2 - 1983 - Banwy Valley III

When we decided to buy a new-build house in Suffolk I had the chance to look at the plans and have an input before the ground was broken. I saw that there was a space inside the structure for the oil tank and, by combining it with a couple of feet stolen out of the utility room, I could have a railway room/study - the oil tank could sit outside in the rain. The resulting 'room' measured 5 feet 6 inches by 4 feet 6 inches or thereabouts, and had no window. However, by putting a layout at head height I could have a desk/worktable under it, and have some storage space too.

The layout ran around two sides of the 'room' in an L-shape. Following the Corris Railway theme of Banwy Valley Mk 2 this layout was based on Aberllefenni, higher up the valley. It was a much simpler track plan, with just a passing loop - no sidings or other complications - and a three-road fiddle yard. I built new base-boards from 4" x 1" framing, each 4 foot 3 inches long and 1 foot wide, with Sundela tops. Also following on from the last layout, this was called Banwy Valley Mk 3. The track in view was Peco 0-16.6 flexitrack and matching points - the three-way and associated sidings were standard Peco 00 gauge.

As at the prototype Aberllefeni the passing loop came before the station building, so that there was just a single track in front of it. This track was supposed to continue to the slate quarry, and the large building with the 'Banwy Slate Co' sign disguised the fact that there was just some 6 inches of track and a wall.

As I had no worries about what colour the walls of the 'room' were, I painted a sky at the top and towering hillsides down to the baseboard. Shades of purple-grey and green seemed to fit the bill and made an impressive backdrop. The rolling stock in this picture are on one track of the passing loop. The slate fence was made from real slate, but the base of the water tower and the wall to its right were made from individual pieces of thick card, painstakingly built up a layer at a time.

I made a drawing of Aberllefeni station building from photographs, which appeared in Narrow Lines, and produced this model of it. Construction was from card with DAS thinly applied over PVA and impressed with slate blocks. The roof was made in the same way as before. The name-board was a survivor from Banwy Valley Mk 1, and saved me from having to think of another Welsh name.

One of the Peco Glyn Valley locos by the water tower. As the layout was fixed inside a windowless 'room', photography was even more difficult than normal for me - there was no overall view. Exposure times were long, so that depth of focus was small, and the pictures were dark - a gloomy, misty day in Wales, perhaps.

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Making Banwy Valley Mk 3 was very satisfying, but my thoughts were turning to the theme of industrial works, brick and rust. A move to Germany at the end of 1985 spelled the end of the Banwy Vally in all its manifestations, but I did put the baseboards into store - I had a cunning plan.

Page created 1 June 2011 Last edited 5 June 2011