This model, as far as I know, represents a paddle steamer that would ferry passengers between Kingswear (pronounced 'kings-weer') and Dartmouth. The reason for this ferry service was as follows: When the Dartmouth & Torbay Railway (which was absorbed into the Great Western Railway) was built in the 1860s, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the man who built the railway, originally intended to build it as far as Dartmouth but the line never made it even if a station had been built there! So, like it is now, it stopped short at Kingswear, on the opposite side of the Dart Estuary. In other words, passengers travelling to and from Dartmouth have always benefited from this service (and they still do!). Today, the railway linking Paignton (pronounced 'pain-ton') with Kingswear thrives as a preserved line.