PHOTO COMPETITION

Well, once again you rose to the challenge, taking on our cryptic theme of ‘What could it be?’ and producing a dazzling selection of weird and wonderful mystery images. It’s lucky we had the descriptions, as I’m not sure we’d have guessed all of these! We have been inundated, so we’ve printed as many as we can and selected our winners before moving on to our next competition. If you didn’t make it into print this time please keep sending your photos to us and we hope you’ll make it into the next issue!

We’re taking a suggestion from one of our readers for the May/June competition, so for next issue please send in your photographs on the theme of ‘Reflections’. As always, send your entries to us at editorial@shiremagazine.co.uk and good luck!

Model railway exhibition Making Tracks returns to Chester Cathedral for a third edition this summer. Shire spoke to the man behind the event, music industry legend and train enthusiast Pete Waterman.

a reproduction of a section of the West Coast mainline and includes Milton Keynes station, for very specific reasons.

“Milton Keynes is the only place that features bidirectional running tracks, where trains can whizz past each other at 125mph. No model railway had attempted it before. It’s the most complicated layout ever built, so it was an obvious choice when we were asked to come back to Chester,” he said.

“To be honest, the event has been such a success there that it didn’t take much arm-twisting to return, and we know this year is going to be great too. It’s a fabulous opportunity to come and play with the biggest model railway you’ll ever get to use.”

Next generation

At 76, Pete along with his fellow enthusiasts in the Railnuts modelling group are hoping to inspire the next generation of rail buffs. “None of us is getting any younger,” he quipped.

Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Bananarama… production genius

Pete Waterman played a pivotal role in shaping the sound of pop music in the 1980s and 1990s. Together with Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, he formed the iconic songwriting and production trio Stock Aitken Waterman, bringing dozens of music acts to the world and spawning the careers of multiple megastars.

Aside from his legendary status in the music industry – he received an OBE for his services in 2005 – Pete is also known for his passion for model railways. He has been an avid enthusiast since he was a child, and his collection of model trains and rail memorabilia is one of the most extensive in the country.

“I was born next to a train line, so I think it just became part of my psyche,” he said. “My grandad bought me my first train set for Christmas, when I was one. It was a Bassett clockwork engine locomotive and the memory of that has lived with me ever since. The enthusiasm has never, ever waned.”

The creative buzz

Pete believes that this passion is what helped him make such a success of his career. “The two are very similar. Spending hours in the studio listening to bands and trying to spot the one minute that makes all the difference – and if you can’t, having to work out how you’re going to make that happen – it’s the same when you’re creating model railways. You constantly set challenges that you have to overcome, and when you do you get the same buzz as when you get a hit record. And the end result is the same too. When you see kids coming along and enjoying the track and playing with it, that’s the same as seeing people enjoying music that you’ve made.”

Returning to Chester Cathedral from 26th July, Making Tracks 3 features

“I remember the very first model railway exhibition I went to. I want this to have the same impact on others and inspire them in the same way. But I have to warn anyone thinking of taking it up as a hobby: it is not cheap! If I think about the money I’ve spent, as well as the hours of my time, it must have cost me billions!”

Pete admits he couldn’t choose between his twin passions. “But music is what has allowed me to do all this. And I’ve had a charmed life – I wouldn’t change that for the world.”

He is still involved in a few music projects, but despite time on the judges’ panel on Pop Idol he has no desire to return to talent show TV. “It’’s changed completely,” he said. “You can’t tell the truth any more. You can’t tell them they’re rubbish, even if they are. What’s the point in that?”

What about his railway ambitions? Is there an ultimate track or section he’d like to recreate?

“Oh yes, there is an idea. But if I were to say now, the organisers and the people at Hornby who make all this possible… they’d fall over. It will take modelling to a different level and it’s something nobody’s done before, so I don’t want to say too much or they’ll run a mile!”