Tre-Castell - A Dyserth inspired Layout

[HKG Steve]

Introduction

A while ago I posted some pictures of my attempts modelling the Dyserth Goods shed in one of the magazine topics - and was asked if there was a thread - there is now!

 

This is my first installment - more pictures and text to follow

 

Tre-castell is my long planned 00 scale layout based on the Dyserth end of the Prestatyn and Dyserth Railway. The concept for the model has been festering in my mind since the purchase (with a Postal Order!) of Trefor Thompson’s book on the line in 1978, but has only recently started to materialize.

Bending history, as most modellers do, I have set the layout in the 1980s/1990s prior to the privatisation era and establishment of Railtrack plc, and have assumed that the line somehow survived the closures resulting from the Beeching review, and that passenger service  continued beyond LMS days

The prototypical features incorporated into the layout are;

1)     The three arch bridge over the railway at the station throat,

2)     The goods shed,

3)     The Vale of Clwyd Farmers warehouse, and

4)     The platform buildings.

The track plan is shown below, and the additional non prototypical features are;

1)     A quarry line, heading back and uphill from the station area – The quarry products being the reason the line “survived” , providing ballast for BR and aggregates for other enterprises

2)     Two crossovers and headshunts to allow run round of trains

3)     Two additional sidings in the coal yard, one for coal traffic, and the other for a small P Way depot, which as taken over use of the goods shed.

4)     A high level platform ( rather than the ultra low original)

 

The layout is U shaped to fit into the hobby room which is a converted garage, with the main station  area leg being 13’6” by 2’ , 7’4” wide at the base of the U and a 8’10”  by 2’ return leg which includes the fiddle yard and the quarry.

Construction was started in 2018, firstly by building 10 kitchen unit carcasses ( 6 down one side of the room and 4 down the other) to provide the base for the layout and storage underneath, followed by the 3 boards forming the quarry and fiddle yard. These were built using the usual dodgy ply supplied by a large DIY chain, and are split level – the quarry being 100mm higher than the fiddle yard.  Attempting these made me realise that my 40 year old woodwork O level wasn’t working properly any more and I got Tim Horn to supply me with the 4 boards for the long side of the U. These were a bespoke order, with one board being 4’6” long, and all being 125mm deep rather than the standard 100mm. This then gave me a 25mm rise from fiddle yard to station and a further 25mm rise from station to quarry - this works out at around 1 in 40 which is in keeping with the real gradients encountered on the Dyserth branch. The final board connecting the two sides was home- made and is trapezoidal in shape due to the lack of squareness of the room, and is supported on runners to allow for removal access to radiator and window. It is also only 75m deep to allow for some depth to the scenery.

Track is Peco code 75 flat bottom on stage, and code 100 off stage – this was so I could use the symmetrical 3-way turnout in the fiddle yard. Control is traditional DC, and pointwork on stage is all electro-frog and powered by a mix of Peco and Gaugemaster/Seep point motors ( I would have much preferred to use the new twistlock system but they took too long in arriving!)

Buildings are a mix of Metcalfe kits (some built by my wife when we were living in Australia!)  Bachmann Scenecraft, and scratch-bulit, with an oddball inclusion of an Australian purchased ( and built) weather-boarded bungalow.

Being a fictitious location, I apply Rule One to rolling stock, although I have tried to keep to what was generally running around the North Wales coast in the 1980s/90s. A lot of the rolling stock was bought in Australia when we were planning on making that our home – but plans change, and since returning to the UK in 2013 more has been added – of course!.

 

Next  instalment will cover my Christmas lockdown project of the Vale of Clwyd Farmers warehouse

 

 

[LDM34046]

That’s a very interesting track plan. Looks like it could be a lot of fun to operate. Excited to see this one develop! 
 

LDM

[HKG Steve]

Vale of Clwyd Farmers Ltd Warehouse

 

 

One of the prominent buildings at Dyserth is the Vale of Clwyd Farmers Ltd warehouse. The warehouse appears to have been built in 3 stages, with a 2 storey initial building, a subsequent single storey extension and a further later addition on the non-rail side. Fortunately, the building still exists, albeit in much modified form, and is visible on Google Earth/Maps

I have built my version of this during the recent Christmas period, locked down in Wales!

