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North Welsh Coast Railway - Welsh Dragon Rail


Anthony Ashley
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Dave thanks for the photo. Despite having 100s of photos of Conwy, Penmaenmawr and Bangor I have not seen this bridge before. It looks a little temporary and may have been erected when the road bridge was built.

 

If you have any other photos of these towns or stations I would love too get a copy. My email address is

 

anthonyashley@tpg.com.au. If you are able to send it would be greatly appreciated.  

 

I have been unable to complete much modelling this week due to my son's 18 birthday.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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  • RMweb Gold

My guess was that it was built to keep pedestrians off the Telford road bridge, which can't have been a pleasant foot crossing.

 

I'll post any railway pics here, and see if there are any more general ones. I visited the area in the early 70s, and have some landscape pictures from then if not too late. I particularly remember seing cut off remains of the Telford route which must have been abandoned in the earlier inmprovements.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

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Dave,

 

Thanks for your interest. Any photos will assist in the realism of the layout. As you can see from the earlier track plan of the whole layout I am modelling a fair part of the town. I have used google earth to get an idea of current building frontages in the towns being modelled, but of course these are limited by being recent. The photos obviously clarify any discrepancy between the present and past. The one thing I have learnt in doing a layout this size is that it becomes a team effort with some very generous persons contributing knowledge and time to the project. This is greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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  • RMweb Gold

This is the only other Conway 1960 railway photo, also from the castle, showing some lifted track.

 

post-6902-0-67090000-1368998817_thumb.jpg

 

These next are from about 1971. They are probably between Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr, showing some tipper wagon remains and the relationship between the road and railway.

 

 

 

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post-6902-0-02879100-1368999806_thumb.jpg

 

Will email some 70s pics of the landscape in due course.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

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Dave,

 

Fantastic photos which I have not seen before. I appreciate your effort in downloading them. I didn't realise that there was grass growing on the top of the tunnel. This will add another feature to the layout. Many thanks. The view of the viaduct above is unusual and will also assist with modelling. Any other photos would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony

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I'm glad they are useful. One of the first things I did after retiring last year was to scan all my slides and negatives, (many of which had never been printed). In due course they will be tagged and put on flickr, but at the moment I'm posting things to rmweb when relevant. Re the grassed tunnel I like the fact that there is an access route along the top of the wall, then up integral steps and a ladder.

 

Btw, did my email get through? It had a lot of attached images so might have got rejected somewhere. I can resend in smaller batched if necessary.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

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Dave ,

 

Thanks very much for the email photos. I have had a good look at them and they provide an aver view of the area. This is very useful given the size of the layout. I think one of the photos is the top of the mountain at the rear of the Conwy back scene in my layout.

 

I have been researching the passenger time table and hove found one listing all rakes on the coast mainline for the summer of 60 and 61. I am currently putting 60 on a computer data base. There are in the order of 30 mainline trains over a day. This equates to approx. 15 rakes each way. The rakes were approx. 12 coaches in length. That is an awful lot of rolling stock in the form of BR MK1 coaches in blood and custard and Maroon. I am looking at buying second hand to reduce the cost. I may need to supplement the storage area on the hidden track area!

 

I have emailed Stewart Blencoe to try to ascertain freight time tables for the line. Does anyone have any idea on the type of freight carried on the Welsh west coast mail line in the 60s? I then need a huge amount of freight stock!

 

 

Once again thank you for the photos, they are great. I am interested in seeing any others which people may have of the stations of Conwy, Penmaenmawr or Bangor.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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A couple of friends of mine are quadcopter enthusiasts from North Wales and they have GoPro cameras attached to the underside to record what they get up to. They recently went to Conwy to film. They have footage on YouTube which might be useful to you.

 

I can't link from my mobile but if you do a search for John Wilkinson and Arialvideo (Yes that's the correct spelling for the channel) and you should find them. :)

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Daniel,

 

Thanks for the information. I have gone oon line and there are some useful shots. I shall keep an eye out to see what appears on that web site.

 

Thank you again for your interest, as givne the scal e of the layout all informatoin is useful. 

