Anthony Ashley

Lez, Thanks for the advice. The map I attached was from the OS site and was made in 1948 but was published in 1950, so although it is likely to be correct it may not be for 1960. I can find no similarly detailed map of Penmaenmawr later than 1948 from the OS site. I may not be using the OS tools to their optimum but I can find nothing better. Thanks again for the help as your contribution and all others are really appreciated. If you know of a later detailed may I am very interested. I am now working on the next set of roads to size cut and place further to the east of Penmaenmawr. I have affixed Paradise Road in place so have the next area to add chicken wire and paper mache between Paradise road and Brynmoor Terrace. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Harold, Thanks for the reply and encouragement. I am happy with progress now given my endeavours in the last 3 weeks. I have a question for you as my resident Penmaenmawr expert. I am focussing on the very long block of dwellings to the south east of the station and to the east of Paradise road. I have maps of the whole of Penmaenmawr area. The map excerpt shows you where I am talking about. It is the area behind the large dwelling block between Paradise Road and Constitution Hill Road. The 1948 map shows this area between the two roads just behind the dwelling block as park area. In google maps online the area is now a car park. Given my date is 1960 do you know if this area was a park or car park in or around 1960. I think it more likely that it was a park but wondering if you know or can ask any one else locally. I think the park would look better but I am trying to be accurate. Thanks for the help Harold. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear all, I have made some more progress, having painted the area being worked on, added concrete dust to the cliff faces, added road edges. cleaned up the walls on the over passes, added more chicken wire and paper mache to another area. Pictures are below. Looking into the enclosed area with pass overs either end Cliff area with concrete dust. Housing area with road edging and painted. The edging will facilitate the grey plaster pour for the roads. New road edging with weights to secure while drying. The edging is cut from a sheet of 3 ml foam board bent into shape. I can bend into into a tight curve to meet the road edge. The paper mache on the far left is the area recently having had chicken wire and paper mache added. There is chicken wire on the top left section down to the train tracks. View looking back to the mountain. View from the mountain end up toward Penmainmawr end. The cardboard cut out to the left of the cross overs is one of two granite storage facilities. I shall add the gravel road surface tomorrow to the over pass area and the road in front of the housing area. I need to add heavy vegetation to the cliff face in this area. I might have a go at doing more work on Conwy castle once I have finished this area. I feel I am back and making some real progress again. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Cameron, I have taken a few snaps of the dogs and am happy to show a picture. Hope no one is offended with a few photos of Darcy and Connie on a train site!! Darcy is a Border Collie and 2 years old. Boss dog!! Connie is a 6 month old Border Collie and faithful side kick to Darcy. We had to buy a second chewie toy to stop arguments. I need to put the interior faces on the walls. Secure the last 2 wall sections to the layout. Paint and add rock, dust and vegetation to the cliff face in this area. Add a road surface of gravel to the road sections on the pass overs add tops to the walls. Regards, Anthony ashley

Hi All, Hope everyone had a great Christmas and new year. The acquisition of a new puppy made it very difficult to get into the train shed for at least 3 months, so little work was completed over this period. With Connie now 6 months I can go back into the shed and let her run around outside with our other Border collie Darcy. The tunnelled area I have been building has taken ages to complete but is now mainly glued into position with all of the walls completed and the paper mache linking it to the cliff face completed. Unfortunately as previously discussed I have had to modify reality to fit it all in, but I think it look reasonably realistic. I have also started edging the road network with 3 ml foam board to give ma an edge to pour the plaster roads. Photos are below of progress. Far view of the road and conveyor belt walled areas. Floor plans of the granite storage facilities are in card board. There is an arched alcove on either side of the tunnels. This is my first ballasting after 9 years of building the layout!! Road construction with the foam board lip being added. I need to add interior stone sections to the walls next to the road areas and then a top to the wall. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, Have worked on the paper mache and manged to complete 2 layers over the area being worked on. Another 4 layers to go but it is slowly getting there. Photos are below. Chicken wire is laregely secured with the gully containg the conveyor belt in place, shown by the pieces of paper in the gully. At the time of the photo I just had to secure the bottom of the wire. Gluing the road base to the foam and securing the wire at the same time. Gorrilla glue is great for any foam sticking task. Area I am working on covered i paper mache to 2 layers. Floor plans are in place Better shot of the gully area Showing more of the elevation changes. More work on paper mache and then maybe some scenery. I need to cover the walls on the right of this area with stone prior to sticking them down. I need the elevated roads in place with the walls to complete the cliff paper mache area. