Whilst I’ve been concentrating on rolling stock, it seems that I need to get on with the groundwork fast if I am to stay in the competition. Photos needed of the layout from each end by end of August suggests there should be something ready to photograph. I’ve been planning the trackwork in Trax2 software. (KBP Publications, available from Transportdiversions) Easy with straight track, but getting pointwork and turnouts set up on curves is not as easy. The main line has a radius of 10 metres. The crossings are 1:9 or 1:8. The only problem with Trax2 is that the files don’t export to anything but Trax files. So I printed it out, and photographed it…

The Welsh Union was intended to bring goods, particularly coal, from South Wales to the ports of Lancashire and Cheshire. The WMCQR 0-6-2T engines seem typically to have hauled 20-25 loaded wagons. So I’m aiming initially for 20. There are some Slaters pre-printed (Ystradgynlais, Ocean, Pascoe) but all the rest are done letter by letter using Modelmasters alphabets. All the collieries depicted were in action duting 1906-1908 and situated on the railways of the Union: Taff Vale, Neath and Brecon, Brecon and Merthyr, and Midland Vale of Neath. (as yet nothing from the Barry or Cambrian). Eight more to go.

After several false starts I have begun to build a P4 layout (4mm/foot scale, 18.85mm gauge). Neston Parkgate is a possible history railway development. Neston Parkgate is on the south side of the Wirral, where the Birkenhead Joint Line (London & North Western Railway/Great Western Railway) meets the Liverpool and North Wales Line (Great Central Railway/Wrexham Mold & Connah’s Quay Railway/Wirral Railway). The layout is set during the period 1906-1908. In a fit of enthusiasm I entered the project into the Scalefour/DEMU challege. The chances of finishing it within scheduled time limits are of course minimal. The stock is kit or scratch built. This is one of the WMCQR wagons under construction. Mostly plasticard and brass. Suspension by Bill Bedford, wheels by Alan Gibson, strapping etc by Mainly Trains, couplings by Slaters. The wagon is a Buckley Traders’ wagon, built to carry tramway trucks loaded with bricks to ships on the Dee. The trucks travelled all the way to the customer, so this is a container wagon originating from the end of the 19th century.