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS

 

Progress has been slow with work and my sons 18 birthday. I have just taken delivery of approximately 20 different types and scales of plasticard to model the castle, sea walls and bridges. Have used pictures and my 1:1 scale plan of the castle to select the relevant type and scale.

 

The castle will be constructed of 9 ml ply to form the walk ways as a part of the walls. 4 ml ply will be glued to the outside of the walkways, providing scale ramparts approx. 4 feet above the walk way and 2 feet thick. Modelling clay approximately 3 ml thick will then be glued either side of the ply to create the stone work. I shall need to find appropriate tubes the correct diameter to clad with the stone impressed modelling clay.

 

I about to get 20 odd second hand MK1 maroon coaches to start the passenger fleet to add to the 30 I currently have. I have been creating a time table for passenger trains with every coach listed for each rake. Plan to do one for Monday, Friday and Sunday set in summer of 1960 as a start.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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PROGRESS ON THE WELSH DRAGON RAILWAY

 

I have been able to spend part of a Saturday doing some work on the layout. Photos are below.

 

 

Support for the tubular bridge. I have the dimensions of the bridge through assistance from this thread. The middle will be 62 mm high and the ends 42 mm high. The L girder will be clad in plasticard or acrylic. Many strap need to be added going vertically to replicate the outside support structures.

 

post-15340-0-06055300-1369481036.jpg

 

The flood plane below Conwy with the creek lie visible has been completed with the cutting of a complicated piece of ply. I used a sheet of paper to create the required template and then marked the ply from that. Accurate and minimal waste of material.

 

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The view of the hill just south of Conwy looking through the town area to the sea. Only one lot of cardboard support to add and then paper and plaster bandage.

 

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View up the creek to the south of Conwy

 

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The view of the hill south of Conwy from across the town area. The hill area to the left requires further support.

 

post-15340-0-90400700-1369481059.jpg

 

There have been some fantastic photos of Conwy and Penmaenmawr added to this thread. If anyone has any they wish to add please do so.

 

Any comments are welcome also.

 

I expect to lay the horizontal surface for the main track area as my next task.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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This is one of my father's photos I scanned recently, I think from the early 60s. It shows that there was an extra pedestrian suspension bridge between the road and rail bridges. No idea when it was removed.

attachicon.gif010016.jpg

 

 

Looking forward to following this thread

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

The suspension bridge between Telford's suspension bridge and the railway bridge actually carried a water main and there was no public access to it.  I'm not sure when it was removed, possibly early 1970s although that is a guess.

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[MAINLINE AND CONWY GOODS AREA

 

I have at last been able to add a surface with supports the main line. The process used was to use paper templates, creasing the paper over the horizontal supports and marking the other side of the template against the ply former. These were then cut to shape. Below is the templates used for the main line area in Conwy. As you can see the shapes are complex and could not be cut accurately without using a template.

 

post-15340-0-93414500-1369567125.jpg

 

View across to the river Conwy and the far bank. Once completed the castle will dominate this area. I have just taken delivery of about 10 different types a plasticard providing different scales and types of stonework. I have chosen 3 types to replicate the differing stone work in the sea walls the bridge supports and the castle itself.

 

 

post-15340-0-63501700-1369567150.jpg

 

 

Hill in the fore ground followed by creek line, flood plain and main Conwy track line area, with tubular bridge location on the right.

 

post-15340-0-28379000-1369567170.jpg

 

I need to do some sculpting on the creek banks. This should be easy as they are made from foam with supports behind.

 

post-15340-0-79223600-1369567193.jpg

 

I need to do some priming of the under surfaces and then the scenic sides. Only the town areas to lay for horizontal support.

 

Please feel free to comment.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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I seem to recall an old magazine (possibly RM ?) article about a model of the Conwy bridge, where the builder had used plaster (modelling / scultural ) to replicate the vertical ribs on the outside of the tube. He made up a former, similar to those used to apply tile adhesive, so leaving retangular ribs.

 

This was probably in OO, or larger, so not sure how effective it would be in N.

