For the third consecutive year, Pete Waterman OBE and his Railnuts team are returning to Chester Cathedral with Making Tracks 3 – a brand-new 64ft long model railway, which opens on Wednesday 26 July and runs until Saturday 2 September.
This year, the model railway will feature Milton Keynes railway station – a modern image model layout with some very special never before seen features and trains.
As before, Making Tracks offers Cathedral visitors the chance to drive the trains on the railway layout using dedicated control tablets.
For Making Tracks 3, the Railnuts teamed up with Tom Connell – a transport illustrator to produce a picture for the event and there will be an exhibition of his work whilst the model railway is on display.
Pete said “I am really excited to bring this new, even better layout to Chester once again this year – after being set the challenge of building a station, I can honestly say it’s going to be something very special and we will be offering the chance to adults and children alike to drive the trains.”
Making Tracks 3 will run from 10am to 5pm Mondays through Saturdays from Wednesday 26 July to Saturday 2 September. Tickets are £3 per person, using the Cathedral’s summer entry charge, with free entry for children aged 5 and under.
Layout Details:
A few facts about the Making Tracks 3 layout :
- The layout is a model of Milton Keynes station as it is today with seven platforms including all the surrounding building with their iconic mirrored sides
- The layout is 64 feet / 19.5 metres long and 12 feet / 3.65 metres wide
- The layout took six months to build by a team of 15 people
- There are four main loops with an eight track storage yard
- The layout has 811 feet / 247 metres of track
- The layout will have around 30 trains being operated including the Caledonian Sleeper with 16 coaches – this is the longest passenger train currently operating in the UK between London and Scotland
- All buildings, bridges and walls have been built from scratch including two large multi-storey car parks
- 200 scale cars have been 3D printed
- The layout has 25 working signals, 120 catenary masts and 40 hand-made trees
- 80 square feet of teddy bear fur has been used on the model (no teddies were harmed!)
- Over a thousand glue sticks used
- 15 feet / 4.5 metres of rubberised horse hair will be installed
- The longest train running is 22.5feet / 7metres long!
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