On track for completion - Totnes Museum

By: Richard Wyatt
Added: 12 August 2011

Retired pathologist Campbell Drysdale has been used to having to focus on minute detail but the job he's been tackling, since last January, at Totnes Museum has called on every ounce of his professional ability. He has been working his way through boxes and boxes of model railway equipment. Trains, carriages and trackside accessories in both 0 and 00 gauges.

Everything is having to be numbered and catalogued as part of a bequest that has been shared between the Museum and the South Devon Railway Association. The collection was owned by the late Frank Heath, a local businessman who had spent his entire adult life collecting, making and painting his model railway.

Frank's son-in-law, Michael O'Donoghue, arranged for the impressive lay-out to be shared between the two groups to keep it in the district. Campbell, who is now down to his last few boxes, admits that at times his task has been 'tedious' but he's certainly been close enough to see 'how impressive' the collection is.