Bryn y Brenin Mawr - E.T.C.S. era Cambrian Line with Narrow Gauge

[St. Simon]

 

Size: 9ft x 18inches

Scale / Gauge: 4mm:ft ‘OO’ & ‘OO9’

Region: Wales

Area: Snowdon

Era: 2011 - Present

Train Control: DCC

Signalling Control:  Simulated ETCS using JMRI

 

 

Bryn y Brenin Mawr, or Great Kings Hill (if Google Translate is correct!) after the Buckinghamshire Village in which I grew up, is a totally fictitious layout depicting a small terminus in North Wales on the Cambrian Line next to a terminus for a, again, totally fictitious narrow gauge tourist railway.

 

This may seem a bit of a departure from my normal Southern Region 3rd Rail layouts, so I should explain why I’ve set my sights on them there mountains!

 

Well simply, I wanted to!

 

Since starting to build Collingwood, and mastering simulating a real signalling system, I have wanted to go one step further and see if I can replicate E.T.C.S. (European Train Control System) on a model. Of course, the only place that is modellable (in terms of stock) that is fitted with E.T.C.S. is the Cambrian. I’ve also wanted to model 009 for a long time, so why not combine the two into a layout that I can operate at home?

 

The Story

 

Bryn y Brenin Mawr is a little-known town at the foot of Snowdon. It started off as a small village to support the slate mine in the hills but grew into a small town when the slate mine constructed a narrow-gauge line as per their more famous neighbours.  The slate mine was never quite as productive as others, so the town remained a small one.

 

This is the reason that when the Carnarvonshire Railway built their line from Afon Wen to Caernarvon, the triangular branch to Bryn y Brenin Mawr was only ever a small set of sidings and run around for the transfer of slate between the narrow- and standard-gauge lines, with a small halt. The site was unusual in that the standard gauge was constructed above the narrow-gauge line.

 

The passenger service didn’t survive long, barely making it into the LMS in 1923, but ceased soon after. The freight lived on until the entire line from Bangor to Pwllheli was closed in 1964. The narrow-gauge line closed soon after, but remained in situ, as did the track beds of the standard gauge line.

 

Bryn y Brenin Mawr became more and more reliant on tourism, although this wasn’t as profitable as it’s neighbour town of Llanberis. The restoration of the Narrow-Gauge line as a tourist line (Rheilffordd Llechi Llyn y Breninor or the ‘Kings Lake Slate Railway’) to a new campsite with the former slate mine area was a massive help, although never quite got to the levels of success as the other ‘Little Trains of Wales’. What was lacking was a rail connection to the town, which had now grown considerably.

 

The opportunity came as part of the announcement of the E.T.C.S. conversion of the Cambrian line in 2006, this announcement included the reconstruction of the lines from Pwllheli and Caernarfon to Bryn y Brenin Mawr, including a new station in the town (to be shared by the Cambrian and Kings Lake Slate Railway), to try to relieve some of the pressure off the local roads around Snowdon and boost tourism even more in the town.

 

The new branches opened along with the E.T.C.S. commissioning in 2010. The service pattern of an hourly Caernarfon to Pwllheli shuttle service using Arriva Trains Wales’ Class 158 units suffices for most of the day with a pair of morning and evening commuter services extending from Caernarfon to Shrewsbury.

 

The Layout

 

The layout is going to be a home layout rather than my normal exhibition layouts and will be based on a pair of Tim Horn ‘photographic’ baseboards, giving me 9ft x 18inches of Scenic Area.

 

The track will be concrete code 75 points and track for the standard gauge track, whilst the OO9 will use standard Peco wooden sleeper track. I am yet to decide on what point motors I will use, potentially solenoid motors to keep costs low. The standard-gauge track plan is very simple, with two branches feeding into a single platform face, with a short run round loop to enable a little bit of operational interest. The run round is only capable of holding a couple of wagons, so I can run an RHTT, an inspection saloon and a couple of engineering wagons. The station is long enough for a 3-car unit.

