All along the Breakwater... Holyhead(ish) in 00, another Lockdown project

[Ben B]

Having posted my Ivor Clockwork layout, I thought I'd post another Lockdown project...

 

 

I've been interested in the Holyhead Breakwater Tramway for a long time, ever since seeing an old picture of a faded BR-black liveried 01 shunter propelling a wagon of stone along the structure.  And with the Lockdowns dragging on, I started mucking about with writing some layout planning articles, more just for the sake of something to do with a definable end goal.  I'd built my foster-daughter a 00 gauge layout a few years before, and it was a bit conventional, so I was thinking of starter-type layouts that were a bit more creative perhaps.  After doing my local station, Damems (on the Worth Valley) I started to have a play with the idea of Holyhead Breakwater, with some operating features.

 

 

I did a trip to the Breakwater, to see what was left (during that rather wonderful gap between Lockdowns in 2020).  There's a surprising amount left of the isolated little line, and a nice country park at the quarry end.

 

 

The trackbed is now the approach road to the Country Park, still with old railway-age features remaining, such as this marvellous bridge spanning the road.

 

 

 

Near the Breakwater is the old engine shed, though with a new roof.

 

 

Considering the line closed and was lifted in the 80's, there's still a fair bit of trackwork remaining.

 

 

More rails, pointed towards the breakwater itself.

 

 

One feature which appealed to me for the build; the trackwork wasn't embedded in cobbles or stone, but buried in rather looser shale and sand for much of its length, which would make trackwork a bit easier.

 

I think it's a great shame the line closed (though perhaps not surprising), and even more of a shame that the 01 shunters were scrapped and not offered for preservation.  I liked the idea of a similar set-up which had either never closed, or had closed but not been lifted, and thus reopened as a compact ex-industrial preservation line, perhaps pressed back into use moving stone for the breakwater between passenger trains.  Far-fetched perhaps, but then the Middleton in Leeds carried freight for several decades in preservation, and the Preston Docks Railway still sees tanker traffic.

 

So with the research stage going well, it was time to plan the layout...

 

[Ben B]

 

Being as we live in a small house, I decided our kitchen table was the restricting factor, so set about raiding the bits boxes and actually just planning it out for real.

 

I liked the idea of the layout having a bit of play value, and practical purpose, so designed it around two cranes, and a planned central break.  Stone could be loaded with the yellow gantry crane, moved to the grey crane at the bottom on the breakwater, and dumped over the wall (supposedly into the sea) to restart the process.  The above led to the plan...

 

 

Having planned it out, I realised I wasn't going to have room to actually make it, but thought I'd write it up as a potential piece for a model railway mag (by this point Railway Modeller had expressed an interest in the Damems piece, so I thought I'd push my luck a bit and submit a second article).  Being as I didn't have any pictures of the real place in use (it closed before I was born), I thought I'd do a scenic diorama of the Breakwater end, to accompany the article.  It wouldn't need to be too large.

 

 

First mock-up, to see how it would look.

 

 

And one trying to work out how high to make the sea wall, whilst still being able to get craned loads over the stone work.

 

 

I had some chamfered lengths of wood which I'd used years ago for a miniatures shoot, and (given I couldn't get any embossed stone plasticard at the time) I printed out some suitable stone work.  After scrunching them up, I soaked them in diluted PVA, and stuck them over the woodwork.

 

 

I had to make some more for the rear wall.  Track was very much a scrabble through the spares box, the points in particular are ancient (I needed to save the newer, better-quality ones, for another project I had on the go).

 

 

I had some rather more decorative edging pieces in the shed, and added them to create the effect of a wave-wall.

 

 

Ballast was done with sand, to give a fair representation of the real location.

 

So far, so relatively simple...

[Ben B]

With the layout done, I found I needed to shoot it out on location.  And with some rather tough local lockdowns in effect, a trip to the seaside wasn't on the cards, so I found the nearest alternative, a large reservoir up in the hills a few miles from home (and still -just- within the restricted zone for the local lockdowns.  Even then, I had to wait an annoying couple of months for the lockdown to be loosened a little).

 

 

A suitable place to shoot the pics, where I could park close enough to not need to carry the gear too far.  Middle Child accompanied me as my unpaid assistant for the shoot.

 

 

I was a little annoyed, seeing the blue sky rapidly disappearing...