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Stubby 47,

 

Thankyou very much for the information. I have that magazine and have catalogued it in my data base. You are right. The scale was O. I think the plaster method may be too difficult in N and I shall experiment with the plasticard box with ribs stuck on. I shall need to see if it will work. The article on this structure has a 2mm scale model of the towers either side of the river Conwy. I will use the plan to construct the towers. I also used the plan to do my 1:1 ground and elevation plan of the castle. I have tried to contact the author of the article without success. His name is Martyn Haley. The article was in Railway Modeller 1999 December. I have catalogued over 1,400 mags and intend to use them to assist with all aspects of the layout.

 

I have received another 3 versions of plasticard stone walls today. I now have 11 types of stone wall in different textures and scales. I will use at least 5 of them in the castle, sea walls, bridge supports and bridges. Each structure uses a different type of stone. I think I will need possibly 3 types for the castle alone. At this stage the Slaters 4mm coarse stone is the best for for the majority of the castle.

 

I have also taken delivery of some more coaches and can now create a rake of the "Welshman". It ran during the 60s as a train through the area of the layout. I shall take some photos of the Welshman rake against the back scene and post next time.

 

Stubby 47 thanks for the comment. All other comments are welcome.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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Hi Anthony,

 

Not sure if you are aware of Coachman of this parish, who photographed extensively around the North Wales area, and may have suggestions for coach / freight formations from the 1960s.

 

I can't belive that article was 14 years ago... shows how some things stick in the mind.

 

Stu

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LAYOUT PHOTO (PERHAPS A LITTLE INDULGENT)

 

Here is a photo of the "Welshman", using the back scene to enhance the train. It is a rake of about 11 coaches. I have completed a passenger time table for Summer 1960. I have managed to work out that 14 of the train rakes were largely replicated going both on the up and down line. meaning I shall require only half the coaches. There are about 7 more rakes that appear to be individual going only one way. I have worked out this shall require in the order of 250 coaches. If anyone has nay N gauge Mk1 Maroon or custard and cream coaches they do not want I am interested.

 

post-15340-0-61258100-1369745099.jpg

 

Both pictures are of a Royal Scot. This photo shows the hill behind Conwy on the right and the mountain on the left.

 

 

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I appreciate there is a little more work to go but it is exciting to see a loco on the layout even if it is stationary!

 

All comments are gratefully accepted.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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PHYSICAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A POT AND POS

 

Out of the 40 odd rakes of passenger trains I need to model is a train with mail coaches. One of these is a POT and another a POS. Can anyone explain the physical differences or provide a picture of each or one. I have looked on line and it is still unclear. Farish do the TPOs and I imagine some are POT and others POS, but again it is not clear.

 

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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COACH REQUIRMENTS

 

I have sorted the number of coaches required to run the layout. For the mainline traffic without including local passenger services it requires 14 rakes of coaches which are identical for both the up and down lines and an additional 8 rakes running on either the down or up line. A total of 36 train rakes running over the mainline in a 24 hour period for Summer 1960. There are also a number of local passenger services which I have yet to factor in.

 

The numbers by coach are as follows:

BSK-57

SK-85

CK-42

FK-4

RSP-1

SLF-2

SLSTP-1

BG-24

POS-1

POT-1

6 WHEEL FISH VAN- 1

FO-2

RS-1

SO-3

RKB-1

BCK-1

RF-1

 

Given the number of coaches I am after any Chinese Farish Maroon or Blood and Custard Coaches to meet the above requirements.

 

Please post any comments as I am interested in feed back.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

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Hi Anthony,

 

I'm guessing you'll need identical rakes to simulate the same train passing both ways in the same operating session, as if the train has been to Holyhead and been reversed.

 

As you have turntables, then on the next operating session, both rakes will be 'facing' the other direction (i.e. corridor side to the sea, then corridor side to the land) - I take it this isn't an issue  (given your intention to replicate the exact rakes for each train) ?

 

Stu

 

(Totally off topic - seeing your name is interesting to me - I have a cousin called Anthony and a sister called Ashley !!) 

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