St. Davids

[Northmoor]

I've been describing my slow and intermittent efforts at building this layout on my blog page but might as well start an RMWeb thread as well.  This forum has really given me the urge to get on with modelling something, even though everything in life seems to get in the way of progress.

 

This will be my first layout to get beyond the test track on a board stage and is meant to represent the terminus of the St. Davids Light Railway as it might have been built just before or after WW1, to serve the country's smallest city.  Several layouts have appeared in the press over the years called "St.Davids", but they tended to be generic GWR branch lines rather than clearly set in North Pembrokeshire.   I know the real location the station would have been in, so have little excuse for not getting the appearance right.

 

I have a few principles to follow, the main one more than hinted at by the name of my blog.  I have far too much stock, buildings and STUFF - bought over about a 35 year period(!) - so am trying to avoid buying anything if I can possibly avoid it.  The frame and baseboards are made from leftover materials, polystyrene for scenery comes from old packaging.  So far it looks like this:

 

 

The layout is currently on its end in the garage, awaiting space to lay it flat(!) and get on with the scenery.  Not too many commitments this weekend so with a bit of luck I might get it into the house, wired and be able to test a loco or two.....

Edited July 14, 2022 by Northmoor
re-installed photos

[jbmccarthy]

Look forward to seeing more. 

[two tone green]

Good luck, I will be watching very carefully for authentisity and recognisable land marks.

[Northmoor]

Good luck, I will be watching very carefully for authentisity and recognisable land marks.

Aah, a challenge...!  The actual intended location - according to the map I've seen, places the station site at the North-West corner of Glasfryn Road and the A487 from Haverfordwest.  I believe the former road is now being widened and possibly that the field will disappear - wasn't there going to be a hotel built on it?

[two tone green]

Yes, Glasfryn Lane has been widened to form a bit of a by pass and as for the hotel at the Fishguard end of the road, it may or may not happen. Its in the planning stages.

[two tone green]

This is my version of St. Davids. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/25365-st-davids-turntable-update/page-1

[MartinWales]

Mac Pyrke also built a version of St David's (Ty Ddewi in Welsh), see Railway Modeller January 1980 

[Northmoor]

Mac Pyrke also built a version of St David's (Ty Ddewi in Welsh), see Railway Modeller January 1980 

He did indeed, I remember the RotM article, "Penholme and St. Davids".  I've said on my blog how it is one of many using the place name but I don't remember one which actually looked like somewhere around the real location.

[marc smith]

How I wish there was a station in Ty Ddewi. It's a favourite place of mine   I look forward to seeing this one progress
I had thought of building a layout based on the narrow gauge slate quarry line at Abereiddy (the blue lagoon) just a few miles up the road
... Another stunning place

[two tone green]

It’s a great place to live

 

How I wish there was a station in Ty Ddewi. It's a favourite place of mine I look forward to seeing this one progress

I had thought of building a layout based on the narrow gauge slate quarry line at Abereiddy (the blue lagoon) just a few miles up the road

... Another stunning place

[Northmoor]

How I wish there was a station in Ty Ddewi. It's a favourite place of mine   I look forward to seeing this one progress

I had thought of building a layout based on the narrow gauge slate quarry line at Abereiddy (the blue lagoon) just a few miles up the road

... Another stunning place

 

One day I will have enough space to build Mathry Junction, which would have been both the junction for St. Davids and the main station for Mathry itself.  The town would have grown much bigger than it is now, because of the port at Abermawr, which as a deepwater port would have been more successful than Fishguard ("Mauretania" could have actually docked, for starters), so I envisage the station layout being similar to Haverfordwest, but with an extra through platform, South-facing bays for the St. Davids branch and Clarbeston Road locals, carriage sidings and loco servicing facilities (limited space around the harbour, see).  

 

One advantage of locating the line a few miles West of where it was actually built, is that a St.Davids branch is thus 3-4 miles shorter, so should in theory have cost about 30% less than quoted at the time and with no loss of sources of traffic.  Passing within a mile or so of Porthgain/Abereiddi, it would have been rude not to have also built a spur to the quarry, surely?  So that extra traffic helped justify building the branch, although somehow I still don't see it surviving until the Beeching axe and could have had a life of less than 40 years.

 

But imagine the trackbed, running North-West from Glasfryn Road and then following the A487 more or less to Mathry.  Relaid by a preservation group in the 1980s, wouldn't it have been one of the most scenic steam railways in the country?  

[two tone green]

Rack and pinion up to the village of Mathry ?

[Northmoor]

Rack and pinion up to the village of Mathry ?

From Abermawr, with a shortish tunnel near the summit (just before the station), it should be no steeper than the climb out of Goodwick but a lot shorter.

[two tone green]

Just playing. if the line had followed the road it really would be a steep climb up.

[marc smith]

It’s a great place to live

 

One day, maybe I will know this for sure

Ah, got to say, I love the place so much...

