Swansea Railway Modellers Group

Contact: Tony Richards

Website:  https://srmg.org.uk/

Email: Chairman@srmg.org.uk

Address: 300 Carmarthen Rd, Cwmbwrla, Swansea SA5 8NJ

Tel: 07810 854238

Layouts:

St Davids Wells (OO)

An OO layout based on a market town in the Welsh Marches

St David’s Wells is a traditional double-oval layout of approximately 15ft by 9ft with a large operating well in the centre. The far end of the layout is significantly wider and houses the locomotive servicing depot.

Notionally set in a sunny day during the mid-1930s, St David’s has a general Great Western theme but is by no means exclusively so; other stock of the ‘Big Four’ and post-nationalisation railways are often to be seen.

The track diagram is a double-oval, folded over on itself, and the main station is accessed via an incline with the lower tracks passing in a tunnel underneath. For a lot of the layout, four tracks are seen in close proximity, providing an illusion of greater scale.

The two platform station is on a curve with an additional single bay, adjacent to Station Road for shorter trains. The goods facilities consist of three sidings and a large goods shed. There are further sidings for a timber merchant and a feed store and large coach sidings behind. The locomotive servicing area has a turntable, a pair of double-road sheds and the usual other facilities. This area is currently under construction, as are sections of backscene.

Finally, raised and running around two sides is a branch line which will be serviced by either an auto-train or a railcar.

Elsbridge (OO & OO9)

Welcome to the SRMG’s ‘Thomas’ themed layout Elsbridge. A dual purpose as it is used by both club members and by our friends and associates at FOYD (Friends Of the Young Disabled).

The layout consists of two 00 scale standard gauge continuous circuits with a pair of passing loops and three sidings, in addition there is also an end to end 009 scale narrow gauge single line with a passing loop at both ends.

On the fictitious island of Sodor the town of Elsbridge is sited in the Els valley on the western side of the island and is served by the Ffarquhar branch which is more commonly known as Thomas’ branch line. In the early days of the railways on Sodor Elsbridge was the terminus of the K&ELR (Knapford & Elsbridge Light Railway), this line was later extended from Knapford to the neighbouring town of Tidmouth and about ten years after the grouping of Sodor’s railways to form the NWR (North Western Railway) the line was extended beyond Elsbridge to link up with the small village of Ffarquhar to initially provide a means of transport to the harbour for the newly established FQC (Ffarquhar Quarry Company) at Anopha Fell. The town of Elsbridge is based on the real life village of Elsworth in Cambridgeshire, where from 1946 to 1952 the Rev .W. Awdry was the rector of the village.

When the layout was first conceived only one station (Elsbridge) was to feature, however as ideas were suggested and developed it soon became clear that a second station was needed and with the installation of the narrow gauge line to represent the Skarloey Railway there was really only one station which stood out as the obvious choice to build as it’s the only place on Sodor where the standard and narrow gauges link up and that was Crovan’s Gate station.

Crovan’s Gate is located near the hilly eastern side of Sodor and is the location of a narrow path through the hillside, linking the east side of the island with it’s centre. Long before the railways made their way through this area this site was witness to a famous battle when King Godred snatched victory from the jaws of defeat during a Viking invasion of the island. Crovan’s Gate is also the location of the NWR’s workshops where all the major repairs, overhauls and restorations are carried out. The terminus, yards and motive power department of the Skarloey Railway can also be found here.

Future development of the layout will see other additions such as:

  • A goods transfer yard to transfer freight between standard and narrow gauge.
  • Loco sheds for both gauges.
  • A set of open air market stalls.
  • A merry-go-round, motorised for added realism.
  • Signalling system.
  • And perhaps a dalek or two, after all we do already have a certain police box on the layout.

 

Further layout information is available from the srmg website.