MEMORIES OF A NATIONAL SERVICEMAN

Gibraltar  1953/54

TREVOR SIDAWAY
ROYAL ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERS

Playing Trains with Prince Charles and Princess Anne

Scale model of Gibraltar with 70 ft of track running around and through it.
Designed and Built by the REME and presented to Prince Charles (aged 6) in May 1954

Designed by me with a little help from my friends

As a "qualified" engineer, with all of six months Drawing Office experience, I was in charge of the

REME Drawing Office
It was a large office, with two draughtsmen, and a technical library, and I spent more than three months

on the design and manufacture of the model in the early part of 1954

The model was presented to Prince Charles (aged six), by the people of Gibraltar, to commemorate his

visit there in May of that year.
Together with Princess Anne (aged three), they made their first overseas trip in the Royal Yacht

Britannia to meet up with the Queen and Prince Phillip at the end of their six months tour of the Colonies
I met up with the Royal party, in the Admirals office in the Dockyard, and after a 30 min demonstration

spent the following three hours teaching Charles and Anne how to "crash" the trains
Measuring more than 4.5m x 2m with almost 20m of track, the scale model was designed, built and

commissioned by the REME in the spring of 1954
It was shipped back to the UK on board an Aircraft Carrier was installed in the School Room at

Buckingham palace for a number of years and is currently stored at Windsor castle in a controlled

Atmosphere

Close up of "Main Street" Station with a passenger train at the platform and goods train at the siding
A second station, a "Halt" is on the opposite side of the Rock at Catalan Bay

The model was designed and built in the REME Garrison Workshops and put on public demonstration in

the town before being installed in the Admiral’s office, in the Naval dockyard, to await the arrival of the

Royal party

Chief Draughtsman, aged 22

On my drawing board

Pictured in my office with a view overlooking the Mediterranean

The REME HQ Office Block at Monkey’s Cave

The corner of my office and its balcony can be seen on the second floor

The offices were built originally as a convalescent hospital in the early part of WW 2 by the Royal

Engineers.

They were sited in a place called Monkeys Cave at the entrance to a tunnel, named Arrow Street,

that was excavated by the Royal Canadian Engineers

The REME Garrison Workshops were above and behind the office block and were built into caverns

and caves and everything that was made, repaired or calibrated was their responsibility, from military

watches to the 9.2" Coastal Gun sited on the top of the1400 ft peak.
The REME provided a full design and manufacturing facility for the very large Military Garrison and

the model was built in the REME Workshop in the spring of 1954

A Royal Engineers architectural plan of the proposed building, in the event it was modified with the

side extensions omitted

The “mothballed” REME HQ pictured in 2005

The entrance to the Arrow Street tunnel can be clearly seen and a commemorative plaque is still in

place on the front of the building

The Commemorative plaque on the REME Office block

Pictures by George Staples

# Better than the Bahamas #

# More about the models # # "Resting" in Tangiers--at the EL Farhar #

# Football in Gibraltar (Part one) #

# Football in Gibraltar (Part two) #

# Keeping the Laundry going and other Sports #

# Home #

email me   trevor_sidaway@hotmail.com Link to "Black Country Stories"