I was camping there last summer (Caerfai Bay - one of my favourite spots) and plan to return this coming summer

At one time, I used to visit several times a year.

 

Now, combine St. Davids with a railway, and I really am in dreamland :)

[marc smith]

One day I will have enough space to build Mathry Junction, which would have been both the junction for St. Davids and the main station for Mathry itself.  The town would have grown much bigger than it is now, because of the port at Abermawr, which as a deepwater port would have been more successful than Fishguard ("Mauretania" could have actually docked, for starters), so I envisage the station layout being similar to Haverfordwest, but with an extra through platform, South-facing bays for the St. Davids branch and Clarbeston Road locals, carriage sidings and loco servicing facilities (limited space around the harbour, see).  

 

One advantage of locating the line a few miles West of where it was actually built, is that a St.Davids branch is thus 3-4 miles shorter, so should in theory have cost about 30% less than quoted at the time and with no loss of sources of traffic.  Passing within a mile or so of Porthgain/Abereiddi, it would have been rude not to have also built a spur to the quarry, surely?  So that extra traffic helped justify building the branch, although somehow I still don't see it surviving until the Beeching axe and could have had a life of less than 40 years.

 

But imagine the trackbed, running North-West from Glasfryn Road and then following the A487 more or less to Mathry.  Relaid by a preservation group in the 1980s, wouldn't it have been one of the most scenic steam railways in the country?  

I don't often quote & copy other people's posts verbatim - but had to on this occasion

Yes, you simply must get this whole plan built   - sounds brilliant, and if only your plan had been adopted?

Might have even survived Beeching, as I can see it would have been a well used line?

Then again, this may have led to a population explosion in the area - and perhaps this could have been to the detriment of that beautiful little corner of Wales?

 

I'm imagining being a volunteer on that railway now.... what a tourist attraction it would be. Yes, one of the most beautiful, scenic preserved railways in the country

[Northmoor]

Might have even survived Beeching, as I can see it would have been a well used line?

Then again, this may have led to a population explosion in the area - and perhaps this could have been to the detriment of that beautiful little corner of Wales?

I'm imagining being a volunteer on that railway now.... what a tourist attraction it would be. Yes, one of the most beautiful, scenic preserved railways in the country

Survived Beeching?  No chance, even the Cardigan branch (serving a bigger town but admittedly about three times as long) had already closed before The Report was published.  It says something that three separate promoters couldn't raise the funds to build a line to St.Davids, even as a light railway, the traffic predictions were so light.  Even if it was built in the form I've dreamed, the loss of traffic once the Abereiddi quarry shut in the early 50s (which ISTR was producing up to 50,000 tons a year at its peak), would probably have led to closure, the passenger traffic wouldn't have sustained it.  

 

But as a preserved line in some form, the location is pretty perfect.....

[two tone green]

The photo you post at the beginning of the thread is where in St Davids.

[Northmoor]

The photo you post at the beginning of the thread is where in St Davids.

The bridge in the foreground is Glasfryn Road, which is slewed in an S-curve up and over the railway. You are looking roughly South towards where the road meets the A487 from Haverfordwest and the City is to your right.

 

I'll try and find the map extract I have which shows the dotted line of the proposed route, and post it on here.

[two tone green]

Thanks. Was trying to work out just what it was I was looking at. Now you mention a bridge over the railway it makes a bit more sense as I thought it was a cutting which does not fit in with the local area.

[andyram]

I don’t know the area as I have sadly never visited. However this looks a very interesting little project. I will follow with interest.

[Northmoor]

Here's a parish map from 1923 (published in the local Western Telegraph in the 1980s).  The dotted line alongside the Fishguard Road is labelled "Proposed Railway to St. Davids":

 

Zoomed in it shows the railway crossing Glasfryn Road at the Northern end, but I'll plead Rule One on that:

 

No real progress to report this weekend; I've drilled the baseboard for the feed wires but haven't time to do more.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Northmoor
re-installed photos

[Marly51]

Enjoying reading your research to date. Looking forward to watching your progress.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Marly51

[two tone green]

The map confirms my thinking about why the land around the Grove hotel is so flat as that was where the station was going to be. Thanks

[Northmoor]

At last, a chance to spend an hour or so on the layout.  Today's job was to cut and fit the backscene boards.  As the artist in the family, my daughter will be painting the North Pembrokeshire backdrop but she wasn't in the mood for painting today.  The joint edges need tidying where they slot together but I wanted them to fit together like this as removing just four screws will allow photos from "over the bridge".  After the photo was taken I did remove and open out the hole for the bridge, so you can't see the edge now.

 

 

In keeping to my "Cheapskate" principles, the boards are thin sheets of chipboard which I think used to be the back of a flat-pack wardrobe and even the screws were saved from some dismantled furniture and I just happened to have enough of the right kind for the job.  

 

I have a large jar full of recovered crews/bolts etc, saved just for jobs like this.  Should I be seeking professional help?

Edited July 14, 2022 by Northmoor
re-installed photos