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Lez, Thanks for the comment. I have had a very busy 2 months with work taking a priority and the addition of a eight week old border collie puppy to the family. I can not work ini the shed while alone with the 2 dogs, as the puppy is not yet trust worthy as she may chew all of my wiring in the shed!!! I have therefore onle doen a little work while Sarah is at home as well. I tjought I needed to ensure I could fit in the buildings into the space allocated within the rlevant roads while also including a gully from the mountain down to the warf, which holds a conveyor belt to move ranite form the mountain. I cut out floor plans for each building, using google earth mapping to measyre building dimensions. I do not think most of the building would have changed much in the last 50 years. Photos are below with 2 options. The first photo shows a steel ruler showing where the gully holding the conveyor belt will be placed. The left border of the area is a road. There are actually three buildings between the gully and the left road The next building shows 3 buildings to the left of the gully. The right one is an ex chuch which has been converted into a dwelling. The next 2 are houses. The first house is very ordinary and I think I shall need to delete it to fit the other 2 in properly, leaving enough space for the gully The floor plans are accurate and will assist with planning them when do the 3D modelling for them. Since taking this photo I have securd the chicken wire. Next is paper mache. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear Howard, Thanks for the fantastic photo. I have no view from the perspective provided so your photo is really valuable and will help shape my layout design. Thanks again it is great. the small garden beds at the front would not have been without your photo. AGC5324 thanks for the comment re the timing of the photo. It is also good to be able to date information in terms of the layout timing I have done the roads and overpasses which are actually not in front of the houses but will need to be in my layout due to space constrictions. There are 2 overpasses but I need a third with the extra track I have added. Photos are below. Yellow foam from the left to the right will provide a flat surface for small the road . The first overpass is for a conveyor belt and the second the continuation of the road. The crosses the tracks and then corners right. The irregular shape in front of the track will need to be sculpted from the front to form a hill slope , but the surface next to the tracks is a vertical wall. The two cardboard cut outs are the floor plans for the granite storage buildings. I need to add ply walls to the foam conveyor belt section in the fore ground. The hill between the two track areas is made of sculpted foam and paper mache. Wider view showing the track off the main road running down the hill. The chicken wire needs to be bent of the foam and stapled top the base Close up of the cross overs. I have cut the road sect leading for the existing road and will fit it once the foam sections have dried in place and the chicken wire is secured. All of the ply surfaces need stone resin covering. It would also be easier to ballast this track area before securing the remaining foam in place. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Bogie and Lez, At least some progress is progress. Thanks for commenting. I have prepared a number of the roads and have some photos below. Brown flat area in the foreground is Howard's housing area but cut off due to terrain limitations (sorry Howard). The large flat white area is the Grand Hotel grounds. I need to add a further track on the far end of Howard's housing area down to the tracks. This is not strictly in the right place but I need to fit in a couple of granite storage buildings at the end of the road. The roads up to and around the Grand Hotel are in white. Close up of the Howard housing area. I have added the road on the top of the photo leading to the station. It is the widest street in the town, I have to add the missing road and then add chicken wire between the roads creating realistic elevation changes in those areas. I have attached the chicken wire to the housing area in the photo above. I need to add support underneath the road as well. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, It has been some time since my last post. I have been cutting ply roads and completed quite a few. After that I realised if I add the scenic layer it will interfere with my laying the hidden internal track loop around the inside of the layout. Accordingly I have been working on track support, adding cork and painting it. Work has also intervened to minimise modelling time. Photos of the new track area are below. Photos of roads to follow once I have attached all of them to relevant areas. You can see the white track support curving off to the left and joining to the main line. View looking the other way down the layout. I have painted this support green to match the left. Tomorrow I shall lay the track with droppers wired up. