Narrow Gauge North

2024

 

A 7mm finescale layout by Paul Holmes
Scale 7mm/1ft
Size 14’ x 6.5’

Dinas Station served the village of Rhiwbryfdir, a thriving community and the original upper terminus of the FR, in what evolved into the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. In horse drawn times, one of the Festiniog"s smithies was sited here. When passenger services commenced in 1865, Dinas was the original terminus and the Station building was added to the pre-existing 2 storey engine shed. In 1866, the second Blaenau terminus station was opened at Duffws, and until 1870, trains terminated alternately at each station. After this date, Dinas reverted to being a goods only station.

The model is set in October 1869, and gathering information for construction was interesting!! The Ordinance Survey map of 1888 still shows the railway lines and buildings, but soon afterwards, the buildings at the base of the incline, including the rather grand Georgian "Dinas House", the rows of cottages and Holland"s original slate warehouses were all to be buried under the ever expanding spoil heap of slate waste (did you know that for every ton of finished slate produced, another 9 tons of waste was created).

There are a handful of photos in existence which show some of the structures, and with this information the model has been constructed. If you go there today, all you will find is a wall of slate fragments and no sign that there was ever a thriving hamlet there can be found. Only the rock face that separated the station from the hamlet remains - a chunk of rock protruding from the spoil heap. I have tried to capture the rural nature of Blaenau, before the slate waste heaps completely dominated the town.

The layout is built to 7mm scale, running on 14mm gauge track. Trackwork is all handbuilt using code 95 bullhead rail (S Scale Association) with cast whitemetal chairs. Stock is predominately from Port Wynnstay. So far, only The Prince and Mountaineer are running two of the original four locos delivered to the railway in 1863. At this date, I can also run the two saddle tanks and Little Wonder, but later Fairlies and bogie carriages are still "in the future". The layout is controlled with DCC and features sound from Deitz.

Pictures show the layout still under construction.