 

 

A damned good job I had help too, as the wind was threatening to tip the whole shebang into the drink so she was having to hang onto it.  Even then, the lighthouse pitched over and had to be fished out, then weighted down inside with ballast.  I'd left the uncompleted fiddle-yard (well, stick) at home for the shoot.

 

 

This was the sort of angle I was after, and frankly the weather is quite indicative of North Wales, but then I really wanted some proper bright sunshine and blue sky, like it had been on my prototype visit, so I realised I'd need to do a second trip, annoyingly.

 

 

[Sweet pea]

Layout looks great and with the original backdrop. 👍

[Ben B]

 

Yet another bloody lockdown intervened, but in time, I was able to get back to the reservoir on a rather better day.

 

 

...of course, as soon as I'd got everything out of the car and set up, the inevitable happened.  Curses.

 

 

Shame about the tree sticking up, though I reckoned the crane would hide it.  A quick word on the light house; it's a parmesan tub, with a clear paint pot, and the lid and funnel from a washing up liquid container (best Blue Peter fashion).

 

 

Am overall view of the layout; I had once again left the part-constructed fiddle-stick board at home, for the ease of shooting the pics.

 

 

Again, the trees were a problem, but I was a bit limited on angles I could shoot.  This pic does indicate most of the intended rolling stock of the layout though; with the idea being to pitch this towards a starter market, I thought a straightforward repaint of the humble Hornby Barclay/06 would be an easier bet than a brass 01 kit. 

 

 

The Bachmann Wickham is fairly prototype accurate (the real Holyhead line used them for personnel transport), and the flat wagons are the chassis from old Triang shorty goods stock.

 

 

Looking at the preservation line angle, I thought a couple of four-wheelers would be suitable as carriages, and lacking anything else, I used a pair of old Triang starter coaches.  Though these did fit with the Middleton Railway atmosphere though, where they use a trio of converted parcels vans, one with an end balcony, for their trains.

 

 

Well, it did the job as a scenic diorama, even if the sand ballasting didn't work too terrifically with the large flanges of the ex-Triang items.  The more modern, Bachmann Wickham, coped rather better.  Given that, I didn't use it too often, and didn't even finish the fiddle yard or scenic block for the exit.

 

 

Being as I didn't really have a lot of room for a permanent layout, I ended up recycling it.  After languishing in the loft for a bit, it saw the light of day again for a Garden Rail project, on the miniature railways build I did in 2021.  Perhaps I'll put something on that up soon too :)

 

 

[Ian Holmes]

More clever work. Well done.

 

Ian

[The Cable Guy]

Brilliant and great article in the Railway Modeller.

One day I will build my breakwater model!

[Halvarras]

Intriguing idea! 

Regarding the Wickham, I've seen a photo of 01002 on the line and lurking in the background is a plain yellow example (no stripes) numbered TR23 - as modelled by Bachmann (ref. 32-992). One may not be able to purchase an RTR model of the line's locomotives but the Wickham's covered.....!

[Enfys_Rainbow]

This is really great! I also have an interest in the Breakwater railway - what a fascinating line.

 

The first photo in the threat is particularly convincing!

 

Matt

[SteveyDee68]

Really clever use of RTR equipment (although those two Triang coaches are like gold dust!!) and a cracking idea for a micro layout! (Must resist, must resist!)

 

The Hornby 06 looks huge compared to the Wickham trolley; shame you didn’t have a Hornby (yellow) Ruston 48DS to hand - I think that would have looked fabulous in this setting!

 

Steve S

[SteveyDee68]

Well, the only slight issue with this excellent plan is using the Lima Container Crane for the breakwater …

 

Cheapest available on eBay is £40+ …

 

Definitely need to find via swapmeets, bric-a-brac, car boot sales etc!

 

HOURS OF FUN!

 

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by SteveyDee68
Auto spell check getting it wrong - again!

[Halvarras]

18 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

shame you didn’t have a Hornby (yellow) Ruston 48DS to hand - I think that would have looked fabulous in this setting!

 

Kernow has this on special offer at £69.99 at the moment.....just sayin'........😉

[SteveyDee68]

On 13/08/2022 at 13:31, Halvarras said:

 

Kernow has this on special offer at £69.99 at the moment.....just sayin'........😉

Tempting! The eBay sellers can’t match that price!!

 

Note to self - must resist, must resist!!

 

HOURS OF FUN!

[simonmcp]

You're a better man than I, I popped in and bought one last weekend. There are disadvantages to living close to a well stocked model railway shop 🙄.