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, Road work at Penmaenmawr has commenced in earnest in between work distractions and my wife's birthday celebrations. have cut some of the ply to fit the road system. A few mow to go though. I think I will then use chicken wire and paper mache again. I need access under the layout in this area for the storage yard but there is plenty of space to get between the 2 areas. Photos below. The first section secured and nicely lining up. A view looking to the east along part of Penmaenmawr but down the layout for me. The pen marks show the station platform area and station building. I was really happy with the elevation change form the main road down to the housing area. The sweep of the road achieves what I was after. The road next to the rail and the hotel run in parallel. The hotel car park in the bottom left area has two single lane roads running up the hill, which will need to be fitted inbetween the one shown. I have more roads to cut and secure. Once done onto the chicken wire. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, I have cut a ply baseboard. I only had one piece left that was large enough to do the job. I shall need to do another ply run to our local hardware store chain called Bunnings to get some more. I saw on the plan that the road running behind the Grand hotel run adjacent to eh back buildings of the hotel. Accordingly in the photo below I cut the road next to those building so it was already included. That is the piece of cut ply in the picture below. Unfortunately when I checked google earth again after many many views I noticed peeking behind the two buildings in the same position occupied by the grand hotel back buildings there was a wall between the road and those buildings. Obviously this means a different height for the road and the buildings, which I had not accounted for. One of the problems in modelling Penmaemawr is the whole town is on the side of a hill and sloping upward. The difficulty is in identifying where the slope is constant and where there are walls for greater height increases, but minimising the other slopes. Photos are below to show what i am talking about. Cardboard floor plan with all of the surrounding roads that I thought were at the same height. The curved lines around the floor plan are areas of the same height, so there are more cuts that need to be made to the ply. There is a big height drop to the area on the left of the building. The parking area at the front fits in well with my plan in terms of height, as there is a steep slope down to the rail tracks just beyond the parking area. I think the curved area in the bottom left corner is a one way road as there is another at a lower height to the left of of it. Close up of the two building sections running alongside the road. Google earth with two building towards the top of the picture that appear to be the same position as the Grand Hotel buildings. You can just see the wall between the buildings and the start of the wall at the start of the street. This wall means that I can decrease the slope of the area that the Grand hotel is build on which will be more realistic. If the heights in the Goggle earth picture have not changed since 1960 the Grand Hotel rose in elevation a little from front to back. This will also help in being able to see it form the edge of the layout. Front of the Grand Hotel. I shall need to trim off the back road to in order to elevate it at least 40mls and put a wall in front of it. By placing the Grand Hotel in position I have really assisted in determining the road layout on the area. Regards, Anthony ashley

Howard, Thanks for the info, anything I can get form local persons in the area is really helpful. . I spotted a wall behind the road near the houses on google earth. I am sure this would not have changed ad is consistent with you description of the road area. I am really happy to receive anything else you can remember about the area. I decided to focus on the Grand Hotel, as I thought it would interact with the roads I a positioning. I have cut the next 2 roads running north south form the one already cut, and have cut the road running next to the train station. There is another road running east-west which borders part of the hotel, hence the need to determine the floor plan. Based on a 1955 map of Penmaenmawr I measured the distance from the road crossing the tracks and the underpass on the other side of the station on my map including the Grand Hotel . This was about 8 cm. I then measured the distance on google earth to determine how far the actual distance is. By dividing the actual distance by the number of mls on the map I was able to work the distance per ml on my Grand Hotel plan. It worked out at 1.846 metres per ml. Using the conversion I then measured the walls of the Grand Hotel, converted them to actual distance and then converted back to N gauge ie 1:148. The frontage of the Grand Hotel in my scale is 591 mls and the depth is by coincidence exactly the same at 591 mls. I then spent the afternoon drawing up an N scale floor plan on card board which I intend to mount on ply wood. I have photos below of the road system, cut in paper to date, and the cardboard floor plan. The cardboard floor plan is in position as close as I can get it. The hotel touches one of the north south roads already on position. There is a second road running off that road already in position, ajoining back sections of the hotel. As you can see they are aligned in a straight line. I am going to have to play around with the heights in the area to get the hotel to fit onto a flat area. As I said I intend to mount the hotel on ply wood. Howard or anyone else local to the area, was the hotel white stucco. I know it was white and imagine stucco is the only logical finish can think of. I will now continue to map out the roads using paper templates. The next will be behind the Grand Hotel. Once I have mapped out all the templates I shall ensure all of the heights at the roads are correct, and if not adjust the risers to the correct heights. The riser on the far left of the photo has already been adjusted with a piece of ply at the front of it. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Howard, Thanks for the reply. Whatever info you can provide will be greatly appreciated. I finally realised that I did not have an accurate plan for the granite loading facilities on the coast. My rail plan only has one shown closer to the centre of the town, and despite photos showing 2 I did not pick up on the discrepancy. I think the second is further around the mountain. I can fit it in but with the two pier facilities much closer and will need to run a road from the road junction just next the the houses I am currently planning, instead of directly from the road running around the mountain. The road will need to go below those houses and while not accurate I can not fit it further around the mountain due to the elevation differences. I shall have to compromise on accuracy I have compacted the town to get the mountain and down in height. I have inserted the new plan in red. The new road is not on the plan above by way of comparison. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, It has been a busy three weeks with work intruding into my train modelling again. I have at least sorted the construction of the roads in the 'Howard' housing area. Photos are enclosed. I used my paper technique to cut out the pattern for the roads. The use of a simple stapler to join the paper sections allowed me to change the angles of one piece of road to another and worked really well. I undid a couple of them and rejoined at a better angle. The picture below shows how I plan to cut the ply using the pattern created, which I have tested in situ. Originally when the first photo was taken I was using 35 ml timber at the back riser. When I checked the road fall I decided it was too much and reduced the height to about 20ml. I also raised the end of the lower road by using a little foam and gorilla glue. The next photo clearly shows the use of staples as a connector, which can easily be detached and reattached as necessary when you have not got it exactly correct. The other end of the roads. Not quite flat but close enough and I cam trim as required. Gluing the foam riser into position to help with the road connection You can see the lower back section makes the road connection much easier, also assisted by the foam riser. I need to cut a small piece of road section on the left to properly connect the bottom road and the road to the left. I cut the road section on the left with the grain running largely across the piece. This should make it easier to bend down to screw onto the support pieces, but maintain a reasonable good drop going down. You can see the section is sticking up in mid air. Hopefully screws along its length will bend it to the correct shape. I added another supporting piece of timber running back from the higher road section to the mountain road section just visible under the road piece. I need to secure these road sections into position with screws and glue and then paint it. The house outlines are drawn on the lower ply section. The chicken wire has been secured with a staple gun and so paper mache is also the order of the day. Regards, Anthony Ashley .

Lez and Howard, Thanks for the ideas. Lez I think in light of the passionate response by Howard I shall need to include the first 6 houses of that strip of houses. I do not have room for all 12 and 6 was the most I could fit in. The best way to do this is to lift the section as you have suggested. On the other hand that section does seem to have a fair degree of slope which will help in connecting the roads, as they are obviously much higher than the houses. Howard I was really amused to hear that you were born in one of the houses that I am modelling. I have told many people about your reply to the blog and all have been very amused that we are dealing with "living history". I mean no disrespect as I am 62 and could have also been born in that house. It really adds a lot of interest to the blog to have such comments added. Howard I was wondering if you have any photos of the houses or the gardens and slopes in the area that you are willing to share on line or in a private message to me. That would help me more accurately model the area. I think this picture shows the houses in question. Can you please confirm this. Can you remember about approximately how many steps were between the road above the houses on the mountain side and the houses. On the plan above I have a second road immediately behind the road just above the houses. Was that also on place in 1960 do you know. I will not be able to model the houses behind those in front and which Howard has such a connection. There is simply no room with the encroachment of the mountain around to Penmaenmawr. I have the following heights off google maps: Top road at 25 metres above sea level Road next to the houses at 22 metres New road below the houses at 18 metres ( not in existence in 1960 but give the height of the base of the houses - 18 metres Rail line 8 metres This gives the following vertical scale measurement between the heights as follows: Between the 2 roads 18ml Between the lower road and the houses 24 ml From the house base to the rail line 60 ml I usually increase this height difference by 50% so that you can see it in N gauge with the following results: Between the 2 roads 27ml Between the lower road and the houses 36ml From the house base to the rail line 90ml I have had a really busy work week so not much progress. