Earlier in the year, at February Half Term, we made our first visit to the Bekonscot Model Village & Railway, Bekonscot is in Beaconsfield, which is in Buckinghamshire.
The model railway has various locomotives running around the 10 miles, and also many from different time periods. The model village aims to show what life was like in the early 1900's and does this very well!
Some History
Bekonscot Model Village and Railway is the world's oldest model village, it opened in 1929, it has 80 years of history, a huge model railway and 1.5 acres of gardens to explore. It also has finely detailed model buildings. Bekonscot has something for all the family.
Bekonscot was first created by accountant Roland Callingham, his swimming pool became the first sea and the rock was built up to be hills. Bekonscot was named after Beaconsfield and Ascot, where Roland previously lived.
Growth of the village is limited, this is because the surrounding area is now a housing estate – so Bekonscot is limited to where to expand!
There is also a miniature railway that takes you around the village, it also only costs £1 for the train ride. Bekonscot has two diesels for the railway, todays loco was the blue one, the other is black!
Our Visit
When you arrived at Bekonscot, you will get your tickets from a restored MK1 Coach, which also is the gift shop.
Bekonscot has a massive model railway layout, it works every day and throughout all different types of weather – even snow! The amount of track is massive too – with 10 scale miles of track over its 1.5 acre site.
The hub of all of this is at ‘Maryloo Signal Box'. This is where all trains start and finish their day. It is also the place where all the points are set.
As we said earlier in the post, the model village and railway is open in all weathers, luckily, we visited on a cold, but very sunny day. It was very chilly, even the water for the lake was frozen to ice.
The model village has very intricately detailed buildings and houses. Bekonscot is building a ‘Bekonscot New Town' and work is well underway!
Bekonscot donates a lot of its income to charity. So far it has raised over £5 million for charity and has been visited by over
14 million visitors.
The village also is very detailed, with model figures in the shops and signs outside the shops. It also has timings for the church!
The trains will feature in a video, which is at the top of this post.
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