Model railway version of Jersey to go on first display this weekend - Jersey Evening Post
by Megan Davies · Jersey Evening PostPosted inNews
Model railway version of Jersey to go on first display this weekend
by Megan Davies 19 June 202618 June 2026
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A MODEL railway detailing Jersey landmarks, made in memory of a frequent visitor who loved the Island, is due to be exhibited for the first time this weekend.
John Ramsay, from Corrington in Essex, is building the 25-foot-long display, named “Jill’s Jersey”, with the Thurrock Model Railway Club to remember his late wife.
The club is using a variety of techniques – both high- and low-tech – including 3D-printing a detailed version of Gorey Castle to creating the sea using toilet paper. The model will also bring back the Gorey and Corbière railway lines for the model trains.
In all, around 20 to 25 people have worked on the project, Mr Ramsay said, who “have been brilliant”.
Though the model is not yet, a number of landmarks have been brought to life, with the castle set to “the star of it”, Mr Ramsay said.
With another three months until the first “real” display, the club is looking for accurate boats to place in the Harbour.
Mr and Mrs Ramsay were regulars to the Island, having first visited together in 1978, when they camped in St Brelade. More recently, the pair stayed at the Golden Sands Hotel.
They had hoped to one day stay in the Radio Tower at Corbière, “but that never happened”, said Mr Ramsay, following his wife’s death from breast cancer a year ago.
Building Jill’s Jersey has helped deal with his grief, Mr Ramsay added.
“It’s kept me going. It’s given me back my mojo to do mine at home,” adding that it had given new purpose to a room they had split into a half for his model railways and Mrs Ramsay to read and do puzzles.
“I found it hard going in there,” Mr Ramsay said. “I have gone back in the last weeks and I have actually enjoyed it. It’s got me back into my layout.”
After putting in hundreds of hours of work, the club is planning on displaying Jill’s Jersey at a charity garden party tomorrow in support of St Luke’s Hospice in Thurrock, who supported Mrs Ramsay in her last weeks.
“It’s a wonderful hospice… they helped us tremendously in her last few weeks of life,” her husband said.
Donations from Islanders have made up about half of the donations received so far, while the Jersey Community have also helped by providing detailed maps and pictures of landmarks, allowing the club could replicate places like the bunker at Corbière accurately.
The Channel Islands Occupation Society have been “brilliant”, Mr Ramsay said: “They gave me a drawing of the tower. We were able to then work out its system from the real drawings.”
Islanders can donate to St Luke’s Hospice at www.justgiving.com/page/jerseyjill.
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