A model railway layout built inside four box files and reflecting the work of Southeast Communities Rail Partnership has been displayed at a festival of modelling.
The layout – called Box End Green – highlights the activities of Community Rail and promotes the Railway 200 celebrations in 2025.
It had its debut at the two days of the Ashford Festival of Modelling earlier this month.
The box files were no longer needed at SCRP’s offices. Marshlink community rail partnership line officer Paul Bromley took them home and, with the help of his fellow members of Eastbourne Model Railway Society, built the layout over a period of three months.
Among the current and recent Community Rail activities featured in the box files are:
:: Teaching schoolchildren and less confident groups about safe and independent travel by train
:: Promoting stations as gateways to attractions and turning them into welcoming environments
:: Bringing redundant station buildings back into community use
:: Working with Scouts on their railway safety Platforms for Change badge
:: Developing travel plans for disabled people in consultation with train and bus companies
:: Escorting learning disabled adults on visits by train to museums and cultural venues
:: Integrated and sustainable transport links to buses, walking and cycling routes
Ashford Mayor Cllr Lyn Suddards was among those to see the layout at EKC Ashford College on the weekend of 12/13 April.
She said: “It was a very effective exhibit with each box segment expressing a great deal in a minute space.”
The box files include scaled-down representations of Rye station, Bodiam Castle and Eastbourne RNLI museum.
Fred Garner, director of Ashford International Model Railway Education Centre (AIMREC), which organised the festival, commented: “Box End Green told a lot in a small space and showed the story of community involvement in our railways.”
Comments from other visitors included “lovely to see the impact on the community”, “such a cool idea and sustainable”, “informative and engaging for all ages to showcase the work of Community Rail”, “a unique repurpose of old files, truly inspirational” and “fantastic way of demonstrating the great work that the partnership is doing”.
The layout cost less than £200 to build and involved about 200 volunteer hours. It forms part of the celebrations of 200 years of the modern railways since the Stockton & Darlington railway opened in 1825.
Click here to see a behind-the-scenes video of how Box End Green was built.
Click here for more visitor feedback and comments.
