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Wirral Finescale Railway Modellers

Denbigh (Dinbych) - What might have been


beast66606

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  • RMweb Gold

First of a series, if enough interest, of threads on "What might have been schemes?"

 

Denbigh - as it was post the 1957 resignalling, as far as I can tell this is correct, its based on an unlabelled sheet of paper which was wrong and had modifications for proposed changes, I have edited it to put it back to how it should be, it's certainly near enough for this purpose.

 

This is the fullest plan we will work from ...

post-6662-12628538377223_thumb.jpg

 

Next stage will be to roll forward time to the mid 1960s.

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  • RMweb Gold

Not being Welsh, but isn't Dinbych Tenby not Denbigh, as in Dinbych Y Pysgod?

 

Dinbych means little fort as in Denbigh fort, "y Pysgod" adds "of the fish" as Tenby was a fishing port - Denbigh is a bit too far inland for that to be true.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/whatsinaname/sites/placenames/pages/dinbych.shtml

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/whatsinaname/sites/placenames/pages/dinbychypysgod.shtml

 

I will delete these postings in a day or so ..

 

A quick google answers all of this.

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A bit sureal this Dave as I popped into the carpark at Denbigh yesterday afternoon to have a look what was left there and to imagine how it used to be, not a lot just a bit of platform. My local station at St Asaph is now a builders yard building.

 

T-T

 

Won't be much left in my version soon :O :)

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  • RMweb Gold

On with the thread then ....

 

I intend to do two (maybe even three) versions, which will be apparent in time but will concentrate on one first, the idea is to propose a track plan for say 1965, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 or that general spread, hopefully following a feasible route, there will always be "but ..., but ...." alternatives

 

Once I've done then maybe others could download one or more of the plans and do your own version ... (I use mspaint for the editing so nothing clever is required) but please wait for me to say "Go!" before adding any, so my themes can complete ...

 

thanks.

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This theme will involve the closure of the line to Corwen - assummed to be 1968 (end of steam)

 

Mid 1960s.

 

Simple contraction of the sidings, loss of the turntable, timber yard closed.

 

post-6662-12628884592197_thumb.jpg

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Next plan ... 1970, the yard has largely gone, the engine shed has been removed and the lines to Rhyl / Mold are now two single lines, the junction down the line has been removed and the single line sections extended (this actually happened in 1957!)

 

post-6662-12631183263356_thumb.jpg

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And a 1970s plan, most sidings removed, a couple remain for unit stabling, the quarry has closed and associated sidings have gone, of course for a model these could be derelict, part lifted etc.

 

post-6662-12631189664933_thumb.jpg

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How long before the Tescos gets built on the site of the yard? :D

 

Having worked for a while in Denbigh I'm still hoping for the alternate reality where the whole town gets levelled and they make a more productive use of the land..... alternative site for Wylfa or Trawsfynydd? At least it would live on as a freight only branch that way!

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  • 2 months later...

It's a what-if that ignores reality. Crosville had a stanglehold on North Wales and the route down the Clwyd Valley was doomed. The area hasn't developed even today. There's little potential passenger traffic between St.Asaph and Denbigh, Denbigh & Ruthin, and especially on to Corwen.

 

Stabling DMU's at Denbigh is pure flight of fancy. A converted breadvan serving as a bus would have sufficed for the traffic out of Denbigh in the 1970s. Real closures were all the wrong way round seeing as there was a call for a good service into Chester, and probably is to this day. Ruthin is under a roundabout, Denbigh lost it bridge across the main street years ago, as did St.Asaph, and Rhuddlan is isolated from the world outside!

 

However, Denbigh did have the dubious honour of hosting the first supermarket around here (in the goods yard).

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It's a what-if that ignores reality. Crosville had a stanglehold on North Wales and the route down the Clwyd Valley was doomed. The area hasn't developed even today. There's little potential passenger traffic between St.Asaph and Denbigh, Denbigh & Ruthin, and especially on to Corwen.

 

Stabling DMU's at Denbigh is pure flight of fancy. A converted breadvan serving as a bus would have sufficed for the traffic out of Denbigh in the 1970s. Real closures were all the wrong way round seeing as there was a call for a good service into Chester, and probably is to this day. Ruthin is under a roundabout, Denbigh lost it bridge across the main street years ago, as did St.Asaph, and Rhuddlan is isolated from the world outside!

 

However, Denbigh did have the dubious honour of hosting the first supermarket around here (in the goods yard).

 

 

Never let the facts stand in the way of a good storybiggrin.gif

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • RMweb Premium

I quite liked the idea you were developing there, but there seems to be some misunderstanding of what you hoped to acheive. Just a thought could you do a similar process on a mothballed or reinstated line perhaps linked to the suggested towns that ATOC thought of? As an example the robin hood line/mansfield station or perhaps matlock to buxton.

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The idea was to start with the prototype and then close it down, and then reopen it, my thought was others might then be able to take the concept and use it to develop a plan for a layout in the period of their choice - so they could choose a prototype and give it a different history and end up at a time period they like - and model it.

 

The problem is this takes quite a long time to do, I was doing it for others (by definition I can do it myself so it's not for my benefit) but it seems there isn't much interest, so I haven't continued.

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Denbigh just happened to be an unfortunate choice. The motorcar is very very important in North Wales, as I discovered when settling here in 1965. It is because we have cars that hospitals can be centralised and built out in the middle of nowhere. Trains and buses are next to useless in this department!

 

I thought at first Oldham might make a decent choice of 'what if' until one faces reality. The town had no less than five stations with more yards than soft mick. It lost its link to the Standedge mainline at Greenfield in 1964. If reinstated, Oldham would be on the TranPennine route and this would probably take a lot of cars off the roads.

 

But as things stand the town is cut off and is ultimitately doomed as far as prospects go. The remaining railway line is being converted into a tram route and any future resurgence of industry will have to depend on materials being brought in and out by inadequate roads! So like Denbigh, a what-if won't work here either!

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The idea was to start with the prototype and then close it down, and then reopen it, my thought was others might then be able to take the concept and use it to develop a plan for a layout in the period of their choice - so they could choose a prototype and give it a different history and end up at a time period they like - and model it.

 

The problem is this takes quite a long time to do, I was doing it for others (by definition I can do it myself so it's not for my benefit) but it seems there isn't much interest, so I haven't continued.

 

Yes I had got the idea that people could pick the period they wanted and work up a plan from that maybe you and Hugh Flynn should work as a team, or do you think that might be too much spoonfeeding?

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