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North Welsh Coast Railway - Welsh Dragon Rail


Anthony Ashley
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This is the blog for an N gauge layout set on the north Welsh coast in the period 1960 to 1970. It will feature the stations of Conwy, Penmaenmawr and Bangor. This is the first layout I have built and it will be a case of slowly but surely. Currently I am working on the Conwy section of the layout and intend to complete at least some scenery prior to commencing the next base board. I have built a large shed to house the layout in, which will be 35'X16'. I have been researching for approximately 10 months and have pictures of most of the rail facilities for the 3 stations. The name of the layout is the Welsh Dragon railway.

 

 

Conwy has the fantastic castle and medieval town wall to model, is on a river, has 3 impressive bridges, a small freight shunting area and a few hills. The castle alone will be approximately 2 1/2 feet by approximately 1 1/2 feet. and nearly 12 inches tall.  An approximate map of the area being modelled is below.

 

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  Penmaenmawr is on the sea, is a picturesque holiday town, has a fantastic mountain right next to it which includes a marvellous rail and road viaduct between the ocean and mountain. I am also going to slightly distort reality and operate the light rail facility which moved the granite for the mountain to the main line rail service up to the 1950s. I understand that this closed some years earlier but will take some licence, as it will give me the opportunity to model a Welsh quarry light railway.

 

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Bangor is a great station to model given its position in a valley with tunnels at either end. It is quite large And from my reading was a hub for rail freight traffic in the area in the early 60s, allowing a great variety in the types of goods subject to movement to and through the station. Given it was a primary station on the route to Ireland, this would also provide varied freight requirements and considerable variety in passenger trains .

 

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The layout will be in 2 levels. The upper level is scenic with the 3 stations. The lower has two 18 track turntables to store all stock and rotate to facilitate a morning and afternoon run of trains.  

 

I have started a previous blog on RM Web and will update this site with the same material. This will remain the web site for the Welsh Dragon Railway in the future.

 

Please reply if this is of interest to anyone and I shall continue entries.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

 

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Commencing the base boards and back scenes.

 

The first part of the project was to complete a very accurate plan of the layout. The plan has taken at least 100 hours and has been evolving since I started the project.Part of the plan is listed below and features Conwy. Main lines are shown in blue and purple with hidden track in green and red. The grid lines are 12 inches or 304 mm apart. The grey area at the bottom of the section of the plan is an operations area. I have completed the town plan for Penmaenmawr and will show that section on a later entry.

 

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The large area of water is the river Conwy. The castle is self evident. The other large yellow structure is a church. Conwy station is in the lower left hand corner of the plan. The brown dotted line is a medieval town wall which you may notice has a portal for the main line to run through.

Below is the area comprising the hidden and lower track area which will not be visible as part of the scenic area.

 

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The gradient on the hidden area for both track going down and up is 1:100. I have maximum radius curves on the scenic area of 30" and 20 "in the hidden and lower track area. This should allow me to run prototype rakes of 16 coaches, which was not uncommon for the holiday passenger traffic in the 1960s on the Chester to Holyhead line.

 

 

There are two transition areas on the complete plan to facilitate movement for the scenic to the lower track areas.

 

I shall be running the layout on DCC.

 

Below are a few early shots of my base board construction and early back scenes which are being painted by my wife and mother in law. Both are very talented artists and I am fortunate to have them involved in the project.

 

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To the rear of Conwy lies a small hill and a mountain. These will feature in a future entry. The back scene comprising the shed walls adjacent to Penmenmawr and the Pen-y-clip viaduct are sea scape and shots of them are below.

 

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Lighting for the layout is comprised of 8 50 watt LED spot lights. A shot of one of the lights is below.

 

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The base boards for Conwy are shown below prior to adding the horizontal surfaces.

 

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Future entries will feature further back scene and base board developments.

 

Please reply to this topic if it is of interest.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

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BACK SCENE AND BASE BOARD DEVELOPMENT

 

The back scenes continued to be developed by my family and I have provided a sample of the photos featuring the area to the rear of Conwy.

 

 

1st draft of the mountain and hill behind Conwy

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Early effort on the town wall around Conwy

 

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A more recent photo of the town wall.

 

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The river Conwy to the right of the town.

 

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Hidden track with the 1:100 gradient. Two pairs of tracks rising and falling. Horizontal surfaces have yet to be added.post-15340-0-78755400-1367156302.jpg

 

The view of the hidden track taken form the other direction. The town of Conwy will be above this track.

 

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The far bank of the river Conwy with a first effort rainbow. The rainbow will be deleted and my family will try again with this feature.

 

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If you have enjoyed these photos please reply so that I can ascertain interest in continuing the blog.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

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DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONWY BACK SCENE AND THE HORIZONTAL SURFACES AND SEA WALLS FOR THE LLANDUDNO GOODS AREA

 

I have included a few photos of the reworked rainbow over the far bank of the river Conwy and the Llandudno goods storage area which has been clad with horizontal surfaces and ply forming the base for the sea walls.

 

I am interested in comments as to whether the attached rainbow or the one above looks more effective.

 

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Immense project - definitely keep posting.  

