Minfford Update: The Coal Hole And Other Apertures

 The process of forming the complex, and compact, trackbed and levels on the Minffordd project is continuing.

The shape of the former goods exchange yard with the Cambrian is becoming clearer, with the sunken 'coal hole' roads now bordered by the wooden formers for the walls.

This narrow gauge lines here will be straddled by standard gauge sidings on either side.

Swinging the camera to face in the opposite direction we can see Himself has formed the bridge where the Cambrian line exits again.

We've played with the geography of the area here to move the lane which crosses the line near the quarry a little nearer the station (with a very sharp bend in the road!)

Here the standard gauge goes into an effective tunnel along the right hand edge of the layout until it emerges into the fiddle yard.

In this covered section the storage lines of the fiddle yard begin to fan out, so to guard against catastrophic derailments on points Himself has created an emergency access flap.

At the other side, just beyond bridge where the FR passes over the Cambrian platform, we already have the start of the fiddle yard roads in place.

This view also shows the transition from the code 75 Bullhead track into the standard code 100 product for the hidden section - the difference in the sleeper size and spacings is very obvious!

Minffordd Update - Carriages In Context

A weekly inspection visit to view progress on the Minffordd project gave me an opportunity to pass over the newly-completed body shells of the Barn carriages to Himself to keep safe until he has the time - and the courage - to attempt the 'teak' paint job.

It also allowed us to pose what is going to be one of our standard carriage rakes in position along the embankment where the FR trains run, which gives a little more visual context to the scene.

With just the bare plywood track beds in place it's hard to get a proper impression of how big - or small - the layout will look.

We have the advantage with the way Minffordd is laid out, with the smaller, narrow gauge trains at the back of the scene, that it creates a natural optical illusion, in the same way that some modellers put reduced-scale buildings towards the rear of their layouts to give a perception of greater depth.

It's also pleasing that there will be almost no straight track anywhere on the layout, with the FR line forming a subtle crescent shape.

Most of what Himself has been doing for the past week is finalising the FR branch down into the exchange yard with the Cambrian, which he's worked out is a precipitous 1:19 gradient into the 'coal hole'.

What I think is quite impressive - and explains why it took most of the week - is that most of it was cut from a single sheet of plywood resting on a network of risers.

Down In The Yard

You reach a moment with every layout build where you start to get a glimpse (with a bit of help from your imagination) of what it is going to look like when it is complete.

The Minffordd project seems to have taken a bit step forward in the last week or so.

The FR overbridge has been given a coat of primer which I think demonstrates that it's definitely going to look the part, and the standard gauge track has begun to be fixed down.

The photo of a 24 nosing its way into the exchange yard gives a hint of what's to come, I hope.

Now Himself has turned his attention to forming the trackbed on the other side of the layout which involves some very complex changes of level and gradient as the FR track spirals down to meet the Cambrian.

Even at this stage you can step back and get a sense of how the whole scene is going to work.

I hope those who know the location will be able to squint a little and recognise this as the view from the window of an FR train crossing the bridge.

Round The Bend

Himself is making some more progress on the tracklaying, concentrating on the entry to the fiddle yard at the Harlech side of the circle.

This requires a flange-squealingly tight curve after the line disappears under the FR bridge and a challenging mix 'n' match approach the track.

As detailed in previous posts we're using PECO's new Code 75 Bullhead track for the Cambrian line where the viewers can see it, but the range is still very limited in pointwork and we simply don't have the space to use medium radius straight points within the space we've given ourselves.

The same is true of the standard Code 75 range, so we're going radical and attempting to transition from Code 75 to 'bog standard' Code 100 Streamline in the fiddle yard, with the cheeky addition of a couple of Set Track curved points.

When we were first exploring this option Himself was upsold a small transition section, produced by PECO, for exactly this scenario, but in testing he's discovered anything but the very latest OO wheelsets don't like it very much.

What he's decided on, instead, is to simply connect the Bullhead direct to the Set Track point with some modified joiners.

You might also notice the overbridge has been given a coat of grey primer and is awaiting the attentions of the first person feeling brave enough to attempt to paint the stonework.

There's also a cardboard template for the platform so it can be cut out of plywood.