Somerset Museums

The Gauge Museum can be found at Bishops Lydeard, one end of Britain’s longest independent heritage railway. The newly re-furbished Gauge Museum combines a wide collection of original objects from the railway’s past, with a range of interactive exhibits to help visitors experience and explore some of the fascinating history of our line.

Housed in a historic goods shed built in 1876, the Gauge Museum tells the complete story of the West Somerset Railway, from its original design, at the hands of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, to its near demise under the Beeching axe and subsequent rescue and re-birth as a heritage line.

Discover Somerset’s Engineering Past

Our newly refurbished gallery offers a bright and welcoming space for visitors; with a range of interactive exhibits and working models designed to help you get ‘hands on’ with our history.  

Why not come and take on the role of signalman in our working signal box – do you have what it takes to set the points?

Step aboard our beautiful Victorian sleeping car, take a seat, and experience for yourself the height of luxury travel from the lost age of steam.  

Discover the history of the goods shed building with our new interactive goods exhibit.

Find out more about the people who built and worked on the railway with our new interactive touch screen, giving access to never-before seen pictures from our railway’s past. 

And do not forget to visit our model railway upstairs to watch our skilled operators in action.  

Education and Learning

A range of museum trails are available for young visitors and we regularly host family STEM events (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) as well as offering learning sessions, resource packs and loans boxes for schools.  For more information, please visit our website http://www.wsrht.co.uk/