Cwm Lanod & Gwynraven Colliery - Video Link on Page 5

[Lysander]

'I have ordered some Peco ones which I'll crop slightly to give a more south welsh appearance.'

Seems to me that you've captured the appearance and the contours very well.

Tony

[Si_Donal]

'I
Seems to me that you've captured the appearance and the contours very well.

Thanks Tony. I've tried to get the railway to run through the landscape rather than it being plonked down onto the board as per my previous failed attempts. The conturs are above and below the board and those "difficult to hide" gradients are largely hidden behind a row of houses. One of the motives for a South Wales Valleys prototype was that the trains could be small, there was also a multiplicity of lines there and small halts too. The geology means that there's plenty of contours to use as view breakers and you really need a good excuse for a tunnel, after all real engineers tried to avoid building them. Thanks for the compliment.

[buz]

Hi Si
That is really coming along nicely
Gwynraven town and station area is going to really be the business when its completed.
Being the cheeky sod I am .
I can't help but suggest a small speaker under the chapel and have a very low volume choir
practicing to just keep the atmosphere just so.
Can I have more informations on how you got the levels and angles for th town site.
regards John

[Si_Donal]

Hi John,

I have the idea that Men of Harlech will be playing whenever the autotrain struggles up the gradient to the terminus on greasy wet rails. In my mind I hear it of course! I have in mind an MP3 player that is used by card companies to add cheesy messages. They are fairly cheap to buy, can be obtained in recordable format, and I have some reed switches left over from the train detection system. Hmmm......

The gradients for the towns were born out of necessity really. The one in the last picture (with the bedford bus) is where the road rises above the headshunt for the colliery sidings. I was going to put in a false level crossing that passed between the row of houses ( based on a prototype in the ironworks at Merthyr) but when I went on my one and only visit to Wales, what struck me was the houses perched precariously on hillsides so I made the road carry on up and over the colliery sidings. The chapel is actually hollow so that trains pass through teh bottom 10mm of it. It is a ruse I used to disguise the gradient form the lower loop to the upper one. In such a small layout, gradients like this look terrible and unprototypical and so I hid it inside a row of miners cottages. they actually function like a tunnel. When I get back into the shed, I'll try and get some pictures.

Until the very late sixties, roads rarely seemed to have massive earthworks like they do today. The roads were part of the landscape and I recall in the seventies, an old family VW Variant going up and down hills in very low gear with the gearbox whining in protest. Think " the opening sequence of All Creatures Great and Small"! I therefore had no problem with creating steep hills.

[Si_Donal]

To acentuate the hilly nature of the landscape, all the buildings are built on a slope too. I use card kits such as Metcalfe or Superquick. These are then "cut and shut" so that instead of being built on the level, they are stepped up the hill. The bases must then of course have a similar step. If there's interest, I'll do a set of pics to demonstrate the process.

I am not a great artist as my shoddy attempts at a backscene will testify (they looked like the hills in the Tellytubbies!) but I can do Technical Drawing thanks to a kindly woodwork teacher who took his own time to teach interested children. I therefore sketch my ideas many times over. (No CAD here!) It helps me visualise my ideas. Almost all the scenes and contours are based upon sketches I have made.

The pictures make it all look far better than my eye sees but I suppose we're all very critical of our own work.

[Si_Donal]

Had a great day in the sunshine but towards the end of the day I got busy with a camera and microsoft movie maker. As proof that the layout works, heres a wee vid I made. Hope you like the music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntod2-2fq2I

[Lysander]

Really nice video - you've captured the area well.

Tony.

[Si_Donal]

Thanks Tony. Photos are my inspiration becuase I've only been there once. The music was to please buz!

[SouthernBoy]

That's a bit of a rousing video

[buz]

Hi Si
Love the video.
"Steady lads hold the line"
Layout looks even better when you can see it moving like it should..
regards John

[Si_Donal]

Hi Everyone,

So after a long period away, two house moves to smaller places, a change of job, the departure of the two teenage terrorists who are making their own way in life at last, I have finally got time to return to Railway Modelling.

Cwm Lanod & GwynRaven Colliery was the only layout I ever completed but the layout had to go into storage whilst life took over. Storage didn't do any good to the layout. Damp and animals took their toll and this caused the loss of some buildings and damage to others.

2 weeks ago, on a whim and for an indredible £36, I bought a second hand Hornby Class 42xx in British Railways early unlined black livery. It is a thing of austere beauty and it inspired me to look at the remnants of Gwynraven and see if it could be saved. It couldn't so with some emotion I took the baseboards apart with surgical precision, keeping every component, structure, screw and piece of timder that could be salvaged ( I am stll frugal after all this time). I spent a pleasant evening looking at colliery and South Wales layouts on the Web and planned a straight layout which will feature some signature Welsh Valleys features in a small space. The colliery of course, a viaduct, a small station and exchange sidings all in a space of 8 1/2 feet by 2. Welsh Valley prototypes are great for modellers, short trains, my longest in under 4 feet, lots of tunnels and bridges, a mix of passenger and goods trains too.

I then did a cut and shut of the Colliery module into the new baseboard which had been built with salvaged timber. The colliery was place as a scenic break to the 3 road fiddle yard and now has 2 extra sidings at the front of the layout to act as the colliery stores yard. Comparison to previous photos from a similar angle will glean the fact that the winding house roof and coal washer are damaged. Wiring still needs to be tidied up too!



This is the other end of the first baseboard. You can see the viaduct ( well I never said it was a working model did I?) and the start of the new A Road at the front of the layout which causes the Colliery to look just like it is wedged in a narrow valley. It will have a garage on it and passes under the viaduct next to the railway. The viaduct was designed to hide the hinges for the folding baseboards but my love of very high backscenes has meant that it no longer does that function. It is built from mounting board and timber as well as Peco LK11 Girders. I will cover the pillars in brick soon.



Look put for further updates soon.

[Si_Donal]

This is my new baby - a very blurry photo sadly but this is my Peckett Saddle Tank 0-4-0. No Not the Hornby W6, have you seen the prices those things are going for? Indeed it is a Dapol Pug with an enlarged saddle tank, new chimney, dome and safety valved and contoured cab. I just need to convert it to DCC now. I have ordered nameplates for my mother's name. It's all about the brownie points people! You will also note the new NCB internal use wagons which are a real variety of old Hornby private owner wagons. Recycling at it's best! Those loose wires will be dealt with soon! The loco is still in it's glossy glory at this point - Halfords Damask REd lined with GWR lining. It has now been Matt varnished and lightly weathered. It may look as if it is derailed but the track at the colliery is deliberately laid badly, just lke the prototypes that I watched on Youtube!



And evidence that the J94 Austerity Tank is still in fine fettle after a clean (removal of a spinders nest in the cab - yuk I hate spiders ). Again, I have ordered nameplates for the Austerity Tank - Gwynraven it will be! I am also working on a new loco that is being built on a Dapol Terrier chassis but that is for another day and another update!



More pictures coming, at least one of which will contain a certain 42xx 2-8-0, the loco that is reconnecting me with Gwynraven once again!

[Ex-Pat]

Good morning Si,

Edit: Photobucket unavailability now resolved, so I can now enjoy your photos.

[Beynac]

Great layout.
Each Time I tried to watch your website, I can't. What's going on

[Si_Donal]

Thanks for the update on my frozen website. I will try to resolve it tonight.