Layout History

Many of my childhood summer holidays were spent on the North Wales coast, staying in a house above Llandanwg, near Harlech. We had an unobstructed view south over the village, taking in Llandanwg Halt and Llanbedr & Pensarn Station on the Cambrian Coast Line. I loved watching the trains coming up the coast and then diving under the road by the halt and heading towards Harlech, and we spent many days on the south end of Harlech beach, where it was also possible to see the trains edging along the seawall, whilst swimming in the sea. Apart from the regular procession of DMU's on passenger duties, there was the daily freight train - almost always a Class 24 hauling a few vans, some gunpowder vans and maybe a couple of coal wagons. Happy days indeed.

For many years I had thoughts on possibly recreating my idyllic memories, but nothing ever materialized. Then in 2015, by chance I noticed that a retailer was offering 3-car Farish Class 101 DMU's at a very low price, and immediately I hatched a plan to make my vision become a reality, even though I had never worked with British N-gauge before. More suitable stock was acquired in quick succession. Some time previous I had tentatively started laying an oval of N-gauge track on an old recycled baseboard with a view to maybe trying to run my Canadian N-gauge stock, but it had not progressed past laying half of the oval. Now I decided that this could be adapted to form a compact representation of the Cambrian Coast Line. And so the layout slowly took shape, when time allowed, as I was also busy developing my 009 layout. Finally, spurred on by an exhibition invitation, the layout was "completed" in January 2018.... only for the exhibition to be cancelled at short notice! The layout is now, however, available for exhibitions, and more stock is gradually being acquired.

Layout Description

The layout consists of a simple oval, one siding to the station, and a fiddle yard of loops and sidings to the rear. The location is vaguely somewhere between Porthmadog and Barmouth, but is fictional - Llanfarthyn is actual a small village in South Wales, but I choose it for my location as it carries the modest translation of "St. Martins Church" in English! The station building and platform goods shed are based on those at Talsarnau, one of the few rural stations that is still substantially as it was in the 1970's, where I was very kindly allowed by the owner to measure up all round and take photos from non-public locations. The signal box is also based on photos of that at Talsarnau - it was demolished a long time ago. On the model, the box is effectively locked out with both signals set to off, only being opened for special traffic purposes. The one siding at the station used to serve a coal yard and a slate wharf, served by a horse-drawn tramway from the village quarry seen to the right of the layout. Both are now disused, though evidence of their existence remain. A generic concrete provender shed was built in the 1950's to supply additional secure capacity at times of peak demand for Cookes explosives works in Penrhyndeaudraeth, whose products are taken from the area by the coast line. It is rarely used these days, the siding sees little use apart from occasional engineering use. Behind the station is the Cross Foxes Inn, another model based on an actual prototype - the Cross Foxes Inn in Garndolbenmaen, which I owned for three years! A row of four cottages, a crossing keepers cottage, very loosely based on Llanbedr, and some low relief houses, some from Beddgelert complete the buildings. On the left side of the layout the line crosses a tidal inlet on a small timber bridge, typical of the coast line - I measured up the one at Pensarn to get the dimensions (at low tide....). The photo-realistic backdrop will be familiar to many people who know the Snowdon area well! 

Traffic replicates typical trains of the early 1970's - blue DMU's and the Class 24-hauled daily freight, but some historical licence allows more varied traffic, such as the loco-hauled Pwllheli portion of the Cambrian Coast Express from Euston and more varied freight traffic. A huge deviation from reality sees nuclear flask traffic from Trawsfynydd Power Station being transported by the coast line rather than the Conwy Vally Line, due to the near permanently flooded state of the latter (a scenario actually more feasible than you may think!), and the discovery that the many timber bridges on the coast line could be strengthed by the introduction of a rare marine worm that secretes a strong steel like deposit as it bores through the wood, thus reinforcing the structure! (this is a reversal of actual history where Cookes works eventually sent their goods up to Maentwrog Road goods yard on the Conwy Valley Line for onwards shipment by that line to their customers). Locos and stock are all ready-to-run by Graham Farish and Dapol.

Layout Specification

Exhibition Details:-

Layout Size - 6' wide. 2' deep. Operating space approx 4' deep required behind layout.

Operated from rear, viewed from front

Scale 2mm/ft, N Gauge

No. of Operators - 1

Layout has integral lighting structure

Programme Description - Rekindling childhood holiday memories, Llanfarthyn represents a typical stretch of the Cambrian Coast Line in the BR blue diesel era of the early 1970's. Some rewriting of history allows a wider variety of traffic to be seen!

Exhibitions Attended:-

Llandudno (Colwyn MRC) July 2019

Prestatyn (Rhyl & District MRC) December 2019

Machynlleth (Corris Railway) August 2022

Bala (Bala Lake Railway) September 2023

Conwy (North Wales N Gauge Group) December 2024