forest2807 Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 I'm not a fan of hyperbole, but I think that to take the saw to Morfa would be a real tragedy. It is beautiful already, and not even complete! Is it not at all possible to consider offering it for sale, new owner to dismantle? I'm not in a position to buy it, but I'm sure there are others who might be. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium New Haven Neil Posted August 26, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 26, 2015 Gutted. Morfa is the best example of 'less is more' I have ever seen. Vale. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted August 26, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 26, 2015 I'm also rather saddened to read this, but obviously your living arrangements are the priority. I've also become a great fan of the open expanses 'less is more' setting here; those last few images of the DMU on the embankment reminds me so much of the embankment north of Tywyn. I do hope we get to see some form of re-birth, beyond a micro size layout, to allow the open spaces vision again. All the best with the move, whenever it may happen. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
branchie Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Let's the petition signing begin! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted August 27, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 27, 2015 I can sympathise with your aim to downsize. However before you start to break up the layout. Do have a think about a garden shed for the layout. If you buy a small place with no room for a layout a garden shed can be a good idea. I am thinking you might want to re-assemble the layout. I do really love the layout. Don Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ian Posted August 27, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 27, 2015 In the true spirit of railways in the region I would like to announce the inaugural meeting of the Morfa Railway Preservation Society... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted August 27, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted August 27, 2015 I'm not a fan of hyperbole, but I think that to take the saw to Morfa would be a real tragedy. It is beautiful already, and not even complete! Is it not at all possible to consider offering it for sale, new owner to dismantle? I'm not in a position to buy it, but I'm sure there are others who might be. I could offer it for sale, but it would be a to successfully remove from my playroom as it's one complete entity constructed with no thought at all to eventual removal. However if anyone wants to buy a chapel, two acres of land and a pair of holiday cottages that just happens to house a big layout then I could be persuaded to leave it in place. I'm also rather saddened to read this, but obviously your living arrangements are the priority. I've also become a great fan of the open expanses 'less is more' setting here; those last few images of the DMU on the embankment reminds me so much of the embankment north of Tywyn. I do hope we get to see some form of re-birth, beyond a micro size layout, to allow the open spaces vision again. All the best with the move, whenever it may happen. Thank you Rich. I'm not sure what the future holds but there should be enough cash in the kitty to make sure I have a reasonably generous playroom. Have yet to focus on what I'd fill it with yet. Time moves on, and plans change: such is the way of things. I look forward to reading about what you would do the same again, what you would do differently, etc, all in due course. (Although I couldn't but help wondering if those PVA-coated polystyrene balls were just a little too regular... ) Not sure at the moment Simon, though I feel that sticky balls are the way forward for large swathes of landscape. I probably wouldn't do anything differently, it's largely been fun and I learned a lot from the bits that went wrong. All I can really predict for the future is that it'll not be the same as the past, but then it wouldn't and couldn't be. I can sympathise with your aim to downsize. However before you start to break up the layout. Do have a think about a garden shed for the layout. If you buy a small place with no room for a layout a garden shed can be a good idea. I am thinking you might want to re-assemble the layout. I do really love the layout. Don There will be some space for a layout whatever we do. To House Morfa I'd need a minimum of 18'x12' but ideally a bit more so that I could get round parts of the outside too. Sorting out a suitable space isn't really the problem, it's cutting up the layout into chunks and it not collapsing that is. But having made the decision to move I'm more excited by new possibilities than a re-hash/refurbishment of an existing scheme. Joking aside, I like the experiments you were conducting, for example the channels cut into corrugated card. How were you intending to model the mud surface? Das, paint and varnish. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted August 27, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted August 27, 2015 Having done words, a few more photos. I have awarded myself a days worth of pottering. There was glue, leftover dyed sheeting and some odds and ends of scenic scatters waiting to be used. Green has been extended to Abertafol. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aac Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Having done words, a few more photos. I have awarded myself a days worth of pottering. There was glue, leftover dyed sheeting and some odds and ends of scenic scatters waiting to be used. Green has been extended to Abertafol. morfa 107.jpg Very sorry to hear the news, but Morfa and, at the other end of the spectrum, Shell Island, show how your approach to "less is more" can really hit home. Good luck with future plans. aac Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 There's been a further flurry of activity on my 4mm/ft slice of mid-Wales, but I should warn you that it will all come to a grinding halt shortly. Mrs R and I have taken the decision to downsize from our converted chapel to something more modest. The idea had been kicking around in our mind for nearly a year; we recently decided that it would be the sensible thing to do. My railway room will also have to be downsized and though it might have been possible to squeeze a trimmed version of Morfa into what we're looking at, the layout's construction doesn't lend itself to a neat, easy and clinical dismantling. Before the saw comes out and I start the component recovery phase I fancied giving myself a glimpse of what might have been, so I've pressed on with some more rough scenery. I'll let the pictures do the talking. morfa 91.jpg morfa 92.jpg morfa 93.jpg morfa 94.jpg morfa 95.jpg morfa 96.jpg morfa 98.jpg morfa 99.jpg morfa 100.jpg morfa 101.jpg Always a disappointment, but I hope you can make something just as good, and good luck with the Move. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted August 27, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 27, 2015 Only just come across this thread and layout. Terrific! Really captures the spirit of one of the UK's best railways. Seriously, try and pursue the option of selling the whole shebang to a model railway enthusiast. A converted chapel and two holiday cottages sounds great to me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Barry Ten Posted August 27, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 27, 2015 All the best for future plans, Neil - as great as Morfa is/was (and I'm proud to have seen it in the flesh on a couple of occasions) I'm sure whatever you come up with next will be a worthy successor. The best to you both from us, and we'll see you before long. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gismorail Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Yes great shame that it was coming on nicely .............. What I really want to say ........ who's more important the wife or the layout ...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted August 28, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted August 28, 2015 ........ who's more important the wife or the layout ...... I can quite happily live without the layout; it's only a thing. Yesterday I took a few more photos following a late evening engineering train as it headed south along the coast. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Re6/6 Posted August 28, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 28, 2015 I can quite happily live without the layout; it's only a thing. ...quite a thing though...! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted August 28, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted August 28, 2015 ...quite a thing though...! A minnow compared to a certain viaduct John. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Worsdell forever Posted August 28, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 28, 2015 I can quite happily live without the layout; it's only a thing. Yesterday I took a few more photos following a late evening engineering train as it headed south along the coast. morfa 102.jpg morfa 103.jpg morfa 104.jpg morfa 105.jpg morfa 106.jpg They're making a start on dismantling already? They don't hang about. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gismorail Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 They're making a start on dismantling already? They don't hang about. The Beeching axe has fallen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
number6 Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 One of the best things about Morfa is the fact is it has looked good right from the get go: - from the bare boards and bits of propped up cardboard right through to these 'hashed up' [excuse the phrase] last scenic moments. I love these half sketched landscapes which are in some way better than a finished version. There is a strong completist vein that runs through this hobby that gets in the way of the journey. Or: perhaps I may prefer my models in grey primer to the finished painted version? So I'm not [that] sad to see it go - Neil has already sketched in what it would have looked like with his skills at describing landscape and railway just enough so we filled in the remainder. So I'm wishing the best of luck with the move and looking forward to all future imaginings. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Funny sort of thought struck me reading this.... usually rapid progress on a layout is often spurred on by a Deadline. Usually, though, that deadline is something like an impending Exhibition - not the layout's own impending demise.... RIP Morfa, it will be sadly missed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted August 29, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted August 29, 2015 Funny sort of thought struck me reading this.... usually rapid progress on a layout is often spurred on by a Deadline. Usually, though, that deadline is something like an impending Exhibition - not the layout's own impending demise.... RIP Morfa, it will be sadly missed. That thought had struck me too. I hate deadlines and will usually go to some lengths to avoid them, it therefore feels doubly weird that seemingly a deadline has had a positive effect. So strange in fact that it's had me wracking my brain to come up with an alternative interpretation of train set coming to the end and a corresponding productive spurt. Not sure that I have one yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted August 30, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 30, 2015 'I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 I am another one who is saddened by the impending demise of Morfa. I too have found it inspirational and echo what has been said already about the less is more approach and how the layout has been strangely and compellingly attractive from a very early stage. I look forward to your future endeavours. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Like others I have found this thread inspirational, when I had my lost mojo it was this thread that made me think again about how less is actually more. My end to end using 8 coach trains that barely left the fiddleyard before meeting the buffers has grown into a sizable crooked dog bone loop (or it will do when I can get down to Arcadia for some track) featuring short lazy trains that wouldn't be out of place on Morfa. Each time I am tempted to add more track or sidings I will come back here and soak up the atmosphere and remind myself why I don't need lots of sidings. Will Return to Shell Island be making a comeback or will you still have space for a loop still? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted August 31, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted August 31, 2015 ..... Will Return to Shell Island be making a comeback or will you still have space for a loop still? I really don't know. There is of course uncertainty about where we will end up, though it will be within a few miles of our current home, but this is coupled with interests that wander far and wide and cupboards full of models which reflect this eclecticism. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.