Chee Tor - Manchester MRS

[Bigric]

          Boys & girls - As some of you have already noticed , I have been blundering my way through putting an album on here of some photos I took years ago of the famous Manchester MRS old layout Chee Tor , and with some invaluable advice from Newportnobby & Scotsoft I THINK I have just about managed that now .....& got the pics the right size ! It was/is 2 mm finescale BUT to me great modelling is great modelling , whatever scale, gauge or "genre" we model ! It's often where our inspiration comes from .
           In 2006 , a mate of mine & I decided to go to an open session M/C MRS were holding one afternoon in their club HQ , Dean Hall . When we got there , I think we were the only non members present . Anyway , I soon discovered that their legendary layout Chee Tor was there , in storage after being sold . I started going to exhibitions regularly in 2002 , but I had never seen Chee Tor in action , although its status as an iconic layout was well established by then & I had seen photos of it in the mags from time to time .
            After a couple of minutes , one of the members came over to me to chat about the layout & he explained that it was now retired from the exhibition circuit & sold on . Would I like to see some trains running so I could take some "action photos" ? Would I ever ??!!?? So that is where these pics came from , taken on my cheapo compact automatic....apologies for slightly out of focus stuff , the ones I had to bin were worse ! Even with these very average pics , the quality of the modelling comes shining through . The layout captured perfectly the Derbyshire Peak District I think . If you are at all interested in seeing some PROPER photography of Chee Tor , I have discovered that on the British Railway Modelling mag site (www.model-railways-live.co.uk) there is a PDF of a photo article Tony Wright did on the layout in October 2005 just as it was about to be exhibited for the last time . Highly recommended !!! The link to the album of pics I took is below ......hopefully .Apparently , the layout was shipped out to Canada .
     http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=media;sa=album;in=912

OOO , ERR , I hope that works ! Never mind tittering out there , this is a BIG step for me !

Thanks for bearing with me ......I actually have quite a lot of layout pics from exhibitions I have been to going back to 2005(unfortunately , before that the pics I took were pre digital & I am fairly sure they've been wizzed) , so over the next few weeks I intend putting some small albums on like this . I have just a few pics of the late Andy Calvert's last layout Moorcock Junction , plus Kingswear , Gala Water , Bishop Wearburn , Lake Bassenthwaite , Ashburton , Dyna Hyfryd & others , all of merit.       Best regards to all , Ric

[Bigric]

And another thing------ if you want to have a look at the Tony Wright photo feature on Chee Tor from 2005 , DON'T go in through that website link I posted . I've just tried & can't find it now ! Instead , Google Chee Tor Model Railway & the 3rd or 4th entry going down is a direct link to the article PDF . Cheers , Ric

[Newportnobby]

Having seen Chee Tor in the 'running' days twice I was in awe of it as a piece of landscape modelling. Truly, trains running through the scenery in all its glory
I look forward to seeing you next few albums, Ric

[Steve.T]

Having seen Chee Tor in the 'running' days twice I was in awe of it as a piece of landscape modelling. Truly, trains running through the scenery in all its glory
I look forward to seeing you next few albums, Ric

Absolutely agree, this has to be one of my all time favorite layouts - probably the best in my opinion.

Steve