A Return To Abermelyn

With the Wheal Ponder complete and provided with an overflowing loco roster, I’ve forced myself away from building any more and my focus returns to the Melyn Valley. 

In the intervening two and a half years, my thoughts on what I want from a model railway have changed somewhat. Less is definitely more and any larger layout would have to consist of joined up cameo layouts rather than one large one. Abermelyn as it stands, has a couple of issues. Firstly there is too much track in the space. As I have a layout to run the narrow gauge stock on that I intended to run on Wheal Ponder and this is about giving my standard gauge stock somewhere to run, I can see the narrow gauge getting pruned. Current thinking is that the standard gauge will get tweaked rather than ripped up and re-planned, but the jury is still out. 

The second issue is that the plan had been to place the layout across the long wall of the attic, turning the corner and then having another section along the shorter wall. We live in a former pub with the benefit of a large attic. The downside is that it is split in to two parts by a wall with a doorway and I use one (larger) half as my model room. The other half is uninsulated and only has basic boarding so is useful for storage. The plan had been to access this via a duck under as only needed occasional access. Having to deal with a large wasps nest in the other half a couple of summers ago suggests that I need to make access easier than I had been. Whilst I ponder the baseboards, I’ve been getting on with a couple of part finished buildings. Layout planning is best achieved for me by having full size buildings, stock and track so finishing these is a useful step. 

Readers with long memories will remember that I built a low relief Petite Properties pub named the ‘Terminus Tavern’ and had started a pair of low relief shop buildings to accompany it. It is these shops that I’ve resumed work on. 

To recap, these have foam board core structures covered in Slaters embossed styrene. The windows and doors (including the shop front) come from the excellent Grandt Line range of injection moulded plastic castings that are available through the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association Sales. American in origin so to 1/48 scale, they do very nicely for the slightly larger 1/43.5 scale. 

One shop is inspired by Idris Stores in Corris, which nowadays serves tasty pastries and coffee to wash them down alongside being a village store. 

These were in white primer when work paused. Recent work has seen them fully painted. Interiors for a bakery / general store and a butchers come from Langley Models. Guttering and downpipes plus the chimney pots on the one where I’d mislaid them are from ModelU.

They need glazing, roof tiles and a final weathering then they will be complete.  

And finally… there’s been an addition to the O gauge fleet that I need to find a use for in the Melyn Valley.