 Some of you may be familiar with my occasional ramblings and model railway photography on the printed page.
This website is a chance to me to prove that I also mess about with the hobby in my spare time when not looking through a viewfinder or tapping on a keyboard. It's also really healthy to have an escape in
this world that doesn't need 'F functions' or digits - and if you get it all wrong 'CTRL Z' won't undo any mistakes!
And now, a little about some of the layouts......
 Catcott Burtle, a could have been scenario which is heavily
influenced by the BBC TV film Branchline Railway, and having been taken in by the wild open feel of the area much dominated by willow,
water and big skies. Many roads in the area crossed the railway via manned level crossings rather than bridges, with each crossing having its own crossing keeper and railway cottage. Several of the cottages
had no running water or electricity right up to closure in 1966, the water being delivered by rail in milk churns! Catcott, one of the many crossings on the line never was a halt or had sidings. In the
parallel universe world here, imagine if to serve the local peat deposits things had been very different?
 Cement Quay is the result of looking at full sized railway
freight operations and being impressed by large class 66's hauling their bulk loads. Cement Quay is part of a cement terminal on the river Severn somewhere in Gloucestershire, operations including arrivals
and departures of bulk cement operated by Freightliner. Also featured is a stone terminal to add interest, services to and from this being operated by DB Shenker (formerly EWS). Whilst Cement Quay is
represents a present day scenario, winding the clock back a few decades to BR Blue or even the days of steam also works due to the non-era specific nature of the buildings.
 Old Quarry Wharf is an extension to Cement Quay, it depicting exactly
what the title suggests. Cement Quay can be operated with and without this new embellishment and to date has proven to be very popular with the extra operating and visual interest it generates. With a little
extra work I hope to be able to work Old Quarry Wharf as a standalone micro layout in due course if so desired.
 Mendip Colliery which was formerly known as 'Coal & Steam'is my latest and current project. It has been in the planning stage for a little too long, but now with the a arrival of some really good reference material and a greater understanding of coal mining I've finally been inspired to move it forward. As the title suggests, the aim of the model is to depict one of the smaller unmodernised collieries of the North Somerset area. Many of these were in pretty areas, so to me is an ideal prototype as a fan of the bucolic, the run down and the almost forgotten. Current focus is on the construction of the various buildings, some of which will be serialised in Model Rail Mag.
 Combwich is my oldest layout, its origins go back to around
1980 when as a spotty teenager I learnt how to hand build track and how to push scenics beyond just throwing a bag of brightly coloured foam and lichen at some glue. Combwich depicts an extension of the
Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway from Highbridge to the small village of Combwich on the upper reaches of the River Parrett. I also envisaged a line from Combwich down to Bridgwater too. Of course, in real
life, Combwich never took off as a port and certainly never had a railway, even though some people from that village have written to me in recent years telling me where the station used to be!
 Arne Wharf is modelled in 009 (representing 2'3" gauge) and
totally contained within 3' x 2'. Building layout to such a conservative size allows it to be worked on almost anywhere in the house. My interpretation is based on a fictitious line running from Arne to
Wareham via Ridge & Stoborough on the Purbeck Peninsular. The line was built to transport ball clay, lime stone, salt and oysters in addition to general merchandise. One of the delights of this scale/gauge
combination is that almost anything goes - making for enjoyable escapism free from those dull adenoidal rivet counters!
 'Workbench, Locos @ Misc etc.' is for just those things, and
also features sub-sections covering other bits and bobs that I didn't really know where to place! In there you will also find some features on building stock boxes and converting rolling stock and so on,
some of which are 'reprints' of old articles that were originally produced for the printed page.
 My BLOG is where I regularly go into a little more detail about current
projects, photographs or whatever takes my fancy at the time. You are also able to comment on the blog entries with your take on things.
Chris Nevard
'On the Road'..........
Combwich - High Wycombe 6 Nov '10.
Catcott Burtle - Guildford 15 Jan 2011.
Combwich - Railex May 2011.
Catcott Burtle - High Wycombe Nov 2011.
Arne Wharf - Guildford Jan 2012.
All photographic images* on this website are © 1981-2008 Chris Nevard. This Web Site and any of its contents may not be copied, translated or distributed in any manner (electronic, web or printed) without the prior written consent of Chris Nevard. Contact. We actively seek out copyright violations in print and on the Internet and will use full legal force to deal with any Copyright infringements. * Photographic images are defined as GIF & JPEG format image files.
|