 

The narrow gauge track layout is slightly more complex, with a single line leading into a station with run round loop, which will be capable of holding a 4-coach train. There is also a two road carriage shed and a single road engine shed and a loco spur.

 

The two railways will be on different levels, with the narrow-gauge passing beneath the standard gauge, although the two lines will be on a ~1.6% gradient (standard gauge will fall towards the station, with the narrow gauge climbing) so that they are closer together in the station area.

 

The station building will be a nice modern building from Vollmer, which I think looks a lot like the modern ‘parkway’ type station buildings you see:

 

H0 Bahnhof Willingen | Viessmann Modelltechnik GmbH (viessmann-modell.com)

 

The station will be shared between the standard- and narrow-gauge, as the model has a little ticket window at one end which fits in perfectly.

 

The waiting shelter and narrow-gauge signal box will be Kernow’s new limited editions:

 

44-001X Bachmann Scenecraft Contemporary GWR Style Shelter (kernowmodelrailcentre.com)

 

44-187Z Bachmann Scenecraft Signal Box - Coombe Junction (kernowmodelrailcentre.com)

 

The narrow gauge office is at the moment going to be the Bachmann ‘Railway Stable Keeper’s House’:

 

44-0149 Bachmann Scenecraft Railway Stables Keeper's House (kernowmodelrailcentre.com)

 

The carriage shed will be the standard ratio version, although I might modify it:

 

527 Ratio Carriage Shed (kernowmodelrailcentre.com)

 

The engine shed I’m not sure yet, I don’t really want to use the Bachmann version, so I’ll have a think about that.

 

The holiday home is going to be a Hornby mode, just because I quite like the look of it:

 

R9802 Hornby Skaledale Modern Prefab House (kernowmodelrailcentre.com)

 

The Stock

 

At the top of the post, I mentioned that the Cambrian is only place with E.T.C.S. that there is stock available for (at least until someone produces a Class 700, 717 or 345!).

 

Obviously, the main stay are the E.T.C.S. fitted Class 158s and I’m lucky in that the recently released Bachmann Model is 158824, one of the E.T.C.S. fitted units (158818 – 158841). I might repaint an old tooling Class 158 into the Transport for Wales colours, and I wouldn’t mind a Class 197 as well!

 

Of course, I also have Accurascale’s Class 97 97301 on order as I had thought about this layout! Sadly it looks like this won’t come out with the E.T.C.S. sounds on the sound decoders, but I’m not too bothered by it! I wouldn’t mind one of the other Class 97s, so I’m hoping for a re-run of one or both of them on the new 37 toolings (either of them)

 

On the narrow-gauge point of view, as it is something I’ve never tried before, I don’t want to get too much, so only a couple of locos and a rake or two of coaches. I already have one of the Bachmann Baldwins (my personal favourite of all the narrow-gauge models), and I might get one of the Mainline Hunslets. I want to avoid something like the Double Fairlies or small England locos to avoid it become too much of a cliché, although if they do a 009 NGG16, I would certainly have one or two!

 

The Signalling

 

Of course, the signalling, or lack of it, will be a big part of the layout.

 

I’m planning on simulating the European Train Control System via JMRI, I’m not exactly sure how to do this, but the plan is to get have a small screen on the layout for setting routes, with a tablet being used for the E.T.C.S. DMI.

 

If you have an ideas how I might go about this, see my thread here:

 

Simulating ETCS using DCC? - DCC Help & Questions - RMweb

 

I think it will take a while to develop, so what I’m going to do is incorporate the technology required, but primarily focus on modelling the lineside bits of it, including the Eurobalises, Block Markers and kmph speed boards.

 

I will be posting about how E.T.C.S. works on this thread as well.

 

For the moment, the layout isn’t going to be started until later on in the year as I have to build new fiddle yards for my exhibition layout Collingwood and I want to spread the costs out a little!