 

Much prefer second rainbow.  I imagine it will be very difficult to get something looking convincing.  Personally on a project of this scale the rainbow would be a nice to have at the end as part of the detailing.

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John,

 

Thank you for your comments they are valued. My team of painters have rather less to do on the layout than me, as I am doing everything but the back scene with a little help from other modellers. We wanted to finish the Conwy end as that will be the first section of the layout completed, so that the painters do not need to take paint around a completed scenic section. I think the second rainbow looks less cartoon like and more realistic.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

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PROTOTYPE VIEW OF CONWY

I have included a couple of actual photos of Conwy castle and the rail lines in front of it to give the perspective which from the lower operating area of the layout.

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I think the picture is inspiring in terms of my modelling the castle.

Regards,

Anthony

Edited by Andy Y
Edited to remove clearly copyrighted picture - do you hold the copyright for the other?
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PROPOSED CASTLE CONSTRUCTION

For the castle I was thinking of using ply for the straight sections clad in plasticard moulded as stone. The difficulty is the towers. I have been collecting a variety of cardboard tubes to replicate the interior and exterior walls. The walkway around the top of the towers would provide the spacer for the interior wall. I will cut slices out of the tubes and fit and glue the straight wall sections into the gap in the tube.

 

I was thinking of taking a mould of the plasticard and then using modelling clay impressed on the mould and then wrapped around the tower which had been precut. This will provide the flexibility needed to wrap around the tube. I will need to experiment with this technique to see if it will work.

 

I have drafted a 1:1 scale plan of the castle and it is very impressive when viewed against the rolling stock, coaches and locos, with the length of the castle being over 2 1/2 feet long in N gauge.

 

If any one else has a better idea for the castle I would be interested to hear it.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

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Well Anthony, this is going to be beautiful when it's finished I'm sure but rather you than me modelling that particular structure!! 

I've climbed the towers on the castle many times so am very familiar with the plan of it, but for the life of me wouldn't know where to begin in modelling terms!! 

There are some well-respected building/structural modellers on here so I would recommend starting a separate thread for the build to get some input that way...

 

Following with interest...

 

David

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Mike,

 

I shall keep a close eye on the layout featuring Penmaenmawr. I shall email the creator and try to swap information, as I do have a substantial number of photos and info.

 

Thank you for the information and reply.

 

regards,

 

Anthony

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THE EARLY STAGE OF LAYOUT DEVELOPMENT

 

I am enclosing a couple of photos of the early stages of the layout development showing the process of insulation which I completed with assistance from my father-in-law. Those of you who have followed through the replies will realise the layout has become a family affair.

 

The photo below shows the stages of insulation for the shed. In Australia the insulation is mainly required to deal with the heat rather than the cols as is the case in the UK. The framework of the shed was used to hold wool bats. Over the top of the bats I put silver foil and then 18 mil thick villa board.

 

 

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This was the last section to be insulated and shows the frame work around the window, which was then covered with Villa Board.

 

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The shed with the insulation process completed and primed. My next task was to talk my mother in law and wife into painting the back scene. As you have seen I succeeded in that task.

 

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There is no doubt that you need to have a large variety of skills to create a large layout from scratch.

 

Next reply I shall show further development of the back scene and the Conwy section have been primed to reduce the effect of moisture.

 

Please reply if you are interested in this blog or have any questions, as I find the interaction with other modellers to be rewarding.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

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Anthony,

 

Its a majorly ambitious project but from what you have shown so far I believe you have the ability to pull it off no problem, the backscene is looking utterly superb and convincing, really reminding me of home

 

I think you should post the overall plan for people to realise the true scale of your project, I am looking forward to your building of Conway Castle and I think it will look stunning in front of that background

 

David

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BACK SCENE DEVLOPMENT

 

Jenny and Sarah have been further refining the Conwy back scene, adding depth to the vegetation as shown below.

 

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There has also been further work on the river area blending in the colours to more closely match the environment.

 

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Horizontal surfaces and sea walls in Conwy are now being added.

 

 

Hope you enjoy the additional detail

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

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To all those who have responded thank you for your encouragement.

 

I am also in the process of catalouging a number of magazines back to 1972. Some of the more popular include Railway Modeller, British Model Rail, Model rail, Model railway Constructor, Locomotive Illustrated and a number of others. I have divided the databases into two including Prototype and Modelling and then subdivided into separate pages (ie scenery, DCC, Kit Building, Fictional layouts etc). If those reading are interested in seeing this material please contact me via a RM messenging system of reply on this means. I still have a few hundred magazines to go!

 

regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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DISTANT VIEWS OF EITHER END OF THE BACK SCENE AND CREEK LINE DEVELOPMENT

 

I have enclosed the distant views showing the wide view of the back scenes. The Conwy view has had the rainbow slightly deepened to make it stand out.

 

 

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This photo is of the creek line in front of the castle. I am slowly working on this area using a combination of pine structural support, ply sea walls and foam to create the creek banks. The hill to the south of the creek line has also been started using card board lattice and news paper. Plaster bandage to follow.

 

post-15340-0-30337400-1367743834.jpg

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

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