The model is made from a mix of plastic sheets and 1.3mm thick mount board coated with brickwork printed from a CAD drawing I made of the buildings. I drew the CAD at full size and then printed out at 1:76 scale on heavy matte photo paper

Research was assisted by the very useful resources of the disused stations website, the dyserth.com website old photos gallery, Trefor Thompson’s book on the railway and other sources. Dimensions were estimated from Google Earth, and from counting bricks etc on the web photographs (zoomed in as far as I could go on a big monitor. I would say that this stage took about 18 months of snatched 10minute sessions when work and life permitted, but I was able to build it virtually in 3D in the CAD program as well as preparing the build sheets and overlays in 2D

The biggest problem was that not one view of the non-rail side of the structures is available – obviously not the primary target of the cameras of the participants of various rail tours up the branch! - so that has been largely guess work. From the available photos, the canopy at the end of the single storey building has had numerous incarnations, so my version is guaranteed to be incorrect. Of course, just when I’d finished the build, I stumbled across another photo on the HMRS website which shows that I have totally mis-interpreted the door on the end of the third extension next to the loading platform. The platform should be extended and the door should be a warehouse door from the platform. Hey-ho.

 

Here's a few shots taken during the build and in place on the layout - the white card edges and holes around the building site have since been filled, and the board is currently the wrong way round - so railway side photos may follow later.

 

Partially built rail side view

 

Partially built far side view ( my interpretation!)

 

Nearly complete views

 

 

insitu views

 

[HKG Steve]

Hi LDM

 

Yes plenty of operational fun,  including splitting , shunting  and tripping the stone trains to and  from the quarry, whilst keeping the platform road clear for the DMU passenger services, which occasionally become 3 coach loco-hauled regional railways services also requiring a loco run-round. Add to that the freight workings to the coal siding, the warehouse, and the P Way works trains workings and it gets interesting.

 

The layout, whilst intended to be firmly home-based, is designed for possible exhibition, should such events re-establish themselves!

 

HKG Steve

 

[HKG Steve]

Having nearly finished the Vale of Clwyd warehouse ( tidying up the yard area and vegetation around the buildings still to do), my next scratch built buildings for Tre-Castell, will be the station buildings, or rather sheds.

 

The real Dyserth station ended life with just a  ticket office/lamp room, but it had been a littler grander as one of the pictures on dyserth.com, and Trefor Thompson's book notes. 

As far as I can determine, the initial 16ft by 8ft6 LNWR flat pack waiting room was first expanded by relocation of another 16ft x 8ft6 shed from the goods yard to form the ticket office, and then finally extended by the bolting on of a another 8ft6 "module" which formed the Ladies waiting room and toilet.

 

Once again I've been planning these for quite a while in CAD, using all the web and book pictures I could find as reference and my current plan is as shown below.

I'm toying between constructing out of plasticard or printed card, and whilst I've drawn the windows and doors, these will be modelled boarded up with steel plate, as the cutbacks mean that the passenger service is operated as a pay-train. Passenger facilities are relegated to a disheveled  ready to plonk Bachmann glass "bus shelter" which I've already grottified 

 

 

 

[HKG Steve]

No progress with the platform buildings yet.

But....

With the bulk of the "mass" scenic work done, I've realized that I no longer have any space to put tools and materials on the boards, so I cobbled together this clip on shelf, which now forms part of the fiddle yard.

 

 

 

 

 

I think it will also come in handy when operating, as a place to unbox stock and do minor servicing

 

 

I also tried experimenting with some posed shots of stock on the layout - these are taken at the inside of the board linking the two halves of the layout.

KMRC special 47 537 Sir Gwenydd hauling Heljan Dogfish ( also from KMRC!) applying Rule 1, the latter are awaiting fixing of their well documented dodgy couplings 

 

 

[HKG Steve]

Another distraction from progress on the station huts 

 

This time a short section of crinkly tin covered conveyor to feed the otherwise isolated Bachmann Loading Tower. the remainder of the conveyor is "off-stage" and left to the imagination

Made using Wills "corrugated asbestos sheeting" and Evergreen sections for the beams/crosspieces - concrete support made from some 16x6 stripwood pieces, it just props against the main loading tower building, which isn't fixed down.

 

 

[cctransuk]

On 04/01/2021 at 17:07, HKG Steve said:

Introduction

A while ago I posted some pictures of my attempts modelling the Dyserth Goods shed in one of the magazine topics - and was asked if there was a thread - there is now!

