Breaking away from talking about Beccadale station and as we have had a very busy month doing everything else but playing trains, we took a visit to Dave’s second layout Chelthwaite Mills at the Preston show over the weekend, which we had been planning all month, so its going down as February update!!

No.18 Visits …… Well Home! Chelthwaite Mills
Chelthwaite Mills was the follow up layout to the Chelthwaite & Beccadale built by the late Dave Scott. It was based on the opposite end of the line to Beccadale, and had more focus on the Mills, all being built in his unique way, the theme carried on and it captured much from the original layout. Currently the layout is cared for by Martin Sutcliffe at Preston Model railway club, and was one of the many layouts at the Preston show over this weekend. So I took No.18, the camera, and the tripod to reunite a former stable locomotive with it’s home rails…………






















This final picture is a piece of history I think, maybe should be archived?? Yes that is Martin Sutcliffe……… Yes WITHOUT his trademark Hat!!

I have decided to do a monthly update on whats going on with the layout to give those reading and patiently waiting for updates to know whats going on. So here we are with the first one….

Well time has flown by since we have bought the layout and we are very pleased to hear the support we have had concerning the layout, so thank you all for your kind words. This also includes the kind words from Mick Thornton and Martin Sutcliffe in the current issue of the 009 News, thank you for the pictures Mick, the family one with Ted is fantastic. Mick got some lovely pictures of No.18 on Rae Bridge which made it into the 009 News, so publicity is on the up for the layout.

Our current work on the layout involves very little physical work, but more research into methods used by Dave and ways we can recreate and improve what we have got mainly on buildings. Senior (Roger Chivers) has been looking at the roofs on the buildings and how we can bring them back to life, as colour has faded and white card can be seen through the tile joints. He has been looking at everything from felt pens to spray paint, with various out comes. We have found and bought some dark grey card to cut out on our card cutter for roof tiles on the two replacement buildings and any new ones that may appear on the layout, more on this soon.

We have removed the damaged station building from the station board and we are taking measurements and drawing it up in CAD for cutting out the replacement via laser cutter. The building will look exactly the same, but with added toilets!! Me, on the other hand is playing with dry stone walling on my small layout at home for hopefully similar usage on Chelthwaite and Beccadale, some that I acquired on e-bay, looks promising.

Design work has progressed heavily on the new supports for the entire layout, and we are moving away from trestles and moving towards our own unique design. We hope to have these made before the next update!! The new baseboards will be made to the same method as Dave’s so to stay in keeping with the existing boards, currently the new boards will be the station board and fiddle yard.

We are planning a visit to Preston MRC exhibition this year, where Dave’s follow up layout “Chelthwaite Mills” will be in attendance. The camera will be fully charged for that, and No.18 will roll on Chelthwaite rails once again!!

That’s all for now!!!

The Chelthwaite and Beccadale railway was built by the late Dave Scott and was based on the border between Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire in the fictitious valley of Beccadale, with a twist of the County Donegal.  Dave was well known within the 009 Society and was a great friend to many fellow modellers. I have fond memories of the early stages of the railway being brought to the Northwest 009 monthly meeting s at Martin Sutcliffe’s house in the early 1990s. The memory that sticks out most is the creosote works, in its early stage with its swung open industrial style windows.

The Chelthwaite and Beccadale hit the exhibition circuit, and this led to the layout being very well exhibited around the country, becoming very popular and inspirational to many who saw it.  The layout was eventually retired and followed up by the popular Chelthwaite Mills, which was then succeeded by Beccadale Haematite Mine in 5.5mm scale. The Chelthwaite and Beccadale spent a brief time living in the back room of a pub before Dave’s untimely passing.

Chelthwaite Mills was placed in the save hands of Martin Sutcliffe, Beccadale Haematite Mine landed with Francis Stapleton and The Chelthwaite and Beccadale went to a gentleman in Leeds. For a time, the layout was presumed by us to have fallen to the same fate as its creator, but then, word of its existence came to light on NGRM-online forum.

Richard Powell posted a topic that he had found the layout on ebay for a buy it now price of a staggering £7500!! The seller was also open to offers and lived in Mid-Wales. The topic sent the members of NGRM-online into overdrive with a debate on its price, and what they felt it was worth. After a couple of days of thinking about it, I placed an offer for the layout, a £150 kind of offer, just to test the water and find out what was going on with the seller. The response was blunt, and one which stated “I’d cut it up first before selling it for that kind of price”.

After the seller dropped the price from his original price of £7500 all the way down to £1999, my father (Roger Chivers) and I decided we could not let this layout face the chop, so he placed a higher offer than mine, but still only in three figures.  The auction ended and we had heard nothing on our second offer, and the railway appeared back on ebay for a lot less money, with a price which seemed to drop over a 24 hour period. Out of the blue my Father received an email from the seller offering us the layout for our offered amount.  We told the seller we would take the layout, as long as he removed it from ebay immediately.

Saturday 3rd December was the day, when my brother (Simon Chivers) and myself (Matt Chivers) went on a road trip to Aberystwyth. The day started at 6am, when my brother went and picked up the vehicle we were borrowing for the day. He came round and picked me up and we set off for a day on the road…..the time was….

It was dark when we set off and around 8am the sun was begining to break above the hills….

At 8.30am we passed Welshpool……


Around 9.40am we arrived at location to be greeted by a uspet and irate gentleman who was told we would arrive at 11.30am!! Within 15-20mins we had picked up and loaded this in the back of the van……..

On the way back up to Preston, I could not help but think of our good friend Dave smiling down and saying “aye, mission accomplished lads, tis on its way home”, in his strong Lancashire accent.  That was it, the whole purpose, the Chelthwaite and Beccadale was coming back to its homeland of Lancashire.  We stopped off for a cup of coffee, the only one we had on the whole journey, on the return trip and we took the opportunity to look at layout, and reminisce about when we last saw it. My Brother did an excellent job of strapping the layout in such away, none of it was damaged and it never moved a millimetre by the time we got back to Preston

We did not hang around and got on our way back, after the quick cup of coffee at the McDonalds in Newtown, we stopped off to see the cattle docks that where uncovered in Welshpool……

we then went off home…

When we got back to Preston the layout was placed at my Dads, in his railway room, all safe, damp and smoke free, for days after the railway room stank of smoke as the seller was a heavy smoker. The layout for the age is really good state, the buildings only have wear and tear, chimney pots missing and drain pipes lost, grass has faded etc. but all that can be easily sorted. The worst part of the layout is the track, it has been severely damaged, rails have been ripped from sleeper at the board edges (probably by knocking), and the strangest part is the track and points have been cut with what appears to be a slit disc in places. All the trestles and near all the lighting rigs are no longer with the layout. The railway did come with one of Dave’s (we believe) original engines from the Chelthwaite and Beccadale, No.18 built from a Chivers Tralee and Dingle kit.

So far with first looks over the layout we are very happy with how good the railway looks, pictures we did see of it made it look in worse condition, and Dad and I both feel we have something to work with through 2012 and beyond. I hope to write more on its resurrection as we progress, with maybe the future plan of getting the Chelthwaite and Beccadale to some exhibitions.

We would like to thank the support we have had from both 009 Society and NGRM-Online members who have supported the saving of this once well-known layout built by Dave Scott. An extra special thanks goes to Richard Powell for starting the topic on the forum and bringing it to light, otherwise we could not have saved it. And finally, thanks to my Brother, Simon Chivers, who drove the van all the way down to Aberystwyth and back.