THE THRILL OF THE ‘CHASE’

I’m a retired sea-going marine engineer officer. My ‘OO’ gauge model railway is named the ‘Chevy Chase, Bethesda and Silver Spring Railway’. It will never leave home and is located in my Weymouth house loft. The layout has taken 30 years to complete (not that long when you have spent 42 years working away on ships!) and consists of four stations. Chevy Chase, a main through/terminal station; Bethesda, a through station (one of the two platforms has an overhead electrified line installed); Silver Spring, a through country station; and Chase Lane, a local halt for the adjacent locomotive depot.

The Avon Valley heritage line makes its connection at Springfield Junction. Nearby, a team of volunteers are working on a ‘9F’. There are four analogue controllers controlling the track circuits and track is a mixture of Peco and Hornby components.

I run a mixture of modern and heritage stock, depending on what I want to operate at the time. I own a vast quantity of steam, diesel and electric locomotives, coaches and wagons, including various US and Canadian locomotives, collected on my travels, and they can be seen on the layout at the Us/canadian Railroad Museum. The town scenes consist of many features, including a house on fire, bus station, rail-connected scrapyard, wind turbines, petrol station, fire and police stations, hotel, churches, pubs and even a cemetery. There’s also a farm and a dairy. Cars, lorries, buses, people and animals are all around, including figures depicting all three service personnel (RN, RAF and Army).

I have enjoyed building the layout over the years, and I enjoy running locomotives and stock as I choose, to, with no fixed pattern or schedule.

All who have viewed the ‘CCB & SS Railway’ seem impressed with what they see.

I am very pleased with it too!