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Chee Tor


woodenhead
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Found this little video on YouTube

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL2RjAe9yWY&ebc=ANyPxKpMsEQC2ZDEvtXAfQkeySlxe7So1jLnqNWY4ZFbTu9hcaafHcZu3RjjvgtAmi3t9KJ0vvbyU-Ekuoihs16i84nsc5NJSA

 

Does anyone know what happened once it left the exhibition circuit, I would like to think it went off to a happy retirement

Edited by woodenhead
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I really enjoyed watching that film, many thanks for posting the link. I have not seen it before despite searching on You Tube in the past. I have a copy of MRJ issue 50 which has a nice feature on the layout.

 

Hi Andy,

The layout also featured in Railway Modeller in November 1991, and in BRM in October 2005.

If you have a real archaeological bent then try Railway Modeller for May 1981, which features Chee Tor's predecessor Gransmoor Castle in it's almost final form, you can see the start of the "railway in the scenery" that epitomised Chee Tor.

 

Kevin

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Railway Modeller for May 1981, which features Chee Tor's predecessor Gransmoor Castle in it's almost final form, you can see the start of the "railway in the scenery" that epitomised Chee Tor. Kevin

I suddenly feel a bit ancient as remember seeing Gransmoor Castle in London around that year.. thx for reminder

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Thanks greatly for posting the Chee Tor/Cheedale link. I remember the layout well (and also am old enough to have seen Gransmoor, albeit on its last outing). A delightful layout and a charming video. I wish a few more of the layout videos posted on YouTube had the subtle sound effects and such a good linking commentary, rather than the ubiquitous noise of chattering public and operators. Much better to have no sound at all!

Best wishes,

John

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Gransmoor in its original form, as written up in the Constructor, spurred me to make my original N gauge layout at home: ‘Gouldby for Caldecote’ in the early 1970s. This then morphed into Chiltern Green & Luton Hoo at the MRC. Chee Tor had a relatively short exhibition life, as it made a magnificent scenic statement, but was then not really developed further.

 

Tim

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My recollection, as a long-standing MMRS country member, is that Gransmoor Castle started life as an N gauge layout but acquired a 2FS branch line in due course, but it is a long while ago, I think that the last time I saw it it was being exhibited in the stairwell of the original UMIST location of the MMRS Christmas show, so I might be wrong.

 

I seem to recollect that CF's predecessor, Chiltern Green, mixed N and 2FS as well, but doubtless Tim will correct me if I have that wrong.

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Gransmoor in its original form, as written up in the Constructor, spurred me to make my original N gauge layout at home: ‘Gouldby for Caldecote’ in the early 1970s. This then morphed into Chiltern Green & Luton Hoo at the MRC. Chee Tor had a relatively short exhibition life, as it made a magnificent scenic statement, but was then not really developed further.

 

Tim

 

G'day Folks

 

I never saw any of the layouts mentioned, working on the real thing precluded visits to shows, but the bit I always liked was the Luton Hoo branch, it got me into modelling the LNER instead of BR (E) it was so GN in character.

 

manna 

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Thanks for that, thoroughly enjoyed it. I think one of my earliest Railway Modellers must have been the one featuring Chee Tor, as I distinctly remember a cover with a Blue Pullman coming round a hill. Being about 6 at the time, I don't remember a lot else from it, so it was great to watch this. Inspirational modelling. 

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It was this video, along with a couple of other peoples postings in N and 2FS that have had me selling my OO collection in order to finally fund a proper modelling start. 

Almost at the goal for Airbrush and Weathering tools - and hopefully can pick the rest of the the things up at an exhibition in a couple of weeks - plus spend time enjoying Fence Houses too.

Lathe would be nice, but all in good time 8^)

 

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  • 4 years later...

I wonder if he got it going, quite clearly when this recording was made it had been just sat around gathering dust for some time, it's not even connected up just placed together and Minitrix/Lima stock plonked in the station.

 

He clearly values it, the way he describes it and the care to box it before it was transported, but it may forever be a portrait now.

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On 01/12/2022 at 00:26, Yorkshire Square said:

 

I know it's his trainset now, but get your hands off the scenery! 🙄

Totally agree - he's standing there saying he feels like he's got a Monet, but he has one clumsy hand on the scenery and its sitting there gathering dust and cobwebs and trains not even on the tracks. It was such a shame that another UK club or the Association didn't grab this when it was for sale. I know someone will say at least he saved it, but it breaks my heart to see the layout this way.

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Big layouts have no purpose once their builders move on from the project.   They often end up in the hands of an optimistic collector who lacks the skills to look after it.  Or they decay to the point of collapse in the corner of a clubroom.  It doesn't matter what the scale might be.  

 

I expect a large layout I'm currently closely involved with (just spent three days away from home working on it) will have a similar fate.  It might end up as a museum static (until time and decay causes it to look very tired).  It is highly unlikely to be a working layout after it leaves the current group.   
There have been 7 people adjusting and checking things over the last three days (and we've not done everything, just the things we intended to deal with in those days), it's highly unlikely that any private collector or small museum will be able to deploy that level of skill to look after it. 

 

The 2mm Scale Association lacks to money, premises for storage, and cannot direct people to carry out maintenance required of models.   It has never taken on historic items - I've sat on the committee on-and-off for about 30 years.   
If The Association were to consider changing policy, the first thing that needs writing, before acquiring anything, is a disposals policy:   i.e. how to get rid of stuff when it is no longer wanted, and/or nobody is willing to house it.  

 

- Nigel

 

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Nigel makes a very good point. Large layouts need a home and proper storage.  The reason why Copenhagen Fields has survived well is that the scenic sections have protected storage boxes.   I'm not sure that Chee Tor did as I once helped the team load up their truck and from memory, the layout simply rested on the floor of a 7.5T lorry.  It was also extraordinarily heavy, the scenery consisting of carved plaster.

My impression is that the layout served it's purpose, pleased the public and builders and then came to the end of that particular phase of its life. 

Mark

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On 01/12/2022 at 21:23, 2mmMark said:

Nigel makes a very good point. Large layouts need a home and proper storage.  The reason why Copenhagen Fields has survived well is that the scenic sections have protected storage boxes.   I'm not sure that Chee Tor did as I once helped the team load up their truck and from memory, the layout simply rested on the floor of a 7.5T lorry.  It was also extraordinarily heavy, the scenery consisting of carved plaster.

My impression is that the layout served it's purpose, pleased the public and builders and then came to the end of that particular phase of its life. 

Mark

 

Another reason layouts don't last is they have not been built with that in mind as a goal. I can say that from experience as I own a couple of them! CF has heavy-duty baseboards, other iconic layouts did not do so and have not stood the test of time. Heckmondwike was junked in the end when its boards warped.

 

And, unless the modelling is of superlative quality, layouts will be left behind by what follows them. With all due respect to that featured in MRJ 292, for example, as a trip down memory lane, it mostly demonstrates how far we have moved on since the 1960s in terms of finescale modelling. 

 

Anyway, most large layouts are built to exhibit, and have a certain shelf-life. before moving aside for their successors. Do we really want to go to exhibitions and see the same selection of layouts decade after decade?

 

The only real 'layout' that has lived on for 60 years (no, not Copenhagen Fields!)  is actually a museum to a former age, with a permanent home.   

 

Chris  

Edited by Chris Higgs
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