
Wilbert started to model the North Western Railway – later region – in the late-1940s, when he was starting to properly plot the location of his stories, as to help with ‘discovering’ the Island – the final geography and and models that run on ‘Ffarquhar Branch’ today all date from this time. The NWR was ripped up when the family moved to Emneth in 1953.