 

Regards,

 

Simon

Edited May 12, 2023 by St. Simon

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

If you know me, you might be aware that I do tend to change my plans (Collingwood was originally hooked shaped!) and Bryn y Brenin Mawr is no different.

 

Actually, this change was brought on partly by an IT failure, the CAD plan on the introduction post became corrupted, so I had to re-draw it, but this made me think about the changes I could make it.

 

The second reason for the change was that I wanted to spin the standard gauge station around so that waiting shelter and platform face could be seen. Sadly I couldn’t do this as I simply didn’t have space (I know this sounds a bit weird and counter-intuitive, but it’s true), but I looked for ways to at least allow me to see into the waiting shelter.

 

So, starting with the existing AnyRail Plan of the layout seen above, I thought about what I ideally wanted from the layout...

 

This is an extract from my Blog, Model Railway Signalling, see here for the full post

 

Simon

[Ben B]

As a long-time fan of the Cambrian (and Welsh railways in general) I'm looking forward to seeing this layout grow!  Love the back story too (though given the Welsh Assembly and their attitude to railways in North Wales, the idea of investment and reopenings on the Cambrian are only marginally more likely than Porthmadog getting a Gerry Anderson-esque monorail link direct to Cardiff ;) ).

 

With the narrow gauge stock, you could always assume the line has borrowed an England tank off the Ffestiniog, the Vale of Rheidol has done that a few times?

[St. Simon]

On 13/07/2023 at 15:16, Ben B said:

As a long-time fan of the Cambrian (and Welsh railways in general) I'm looking forward to seeing this layout grow!  Love the back story too (though given the Welsh Assembly and their attitude to railways in North Wales, the idea of investment and reopenings on the Cambrian are only marginally more likely than Porthmadog getting a Gerry Anderson-esque monorail link direct to Cardiff ;) ).

 

Hi,

 

Thanks, I did think I was pushing it with the whole 'extra funding to restore the railway' bit! 

 

On 13/07/2023 at 15:16, Ben B said:

With the narrow gauge stock, you could always assume the line has borrowed an England tank off the Ffestiniog, the Vale of Rheidol has done that a few times?

 

In all honest I am trying to avoid having any stock that is distinctly from the other 'Little Trains of Wales' as I want it to be a little different and to avoid a cliche 009 layout. Although I'll have to admit that the Vale of Rheidol Tanks from Model Rail looks very tempting! 

 

The issue with the England tank is that they aren't DCC ready and I don't really want to go and start dismantling them to fit a decoder!

 

My stock list at the moment is a Baldwin, possibly two, a Mainline Hunslet and a RNAD diesel. However, as I said on the blog, a Garratt would be snapped up! I'm also looking at a couple of the Fourdee kits.

 

Simon

[Ben B]

1 hour ago, St. Simon said:

 

Hi,

 

Thanks, I did think I was pushing it with the whole 'extra funding to restore the railway' bit! 

 

 

In all honest I am trying to avoid having any stock that is distinctly from the other 'Little Trains of Wales' as I want it to be a little different and to avoid a cliche 009 layout. Although I'll have to admit that the Vale of Rheidol Tanks from Model Rail looks very tempting! 

 

The issue with the England tank is that they aren't DCC ready and I don't really want to go and start dismantling them to fit a decoder!

 

My stock list at the moment is a Baldwin, possibly two, a Mainline Hunslet and a RNAD diesel. However, as I said on the blog, a Garratt would be snapped up! I'm also looking at a couple of the Fourdee kits.

 

Simon

 

I wonder if you could work on the assumption the VoR tanks became a kind of 'standard' BR loco for the narrow-gauge lines?  At one point BR had a number of narrow gauge routes that they were quick to close, but what if they kept them open and had one large, one small, steam loco design they employed around the lines?  One in lined BR black would look terrific :)