Perhaps the most imposing Gauge 2 layout of all time, this model
railway was built at Theale, Berkshire, in 1912. You can read about
it in Ned William's Garden
Rail, January, 2021 article.
We are fortunate that some items from this Edwardian wonder still
survive, including the Brake van mentioned by Ned and the GW coaches
described in these pages. The railway was described in the May, 1925
edition of Model Railway News, already some time after the layout
had been dismantled. The 'two gentlemen' are of course Krabbe and
Brabazon, the latter the same Brabazon who held the first pilot's
licence in England and went down in history with the huge post
Second World War airliner that was named after him.That the railway
is described as 1 3/4" gauge is symptomatic: Gauge 2 had already
been consigned to history's dustbin.
