Creating a brand-new model railway is one thing, building a giant 64ft long model of the West Coast Main Line for a three month long event in Chester Cathedral is quite another. PETE WATERMAN OBE relished the challenge and in our comprehensive guide to this fantastic ‘OO’ gauge layout he reveals the full story behind the project.
GAUGE: ‘OO’, 16.5mm SCALE: 4mm:1ft SIZE: 64ft x 12ft REGION: MIDLAND PERIOD: 2000-2021 CONTROL: DCC, ZIMO
Above: With the stained glass windows of Chester Cathedral behind, Class 66 66088 leads a cement working out of North Church Tunnel as a Class 390 Pendolino heads north on the fast lines.
After 30 years of modelling in ‘O’ gauge and being stuck in the period that shaped my life in the 1950s, it was about to change when I had a meeting with the Dean at Chester Cathedral. He asked for some advice about a model railway show they were planning for the summer of 2020. The model railway was to be in ‘OO’ gauge and was a pretty standard sort of thing. Following a Lego show the year before where they had built a model of the Cathedral, it was perhaps a bit unambitious. I hadn’t modelled in 4mm:1ft scale since the early 1980s – and that was ‘EM’ gauge.
Some of the boys that are part of the Leamington Spa gr…
