The move of the society’s permanent track from Queen’s Road to the new site at Lafarge’s Cement Works in Westbury has caused several members to trawl through their memories of the club, its members and activities over the years. Chris Ede came over to Frome one afternoon in August with several photograph albums and together we began to unravel the past in the hope that we could record something of the origins and early history of the West Wilts Society of Model Engineers.

The Society had its origins in The Trowbridge Society of Model Engineers formed before World War 2 as a model engineering club. By 1960 despite having its own workshop in The Halve in Trowbridge and holding regular monthly meetings the society had dwindled down to only 4 active members, Bob Savoury, Chris Ede, Ron Huntley and his son. The club undertook public running at local fetes on a raised portable track for 5” gauge and 3.5” gauge locomotives. The track was of wooden construction and time consuming to erect. Early Fetes were run using a 3.5” gauge “Tich” but in 1966 a bereavement sale in the Devizes area produced a 3.5” Doris, a 3.5” Miss Ten to Eight and a 5” Gauge Maid of Kent. By this time the membership had grown to six.

In the spring 1964 at the wedding of Charles Bradshaw and Yvonne Elliott the society transported the bride and groom away from the church. The Trowbridge Club didn’t have its own permanent track but visited other societies including the Southampton Club.

As early as the autumn of 1962 Bob Savoury suggested forming a new society based in Westbury. The splinter group who all resided in the Westbury Area set up the Westbury Society of Model Engineers in the late 1960’s.

First meetings were held at Bob’s House who co-ordinated the fetes. Although the new society didn’t have a track Bob continued to book fetes. Four members clubbed together with an initial individual investment of £25 and with this the portable track we still use today was built at a total cost of £100. The track was constructed in January 1968 and the first event it appeared at was Warminster Boy Scout Garden Fete in March of that year. The track erected on the Friday evening but during the night it snowed and the fete was cancelled. The track however was left in situ until the following week when members discovered that none of the wheels of the model locomotives could get any adhesion due to the fact that the top section of the “rail” was slightly curved. The track was left in place over the whole of the following week during which time the members filed all 200ft flat.

After this fete bookings came in thick and fast. Furthest away was at Winscombe near Weston Super Mare and fetes ran every weekend with the aim of raising funds to build a permanent track. Evening meetings continued to be held at Bob’s house until the membership grew to the extent that a larger meeting room was found Westbury Youth Centre in Eden Vale Road.

The first engine to be built by a club member, rather than purchased was a 3.5” gauge “Jubilee” 2-6-4 tank by Dave Locke in the early 1970’s. The first 5” gauge engine was Des Clarke’s “Simplex” and then Jack Bodman’s 5” gauge “Butch”. This locomotive featured in an HTV television outside broadcast at Edington. The club also took its portable track to a local traction engine rally held at Seend where we ran not only in parallel formation with the Trowbridge Club’s track but also with a 9.25” gauge track owned by a private individual. The club visited other model engineering club’s tracks at Yeovil, Andover and Farmborough. We visited Roads Reconstruction at Hapsford near Frome to see the last of the Sentinel Locomotives at work. During the course of this visit club member Bert Brown helped re-rail a derailed stone wagon which was blocking the yard. We travelled up the line to Whatley Quarry in the trailing cab of one of the new diesel Sentinel locomotives.

The biggest fiasco at fete the club ever experienced in these early days happened at Victoria Park in Bath. The track was erected on the side of a hill on the Friday night. The locomotives present on the following day were Jack Bodman’s 3.5” gauge A3 Pacific “Felstead”. Bob’s 3.5” gauge “Doris”, Chris’s “Miss Ten to Eight” and Bob’s “Juliet”. A mile long queue developed and so we put the biggest engine on first which was Felstead. On the first run it lost grip on the steep gradient so we decided to move the track a bit further down the hill. This locomotive then failed with steaming problems so we put on Bob’s “Doris” which did about 10 trips and then derailed leaving the engine in Chris’s lap with the valve gear broken. Miss Ten to Eight was then steamed but due to unsatisfactory performance this was taken off and the rest of the trains were run with the 3.5” gauge “Juliet” carrying just 2 passengers at a time. The members tore a lot of their hair out on this occasion. The worst result from an event was one which the club attended at Witham Friary. At the village gymkhana we were required to keep the engines quiet so as not to scare the horses and we went home with 2/6d (12.5p). The club also ran at Radstock Station during the early years of the abortive S & DJR preservation scheme.

The Society held a number of exhibitions in Westbury Youth Centre and St Thomas’s Hall in Trowbridge; the Trowbridge Model Engineering Society having ceased operations by this time.

By the mid 1970’s there were about 20 members. In search of a site for a permanent track the club investigated a site at Broker’s Wood and another close to Westbury Station but planning complications soon put paid to this. Then Bob Savoury was shown a site by Westbury Town Councillors near Queens Road. Originally it was hoped to incorporate part of the playing field on the western side of the youth centre into the plot but local residents objected. The main site was being used as a rubbish dump but this presented Bob with no problems because as chief engineer to Holderways of Westbury he had access to a bulldozer which he used to landscape the site. With a bank balance then in the hundreds of pounds the club purchased the steel which was delivered to Cort Engineering in Westbury Leigh in 1974 from where it was transported in the portable track trailer to the Queen’s Road site. The track was fabricated from pre-drilled sections and was erected in sections in the workshop attached to Westbury Youth centre. The site was planted with silver birch trees which were growing as saplings on the former interchange sidings between Limpley Stoke and Freshford. Construction took about 6 months and was opened by the well known railway enthusiast and photographer the Reverend Allan Newman who was then vicar of Christchurch in Bradford on Avon.

With the completion of the permanent track the club adopted the present pattern of meetings with indoor meetings with speakers being held at Westbury Youth Centre from October to April and the meetings from May to September being held outdoors at the track. Notable speakers in this period included Ivo Peters and Professor George Watkins,

Chris Ede