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, Thanks for the comments above. I am with Lez clearly as I am modelling a LMS area. Crimson Lake for me!!! I have a decision to make. The plan below shows the last housing I can model in Penmaenmawr on the mountain end of the layout. I do not have quite enough room with the encroachment of the mountain on the Penmaenmawr side of the mountain. The plan showing the last 6 or so houses is shown below Under the Pilot square). The trouble is that the encroachment of the mountain means that I will have cliffs surrounding the 3 sides of the housing and getting the road down to the houses in a realistic fashion will be very difficult. The photo below is the actual geography of the area showing all of the row of houses. The plan below shows how this area fits into the wider Penmaenmawr area. The other houses further up the plan are in a much more gentle sloping area. I clearly can not fit any houses above the row of 12 or so and the mountain makes the geography by including the houses completely unrealistic. I have put in a flat board and cut the chicken wire to accommodate the houses but on reflection think that I can better recreate the geography by removing the 6 houses and making the slope to the rail lines much more gentle and realistic. The chicken wire is currently stapled to the back of the board but could be attached tp the front therefore reducing the slope to a much more realistic degree. Just above the houses on the plan is the light rail and associated buildings The questions is therefore leave the 6 houses or make the slope more realistic, providing a logical if not entirely realistic end to Penmaenmawr. Your views would be appreciated on this issue, but at this stage I am inclined to remove the houses and create a more realistic geographic look. I have been working in Canberra thus week and had little time for my modelling. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Richard, Thanks for the explanation. I just had no idea. I was looking at the photos to see if I could make out a hat or coat! I asked my wife and she also had no idea. Good to know though. I have to get her to help me with the static grass holding the wire onto the area while I tap the container. It was difficult to do both jobs by myself. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Richard, The "SOLUTION" will get covered up when I do the next wall section. I had to cover up a hole in my cliff bank. l did not even read what was on the news paper. The hole was just long enough to capture the whole word exactly. You have lost me with the reference to the hat coat, although I am travelling to Canberra tomorrow where it was -4 degrees last night so I am taking a scarf, gloves, hat, coat, jumper, jackets and ski jacket! Queensland is no where near that cold. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, Added a little more vegetation to the scree slope. Photos below. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Woodenhead, Thanks for your reply. I have added to the vegetation around the corner of the layout. I have added minimal vegetation to the scree slope and may add more but will see how it goes. I am really undecided if I should leave it or add more. Any views? Next is to add the static grass to the avalanche shelter. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, A couple of more photos below: I have finished the rock cliff faces so around to the scree slope above the large avalanche shelter. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Ed, The lights I have installed are below. They are indeed LEDs. The lights are described as "Daylight" and they are of course white, which I guess is a fairly harsh light. I have 8 of them. I increased the power when buying a replacement recently. Thanks for your post. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, A little more vegetation work. I still need to sprinkle fine turf to blend the colours a little more. I shall continue vegetation down and around the cliff face. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Ken, Thankyou for your extensive reply. Such background information adds a lot to the blog and the layout as a whole. I have received much information through RM Web with many of the readers providing very valuable assistance. Simon has provided a lot of really valuable advice over the years. The information about Boblondeb is particularly interesting and I am fascinated that you have a personal history with the building. About 7 years ago I gave my mother in law a photo of the hill behind Conwy which clearly showed the building. Jenny, my mother in law did a great job with her painting and her art work of the building is easy to pick exactly what it is. I told her about your comments and she also was quire interested. I am very lucky that she and my wife are so talented artists. My wife touched up the back scene about 6 months ago. Thank you for providing the BRM link. I was very interested to see it as I had not been contacted at all about it. It is exciting to think that what I am modelling in Australia is being looked at in Britain. Such little things really inspire more continued effort on the layout. I have rethought my tunnel technique, and cut a tunnel liner to fit all the way through. Prior to fitting it I glued the two tunnel portals into place. Photos are below. Road works have commenced on the higher road as shown below. I need to put some quoins on the tunnel portals and add vegetation to the next area. I shall also continue the higher road with more edging and then plaster (bitumen). Regards, Anthony Ashley