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Railway & Modelling Obituaries

Richard Chown; 1941 - 2017


Portchullin Tatty
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It is with great sadness that I advise that Richard Chown passed away last week.

 

Richard was a prolific modeller, typically of the somewhat unusual prototype and always (I think) in 7mm/1ft.  Not for him a debate between BR blood & custard or blue grey, instead he modelled unusual and quirky prototypes from Norway, Ireland or France.  Nor was he much interested in frothing (if that is what it was called then) about what the latest manufacturer might produce, he made the lot from scratch.

 

Although he did produce some smaller layouts, typically they were somewhat on the large scale, tending to the immense - right up to a full size french viaduct where unless you were a basketball player you needed to stand on a box to reach rail height (those that can see the rail height in the picture below are on boxes......).

 

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Perhaps his best known layout was Castle Rackrent which was famously constructed along the length of a disused post office footbridge on Waverley station (in the days when lunch breaks were breaks I guess!).   I think the layout reached 70m in length before BR decided that perhaps they would like their footbridge back......undeterred, Richard had a house built with a conveniently large (a.k.a. giant) basement to fit it and subsequently extended it to some eight stations such that it was an entire system.  All this (or nearly all in the final incarnation) was single line and worked with bells as no station could see the adjacent station and the trains had to be driven to the signals and then handed over.

 

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The last layout that he completed was of a Norwegian narrow gauge line, which really was right next to a famous waterfall.  This had been exhibited on a number of occasions in both England and Scotland.

 

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For finescale modellers in the Lothian Region, and visitors from further afar like me, would gather on a monthly basis to operate Castle Rackrent and Richard was always welcoming and encouraging.  He will be sorely missed by all and it is fair to say that I don't think we will see the like of he in the hobby again................after all, who would try to model the tallest viaduct in the world in 7mm (I think sense did prevail on this one as I don't think it got completed)

 

post-7769-0-20388200-1499722104_thumb.jpg

 

For those that wish to find out a bit more about Richard's layouts (including some I don't mention here) can go to his own rather clunky website and in respect of some of my visits to Castle Rackrent my blog posts.

 

Thanks to Jim Summers for many of the photos.

Edited by Portchullin Tatty
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Hi Mark,

 

One of Scotlands leading modellers has left us.

 

Some of his modelling was inspirational, some of it was plain crazy (in a good way).

 

I remember the first time I saw part of the French Viaduct layout and wondered at what sort of space he must have available to create such a model.

 

Thanks

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I don't know the man, but I do remember Castle Rackrent from the Railway Modeller. Sad when an inspirational figure passes away . Thoughts with everyone who knew him

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I had known Richard, on and off, for all but 50 years and have always been a great admirer of his skills in creating atmospheric models, and in his ability to produce a amicable glass of wine for a "friend" whilst exhibiting.

 

Rather more than 30 years ago, I became a senior member of BR's HQ fares team (producing inter-alia the National Fares Manual) and at an early stage it became appropriate to do a "meet the troops" tour of the various Regional fares offices where the real work was done. One of these was the Scottish Region office in Buchanan House in Glasgow, and, whilst there, my assistant and guide happened to mention my interest in model railways, the young lady who was head of section replied "Ah, you will be knowing our Mr Chown then!". Indeed I did, but I was amazed that his exploits in that footbridge in Edinburgh should be so well known that a young lady whose career had been in commercial departments in the "other city" would know of him and his "work", he was, after all, an engineer - and obviously a legend in his own time.

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Richard brought part of the Castle Rackrent Moygraney and Pacific layout to the Leeds Showin the Corn Exchange by train as a piece of carry on luggage.

 

I was privileged to attend a day in Edinburgh where the whole system was set up in a large Hall. It was a great experience.

 

A sad loss.

Baz

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When you look back at Castle Rackrent and the time when it was done, you realise he was a real trendsetter. He also pursued the more way out prototypes, particularly Irish and French, rather than the more popular big four scene, and this meant plenty more work was needed in creating them, and in 7mm scale too. Having made it, the extent of the model it could expand to was breathtaking, such as the fabled use of the Waverley overbridge. Who else would have the audacity to turn up at the Telford show with an articulated and wheel out that bloody great old French viaduct? Most definitely a very talented person and a great star of our hobby.

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 Very saddened to hear the news about Richard. Castle Rackrent was very much the inspiration when I started my own Arigna Town layout, so you can imagine my delight at the Manchester Show in December when a tall gentlemen appeared and said 'I have a 36.75mm loco with me, would you like to run it on your railway?' Despite numerous shows [approaching 30] and an open invitation for anyone doing Irish broad gauge in 7mm scale, this was a first. A beautiful model of the SLNCR's 'Lissadel', in original green livery was placed on the track and quickly commandeered to run the passenger train. At this point, I had no idea I was in the presence of railway royalty, but happily took pictures alongside my own 'Small Tanks' [Hazlewood & Fermanagh]. Only then did I start to ask who I could email photos to, when he offered his hand and just said 'Richard Chown'.

 The next few minutes were a delight as we watched his loco perform beautifully and I clicked away with the camera as we bemoaned the fact that very few Irish layouts seem to be made to the correct gauge. When Paul Green, who has an S gauge Irish layout [63/64ths of an inch] appeared, at that point we estimated that 60% of broad gauge exhibitors were together with just Ballyconnel Road and Valencia Harbour missing - though I would love to be proved wrong on that, especially now we have lost the founding father.

