A long-term reader of this blog and our social media recently posted a comment - with, shall we say, refreshing directness - that they didn't want to know how we built the layout, but is more interested in the why?
So here are some of the reasons why it came to be and the choices we made along the way.
1) Childhood memories.
Both my father and I have grown up with, and been fascinated by, the Cambrian Coast Line since early chidhood.
For Himself the steam-hauled Cambrian Coast Express of the 1950s and '60s was the way every summer holiday began.
For me it was a backscene for every summer holiday, with Met-Cam units clickity-clacking their way along what here in Scotland we would call the machair behind the sand dunes between Barmouth and Harlech.
So it had always been an ambition of mine to build a Cambrian-themed layout.
2) Best of both worlds
For the last 25 years we had been focussed exclusively on modelling narrow gauge in 4mm scale, firstly with our FR layout Dduallt and its successor Bron Hebog, depicting the contemporary WHR.
It was an intriguing notion to create a layout where you had the dramatic juxtaposition of large and small trains to the same scale, and the FR provides two obvious opportunities for that at Blaenau Ffestiniog and Minffordd.
3) A journey into sound
Having stubbornly resisted any temptations towards moving from analogue to digital control for decades, Himself's resistance cracked after joining-up with our local model railway club here in the West of Scotland and getting a first taste of playing with DCC control and sound on the exhibition layouts. The temptation proved too much and he treated Himself (sic) to a sound-fitted Class 24 locomotive - our first new 00 purchase in many a long year. An idea began to form in my mind...
4) A beguiling diorama
Many years ago at an exhibition in Porthmadog were were position next to a stunning little layout showing a slice of Minffordd. It included the Cambrian station beyond the bridge, the cute wooden buildings, the lines branching off into the exchange yard and the landmark Maenofferen slate sheds.
But it was a static diorama. There were no fiddle yards. I thought at the time how lovely it would be to have made it so that the trains could move.
I had never forgotten that scene, and I'm delighted to say it's still on display inside the museum at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, at it was the first port of call for inspiration (and plagiarism?) when we began planning Minffordd.
5) End of an era
The period setting - the 1960s - was the obvious choice for the period to set the layout.
Part of the attraction of Minffordd is the exchange yard between the standard and narrow gauge, and difference in dimensions which draws the eye.
BR stopped using their yard in 1972, so our period had to be before that. Services on the revived FR did not run regularly to Minffordd until 1956, and with the line closed to passengers in 1939 with only sporadic slate runs until 1946 our only other options would have been a proper period-piece, which would have required a complete new suite of rolling stock, whereas we had some stock in more-or-less 1960s condition.
That decade also saw the change from steam to diesel, both multiple units and the BR Type 2 (24) offering the greatest potential variety of trains to run.
6) A new look for the FR
The 1960s was witness to some fundamental changes on the FR, with the arrival of 'foreign' locomotives such as Linda and Blanche and the radical move to build new carriage stock which was much larger and unapologetically modern-looking.
The new 'Barns' were visually striking in their pretend teak livery and are rarely modelled in that condition.
7) 009 goes Ready To Run
The idea for Minffordd was encouraged by Bachmann and Peco/Kato moving into ready-to-run models, in the case of Bachmann being produced in the factory with sound chips and speakers. With Double Fairlies and Penrhyn 'Ladies' appearing on the market we already had the nucleus of the FR locomotive fleet of the mid-1960s, and how-to guides soon demonstrated how to adapt the Kato Small England.
8) Three layouts in one
I firmly believe that layouts at exhibitions should have trains running as much as they can. That doesn't mean continuous, high speed tail-chasing, but it should mean as often as possible something is moving, even if it's a micro layout with a loco shunting a couple of sidings. Too often I see layouts with a lot of track, a great number of trains of locomotives on display, but none of them going anywhere for minutes at a time.
Minffordd is the antithesis of that, and the reason is that it is effectively three layouts. The Cambrian, the FR and the narrow gauge yard tracks have separate control positions. Very often you will see three trains moving at once, and while one of the operators may be having to do some shunting around in a fiddle yard there are at least two others who can be keeping something moving out front.
9) No single focus
The way the layout has been designed with Cambrian main line forming an outer ring, the FR main line acting as backdrop and the visually complex exchange yard with its different levels in the middle, means there is no single focus-point for the viewer. There are many difference scenes within a scene to take in, and each of them also has an animated foreground and background.
10) Three-way views (and the one you miss)
Minffordd is an unusually square-shaped layout and was designed to be seen 'in the round' and not just from along the front as many layouts are.
If it is positioned well in at an exhibition you will be able to appreciate it from both sides as well as the front, giving new perspectives on the scene.
It is unfortunate that because of the positioning of the OO storage loops beyond the natural scenic break of the arched bridge the only people who get to enjoy the most photographed view of the Cambrian's Minffordd station, as seen from the FR trains crossing the bridge, are the layout operators.
But come along to a show we're at, and ask us nicely, and you'll probably be invited to duck underneath the barriers and come and take a look for yourself!
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