At the beginning of WW1, two short branch lines from the GWR Salisbury to Westbury line were built to give access to temporary military camps. One went from Codford station to camps in and around Codford St. Mary, Codford St. Peter and other nearby villages.
In the parallel world we modellers inhabit, we imagined that as WW1 progressed, the army needed a site for new experimental military hardware to be tested and evaluated, and the area of open country just north of Chitterne was ideal for such purposes. Back in 1916, road access to Chitterne was very poor and the War Office proposed building a short, easily graded extension to the Codford Military Railway. The route ran for about a further two miles parallel to the Chitterne Brook and ended just south of the B390 at its junction with Codford Road. Welcome to Chitterne station.
The layout is constructed entirely using the PECO EM gauge ready to lay track available exclusively from the EM Gauge Society and was built as our entry to their 2020 Chairman’s Challenge competition.
The layout has been scaled to fit the imagined station site and reasonably represents the real topography. The line from Codford enters the station via a bridge over the Chitterne Brook. Behind this, and protected by a gate, is the line leading uphill to the military testing site. There is a modest platform and station building at the back of the layout and a goods shed and loading dock at the front.
The buildings are all scratch-built, mostly from plasticard and whilst they aren’t directly based on any specific prototype, they are designed to suggest structures built quickly by the military to a limited wartime budget and then retained for far longer than originally intended.
Static grass has been used extensively in multiple layers combined with a variety of hedges and bushes. Some hedges use scouring pads, whilst others are rubberised horse hair. Many of the smaller bushes, such as those around the stream, are made from untwisted rope with scatter material glued on whilst the trees were built from wire formers.
Omni Loco Aeque
All images Copyright Jamie Warne – BRM and used with permission.