7th August 2021 - Malcolm (90024) and Multimodal (90019) at Making Tracks

Having first laid eyes on the Chester Cathedral layout on Youtube several months ago, seen below on Hornby Magazine's clip, I just knew i had to see it, not on someone's video as such, but get out there and see it in the flesh, there have been a number of exhibitions where OLE layouts have been present but this was probably the first where i was either (a) able to get involved in or (b) had sufficient enough knowledge to go along and ultimately learn something being at a point, where my own layout would benefit from such input.

The layout visually doesn't disappoint and the team have done incredible work to pull it together with everything that's going on in the world at the moment - the level of detail is brilliant and represents the WCML brilliantly and the good thing about it is that visually it hasnt changed much in nearly sixty years since electrification was completed in the earlier stages therefore this allows for a wide variety of stock and traction to be shown 

I just knew it would also be the perfect place to see the Bachmann Class 90 get to stretch its legs, my stable of Bachmann 90s have had to be patient whilst Johnson Street IEMD has been taking shape, most recently seen here:

and although one or two have had nice trips out to various locations along the ficticious network such as Stacton Tressell

and Rose Heath (which is also in development - the buildings seen on the layout are positioned where things are going but the orientation of the scene will very different once finished - I joke with the owner that it would look lovely covered in knitting - he isnt having it - but it's a great place to run diversionary paths for 4M25/4S47 etc - and will hopefully soon get to see what this looks like in the flesh having seen doubel headed Skodas working to go with my Malcolm rake - again - you have to ''imagine'' the OLE here at Rose Heath - being just like seen at Making Tracks.

one had to only imagine what the OLE looked like, here was a location of a hybrid West Coast mainline, the perfect stomping ground for the Skoda

Soooo ... Chester Cathedral - yes, there are lots of clips of Chester for you all to see - out there on YouTube - having managed to make it there for a second time without snarly traffic holding us up, it didnt quite according to plan and in the end Jack was the only one to make it out unscathed, due to the CV set up on Bill having been different - having been configured for the small movements at Johnson Street, Jack, seen below going round light engine.

Third time lucky at Chester's Making tracks exhibition which is open till 3rd September and well worth seeing if you aren't too far away from Chester, best book in advance to avoid potential embarassment but the people at the Cathedral are a friendly bunch and in a way, it's nice to think i have somehow contributed to a good cause, having been three times. It hasnt been oversubscribed as such so one might get away with popping in on ad-hoc. Is it easy to get to, whats the parking like etc, i hear you asking, i used the park and ride at Boughton Heath, and managed to get there, initially via the A41, and then by the A54 but you can get there on a number of different roads - just google it - you basically park your car and take the bus into Chester city centre - the bus takes you to a bus station which is a short walk away from the Cathedral and only costs a few quid to get there and back on the same ticket and that also includes your parking - brilliant ... that bit couldnt have gone any better ...

First time round I'd been stuck in traffic and just missed them, second time round, was biesieged with CV problems and ''so called poor'' intermodal wagons, third time lucky, and despite a wave of criticism from some quarters, Malcolm and Multimodal got to do a lap with the mixed Malcolm intermodal rake that I have been working on for a few months - and boy, didnt it look great if slightly a bit short - the other wagons and boxes were there but there had been some teething issues with them - Malcolm firstly doing a lap with some Blue Circle cement wagons

before we moved on to the Intermodals later in the day - firstly Malcolm

and then Multimodal

we didnt manage to get as far as double heading but it was great getting to see the 90s in their natural habitat - the only shame being that there were none already present with a number of BR blue Class 86s and 87s on duty ...

well done boys (Malcolm, Jack and Multimodal)... this is what I had waited several months to get to see. We didnt get our luck with the weather this time but having seen the below, my enthusiasm wasnt going to be washed away.

Thank you also to @dmu 156 for giving both myself and my OLE local chief engineer Ian @amertonman to get to see how the knitting was replicated at Chester - several aspects of this are going to be replicated at Johnson Street. 

Kat@johnsonstreetIEMD