First, a bit of background:

The first two (never finished) incarnations of Hafod Las were based around a fictional quarry workshop loosely in the style of Red Lion level at Penrhyn; Gilfach Ddu; and the Mills Tramroad at Dinorwic, with a reasonable dollop of modeller's licence and Rule #1 (IMTS) thrown in. HL1 was an ironing board layout started as a distraction from my final year of university and the build is described on RMweb3 here - the layout became rather knocked about in my initial post-uni house moves and a combination of this, the rather limited scope of the original, and the RMweb 2010 Challenge spawned HL2 (documented here). The second layout was based on the same premise as the original but greatly enlarged and with potential for expansion. As well as consisting of multiple boards, it also featured my first (comparatively successful) attempt at electronic point control using Peco solenoids. The two scenic boards were built; drawer runners were purchased for the traverser; track was laid; a loco shed half built; and everything was wired up. Then a house move intervened again, work and training got in the way, and when I investigated the state of the boards they weren't in the best of nick. Parts recovery commenced of the track, electronics, and any reusable wood... which takes me nicely to the start of the new layout.

As with my cunning plans for getting the irreparably-bodged locos into a condition where I'm not ashamed to show them running on a track, I can make no claim whatsoever to originality with the plan that spawned Hafod Las Mk. III. I'd made up my mind that I would attempt to build a double-sided layout - the original idea coming from a suggestion from my other half, along with a dimly-recalled 009 ironing board layout featured in Railway Modeller in the late 90s / early 2000s that followed a 'U' shape end-to-end design on the board with a backscene running along about ¾ of the centreline. I wanted to go one step further and make the layout a full circuit as the one thing that all of my previous layouts (including my never-finished (notice a pattern emerging?) 00 layout from my teenage years that still languishes in my grandparents' garage) lacked was a continuous run for the locos to stretch their legs.

The other thing that I wanted to do was to give myself an excuse to run passenger stock rather than just slate wagons and assorted general goods stock - this was the major reason for the use of Rule #1 on the previous layouts as there was no feasible reason to have bogie passenger stock on a quarry level, even a major one. As I didn't want to lose the quarry layout theme (I'm quite attached to the idea by now, and determined to actually finish one!) then the solution seemed relatively simple - to extend the backscene along the full length of the layout and have a station on one side and a quarry workshops on the other. If reasonably well designed, each could act as a limited fiddle yard for the other when in use as I'd only be able to see one side at a time anyway. Shades of Cyril Freezer!

It did become a little more complicated in my mind though, and this is where the 'semi-modular' approach kicked in. I wanted the ability to change the layout from operating 'back-to-back' to having the two scenic sides adjacent to one another and having a fiddle yard at the rear. If well designed, it would also be possible to operate one scenic half with half of the fiddle yard, as a 'conventional' layout too. I did a bit of doodling with a few ideas in mind (of a station based very loosely around Waenfawr; and a quarry workshops containing a loco shed and wagon repair shops) but hit a bit of 'modeller's block' and couldn't seem to come up with something that looked right.

A discussion on my layout thread on the NGRM-online forum led to a suggestion by Invercloy of an Ian Rice plan that had featured in Model Railroader some time back, using an expanded version of the semi-modular jigsaw principle that I was working to, and involved extra spurs coming off the layout rather than the idea of removable ends providing the curves which I had fixated on. The original plan was redrawn by Tom in a slightly more Welshified form, and I've reproduced it below which he hopefully won't mind:

I did a bit of sketching and modification myself (mainly to reduce the 8' x 4' plan down to 6' x 3' and to fit the already-built loco shed into the equation) but hit the inevitable block again when I just couldn't seem to convince myself that it would work - so out came the flexitrack, point templates and lining paper. Some Twister-like contortions later (which involved flexitrack held in place with a foot and a hand, and the other hand used to draw an outline around it) produced eventually produced this (and apologies for the poor photo editing):

Efforts to ease the curves and potentially lengthen the loop slightly (and to give about an inch at the edges of the boards rather than have track right up to the edge) resulted in the layout being re-thought at a scale of 13" to the foot, giving a final size of 6'6" x 3'3" and a minimum radius of 12" on the points and substantially better (around 16") on the mainline. The loco shed from HL2 can be seen on the bottom right (of the Quarry board) and will have a workshop at the opposite end, with a slate tip sloping down to the right and generally around the layout side. Essentially, it's a re-imagining (for the umpteenth time) of Hafod Las works yard. On the left is the station, planned to incorporate various NWNGR features with a bow girder bridge over the river, a carriage shed with some quietly rotting stock behind, and a station building and goods shed based loosely on buildings at Dinas and Waenfawr.

I'll leave you with an image of the first train sat in the station, awaiting passengers, station, track, and indeed the ground. This is a pre-enlargement track plan, so the loop is ever so slightly longer and further from the board edge - and I know that the loop is a bit on the short side but as it's the biggest that I can physically fit in it'll just have to be explained away. Tanygrisiau on the Ffestiniog Railway was for passing of goods trains or goods trains with passenger trains only - who's to say that this wasn't the same? Of course, if it's been pressed into service post-preservation...