 So I glad I was able to meet him, but really sorry the hear that his creative genius is no more. Our hobby is much the poorer for his passing.

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Really sad to hear that news but Richard's legacy is the stuff of legend, he was the JK Rowling of the railway and his creations were every bit as beautifully crafted as any Harry Potter prose.

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This is really sad news. I'd not met Richard for a few years and had no idea he was unwell. I did get to see Allendenac once at the Gauge O Guild's 50th anniversary at Telford in 2006 which included three or four French themed layouts. I was more familiar with Courcelle Part and it was a wonderful little (for 0 gauge) layout with things like correct period signalling very well researched. He was an admirer of Dennis Allenden and, apart from the name of Allendenac itself,included a number of subtle tributes in his layouts.Richard Chown's modelling was superb but always seemed to have  a lightness of touch. He was a lovely man and a real character and I did like that one of the buildings on Courcelles Part, the warehouse I think, had been cunningly designed to conceal a bottle of rouge for the benefit of those who appreciated French railways. 

Edited by Pacific231G
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I was always impressed by Castle Rackrent when it appeared in the magazines, not just because it was Irish (and to the correct gauge) but because it was a complete system where trains actually went somewhere. The archaic Victorian Irish stock also helped to make it special. 

 

I have no composed a rather more lengthy eulogy to Richard's railway modelling; which you can find on my blog here.

I rather like the picture of the layout with GSR 800 in the background. That's not something you see every day!

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Sad news indeed. I didn't know Richard other than a couple of brief chats at shows. I do know one or two of his operating team a bit better and had been invited to come up to visit, which I never managed to get around to doing. As often happens with these things, it is too late now, which I regret greatly.

 

He was a man who tackled projects way above and beyond what most of us would dare to dream of trying.

 

I remember watching the team assemble that great French viaduct at Wigan show a few years ago and thinking that the number of people who could and would not only build something like that but transport it to shows must be tiny. Maybe he was unique in that respect.

 

But it was Castle Rackrent that I liked best and he showed that he didn't just think big, he did it with much modelling style, skill and finesse.

 

For me, he was right up there with the Denny`s, the Dyer`s and the Ahern`s of the hobby. 

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"Castle Rackrent was famously constructed along the length of a disused post office footbridge on Waverley station. 

The layout reached 70m in length before BR decided that perhaps they would like their footbridge back......"

 

 

As epitaphs go, that's surely one of THE finest.  R.I.P.

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..... imagine my delight at the Manchester Show in December when a tall gentlemen appeared and said 'I have a 36.75mm loco with me, would you like to run it on your railway?' Despite numerous shows [approaching 30] and an open invitation for anyone doing Irish broad gauge in 7mm scale, this was a first. A beautiful model of the SLNCR's 'Lissadel', in original green livery was placed on the track and quickly commandeered to run the passenger train. ....

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=11523&d=1390

 

I was always impressed by Castle Rackrent when it appeared in the magazines, not just because it was Irish (and to the correct gauge) but because it was a complete system where trains actually went somewhere. ....

 

In a way, you could say that his system predated the now-popular Continental FREMO / modular get-togethers where the trains also appear to go somewhere.

Edited by Horsetan
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I never got to meet him, but I have always likes his model of Castle Rackrent. It has only been in the past few months that I decided to try and find him and ask his advice on all thinks Irish, I have over the years built up a collection of 3ft Irish Kits in 00n3 which need to be built, but I have always considered Richard as one of those inspirational modellers along with the likes of the late David Lloyd who built Coolcalaghta.

 

It was also one of the reasons I wanted to contact him to find out what loco and rolling stock plans he had for Irish railways. in the past few months I have become interested by three Irish stations which have modelling appeal by the bucket, they are all a bit on the large size, they are Strabane on the GNRi / CDRJC, Downpatrick on the BCDR and finally for now at least Claremorris on the MGWR. 

 

I just hope that where ever they both are they can enjoy the Craic

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OT, but that is actually a really inviting location. I haven't seen a proper track plan for it when it was at its peak. Is there one?

You might find the 25" maps on the Irish ordinance survey website. I can't check until I return home next weekend.

 

Ps. Put a reminder on here on Friday if you have no luck.

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You might find the 25" maps on the Irish ordinance survey website. I can't check until I return home next weekend.

 

Ps. Put a reminder on here on Friday if you have no luck.

 

Thanks, I was after the period up to about 1959 before the Ballinrobe branch was closed and truncated.

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I will need to find the website again, but I copied the old signal cabin track plan which is extensive to say the least and it is that which I might use as a basis, the only thing it does not have and that is the recent sidings that have been install for the Oil traffic, the one thing I like about it is that it has five routes into the station itself, which from a modelling point of view means that you could have four different railway companies running trains into the station.  

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Wonderful tributes from Mark and everyone.  Richard was some-one whom I've always regarded as one of the "elder statesmen" of railway modelling.  I learned so much from him about Permanent Way, and I feel privileged to have been accepted as one of the regular operators of the Castle Rackrent Empire, and to have taken part in what turned out to be the final session a week past Friday.

 
Alasdair
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