Why’s this a throwback? Well, standing on this beach took me back to 1991 and Iain Rice’s Light Railway Layout Designs book.
These two books, a year apart, really caught my imagination. I love the way they draw you in to each subject matter, with Iain’s unique style they immediately light a fire for me.
Over the past few years we’ve spent a lot of time in North Wales, and grown to really love the location. Light Railway Layout Designs has always had a natural appeal for me, much of it off the beaten track, (remember that one Geoff?) and that influence is almost certainly extant through Albion Yard, and the Shelfie layouts.
Standing on the beach here my mind went back to the book, we’d just dropped in here by chance en route for dolphin watching, but this was the first time I’d really placed myself into the ‘landscape’ of one of the plans. The thing that has always drawn me to this plan, and the pennies only just dropped, is it’s a system. Whilst only a small light railway it always struck me as three layouts/locations that could be joined and operated together. The system concept has always sat in the back of my mind, amongst loads of other junk!, and having seen and operated Geoff Taylor’s Cambrian system, this scratch is itching more and more.
Despite Albion Yard being full of Panniers as a rebellious yoof I always liked the LMS and in particular the LNWR. Not the plum and spilt milk mainline stock obviously, but the small branch lines, Holywell Town for example, there’s another shelfie layout screaming, make me! make me! regularly at me. So far I’ve resisted but it’s been a close run thing in the past.
We watched the tide come in looking across at Red Wharf and up towards Benllech, just out of sight around the headland. With so few people there it was so engaging, one of those layout thought moments, what if?….
Albion Yard 
Paul, Love these what if designs, especially remote types. But actually being in the described location must be very inspiring! Would be for me.
Iain certainly has plenty to answer for Paul, and so have you with your last two blog posts, talk about inspiration. 🙂 If you are enjoying the delights of North Wales take a detour to Dyserth and discover its old railway, which closed to freight in 1973, the line passed by my in – law’s back garden. Passenger trains were an early casualty, but stone trains hauled by Classes 24/25 could be seen until the line was closed.
https://www.dyserth.com/railway.html
https://dyserth.com/Dyserth%20Old%20Photos/Railway/
Geoff
I’ll do that, we go past there regularly ! 🙂
We love the beach. Somewhere in beach places is where so much noise is washed away leaving behind a plane where clear thinking can happen—the kind of thinking that always seems to be able to reach further now that it isn’t tethered so tightly by those “when we’re not at the beach” limits.
Easy to imagine railways in places like here. On Prince Edward Island, the original Souris station was accessed by crossing a beach. As attractive as that feels on the sunny seaside days, we’re also twelve months of the year beach people, and I think about trying to get to or from the train when the weather is saying, in no uncertain terms: “Stay home. My water is a graveyard.”
Funny how we often set layouts in places where interesting things happen but not as often in the places we want to go. I’m looking forward to more of your musings on this tease of a layout dream. Thanks for opening this door.
—Chris
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