Collections - Newton Abbot Town & GWR Museum

Newton Abbot Town & GWR Museum

Introduction

The collection includes an interesting display of artefacts from the height of the Great Western Railway age. Local art, pottery and social history themes are well represented. picture_of_atmo_station

Atmospheric Carriage Model

As part of the Brunel 200 celebrations the museum commissioned local model engineer Peter Parks to build a model of an atmospheric carriage of the South Devon Railway.

This model was based
on the drawings from
The Broad Gauge Society.
To complement the model The South Devon Model Railway Society have created a representation of "Newton Station" c. 1848.
This model was created using the watercolours of the area by William Dawson.
These watercolours are held in the Institution of Civil Engineers, London. The watercolours have been copied by the Devon Record Office, Exeter.

Signal Box

The working signal box takes pride of place within the GWR Room, a hands-on connection with the great days of the Great Western Railway.

Within the GWR Room there is an audio system where you can hear ex-GWR men talk about their life on the railways. Fry-ups and tales of snowstorms await you!

Museum Link

"The Museum Link" is a group of ex-GWR men who meet four/five times a year in the museum.

Many of them have been contributing to the growing Oral Archive within the museum's collection.

Brunel 200

During 2006 Bristol & The South West celebrated I.K. Brunel's 200th birthday with events,exhibitions,publications,etc.

The Heritage Lottery Fund Arts council and many other sponsers help to fund the Newton Abbot Brunel 200 event in May which was held in Old Forde House(owned by Teignbridge District Council).

The Museum installed a model of Brunel's extraoridinary Atmospheric Railway, in the GWR Room. It was based on the watercolours depicting 'Newton' station by William Dawson and painted in 1846. The building of the model of the cariage by Peter Parkes was part funded by the Heritage Lottery. It stands as a lasting legacey of the Brunel 200 celebrations.

A section of Brunel's atmospheric pipe

Bristol Industrial Museum has kindly donated a section of atmospheric pipe to the Museum this year which helps visitors to understand the complicated system that Brunel was convinced would work and in reality did not last long at all.

The line from Exeter to Newton returned to locomotive power in from Sunday 10th Sept 1848. During the month of May(to coincide) with the Brunel Event, The Institution of Civil Engineers, London loaned the original William Dawson watercolours to the Museum, they had never been out of London before, so it was a with great excitement they were displayed in the museum throughout the Month of May, each day a page was turned showing the engineering drawing and landscape views either side of the line from Exeter to Totnes. The paintings are bright and colourful and capture a moment in time, not only showing the atmospheric railway system as it was, but also revealing a lot of social history duing the period of 1846-1848.

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