 

This is my first installment - more pictures and text to follow

 

Tre-castell is my long planned 00 scale layout based on the Dyserth end of the Prestatyn and Dyserth Railway. The concept for the model has been festering in my mind since the purchase (with a Postal Order!) of Trefor Thompson’s book on the line in 1978, but has only recently started to materialize.

Bending history, as most modellers do, I have set the layout in the 1980s/1990s prior to the privatisation era and establishment of Railtrack plc, and have assumed that the line somehow survived the closures resulting from the Beeching review, and that passenger service  continued beyond LMS days

The prototypical features incorporated into the layout are;

1)     The three arch bridge over the railway at the station throat,

2)     The goods shed,

3)     The Vale of Clwyd Farmers warehouse, and

4)     The platform buildings.

The track plan is shown below, and the additional non prototypical features are;

1)     A quarry line, heading back and uphill from the station area – The quarry products being the reason the line “survived” , providing ballast for BR and aggregates for other enterprises

2)     Two crossovers and headshunts to allow run round of trains

3)     Two additional sidings in the coal yard, one for coal traffic, and the other for a small P Way depot, which as taken over use of the goods shed.

4)     A high level platform ( rather than the ultra low original)

 

The layout is U shaped to fit into the hobby room which is a converted garage, with the main station  area leg being 13’6” by 2’ , 7’4” wide at the base of the U and a 8’10”  by 2’ return leg which includes the fiddle yard and the quarry.

Construction was started in 2018, firstly by building 10 kitchen unit carcasses ( 6 down one side of the room and 4 down the other) to provide the base for the layout and storage underneath, followed by the 3 boards forming the quarry and fiddle yard. These were built using the usual dodgy ply supplied by a large DIY chain, and are split level – the quarry being 100mm higher than the fiddle yard.  Attempting these made me realise that my 40 year old woodwork O level wasn’t working properly any more and I got Tim Horn to supply me with the 4 boards for the long side of the U. These were a bespoke order, with one board being 4’6” long, and all being 125mm deep rather than the standard 100mm. This then gave me a 25mm rise from fiddle yard to station and a further 25mm rise from station to quarry - this works out at around 1 in 40 which is in keeping with the real gradients encountered on the Dyserth branch. The final board connecting the two sides was home- made and is trapezoidal in shape due to the lack of squareness of the room, and is supported on runners to allow for removal access to radiator and window. It is also only 75m deep to allow for some depth to the scenery.

Track is Peco code 75 flat bottom on stage, and code 100 off stage – this was so I could use the symmetrical 3-way turnout in the fiddle yard. Control is traditional DC, and pointwork on stage is all electro-frog and powered by a mix of Peco and Gaugemaster/Seep point motors ( I would have much preferred to use the new twistlock system but they took too long in arriving!)

Buildings are a mix of Metcalfe kits (some built by my wife when we were living in Australia!)  Bachmann Scenecraft, and scratch-bulit, with an oddball inclusion of an Australian purchased ( and built) weather-boarded bungalow.

Being a fictitious location, I apply Rule One to rolling stock, although I have tried to keep to what was generally running around the North Wales coast in the 1980s/90s. A lot of the rolling stock was bought in Australia when we were planning on making that our home – but plans change, and since returning to the UK in 2013 more has been added – of course!.

 

Next  instalment will cover my Christmas lockdown project of the Vale of Clwyd Farmers warehouse

 

 

 

I have fond memories of a 4F, pounding up through Prestatyn Golf Course, with the empty wagons.

 

John Isherwood.

[HKG Steve]

This weekend's activity revolved around the Vale of Clwyd warehouse , with some additional bushes and static grass applied, and some agricultural vehicles added to give me an idea as to how much I can place in there.

 

 

 

 

The yard has been gravelled, but from the photos it looks like it needs toning down a bit - with some paint washes

I need to invest in a gate/s at the entrance

 

The road now has some patches, and will next have to be treated to road markings, for which I am thinking of printing on self adhesive paper - using the proper TSRGD diagrams replicated in CAD 

 

I also had a go at the station shelters using Wills sheeting but wasn't happy as the planks are too wide - so back to the printed card methinks.

 

[HKG Steve]

I finally reached the milestone of completing the ballasting over the weekend.

Unlike my woodworking skills - this is one field that I feel that I have improved on.  - See wheeltappers!

 

Next task - to master the art of track bed weathering , so I made up some test sections so try my hand at using the Peco PS-371 materials  before I trust myself  enough to be let loose on the boards