Fablewood (Coed Y Chwedlau)

Time for me to start describing my current modelling project. I am presently working on a 4ft by 2ft 009 layout Fablewood (Coed Y Chwedlau for the Welsh readers); a small rural station on a fictitious narrow gauge railway of the same name, set out in typical North Wales woodland. The history is basic; the line opens in the 1860's, has it's prosperity and decline, closes during World War 2, and reopens under a preservation group as a tourist attraction in the 1950's. The scene is set during the present day, with some changes made to the station and a few more items added to it, such as a car park and disabled access ramp. The small station has a passing loop for trains to pass, a small spur (possibly to form the basis of a future extension, depending on how this first 009 effort goes) and a small goods yard. Hills, cuttings, trees and bushes make up the scenery, while there are cottages provided for the station master and the manager of the goods yard. Motive power is currently made up of a trio of Chris Ward 3D-printed steam locomotive bodies running on varying Kato chassis, and a Chivers Finelines 'Criccieth Castle' on a Graham Farish chassis. The rolling stock is a mix of kit-built and ready to run; Peco, Parkside Dundas, Colin Ashby and 009 Society exclusives. The track and pointwork is all standard Peco, with a mixture of set and flexible pieces. The project began in January 2015, and continues apace. There is still a lot of scenic work to be done, but it certainly is coming along nicely. Some of you may have already seen my record of progress over on the Model Rail Layout Forums (updated as regularly as possible), but in case anyone here wants the gist, here is a basic pictorial summary of the story so far...



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If anyone wants to follow the story from the beginning, you can find it at http://mrlforum.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/3026-fablewood-coed-y-chwedlau/ Questions and comments are welcomed. For now, thanks for viewing!

 

tanygaer wrote:

Diolch i chi fwyaf garedig, tanygaer!
(Incidentally, apologies for the pictures being funny; not quite got the hang of the 'insert link' buttons yet...)

 

mattc6911 wrote:

Thanks Matt.

Yes, Fablewood is going on the road again. I'm at Rainhill again, but this time as a proper exhibition debut.

Thanks for sorting the pictures out.

 

Toto wrote:

Thanks Toto!

 

Late February & Early March 2016
With the clock ticking towards it's planned outing to the Rainhill Show, scenic work on Fablewood was stepped up considerably. All that remained to do at this stage, was fit another foamboard mound in the lower middle area of the backscene, scatter some grass down, plant some trees and stick some flowers in.
First, the foamboard mound was cut out, covered with plaster, painted and placed in position. I slightly miscalculated the length of this mound, meaning there were small gaps either side. However, I've come up with the idea of putting public footpaths into those gaps to disguise this fact (!)...
Once again, PVA glue was spread down on the mound first, and then the grass mixture (a mix of light and dark green, and forest floor brown) spread on top. After the PVA had settled, a mix of PVA, Fairy liquid and water was used to seal in the grass. A small area to the left of the cottages gradually got this treatment as well.









Around the cottages, Ratio 'station platform' fencing and Gaugemaster hedges were used to fence in the planned gardens either side. The gardens were made up of the grass scatter, forest brown for the flower beds, Gaugemaster flowers and Busch bushes (tongue twister alert!). Leftover Gaugemaster flowers were also used for the station's flowerbed (again, using forest brown scatter as a base).











At the same time, ready made trees were planted; mostly in the corners of the backboard to partly disguise the joins, and some around the front of the backscene to disguise the fiddle yard entrances. The trees are a mix of pine and connifer. Another tall tree, a Busch product, was also incorporated.








And with thirteen months of work under it's belt, Fablewood at last looked decent enough for public exhibition (and only it's second outing, after it's initial outing in it's construction state, four months previously)...

...Which took place at the Rainhill Village Hall on the weekend of Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th March 2016. For the pictures, go to http://www.platform1mrc.com/view_topic.php?id=460&forum_id=16.
Comments welcomed as always.

 

jakesdad13 wrote:

Thanks Pete. I will eventually get round to weathering everything, just got a few other things to do first...

 

paul_l wrote:

Hello Paul.

No further progress to report so far. However, in four weeks time on Monday 30th May, Fablewood is getting another outing to Rainhill, as part of a model railway display for a local village gala. Therefore, a little preparation work is in order. Watch this space...

 

Hello, David here!

All is quiet with Fablewood at the moment; no further work has been done, but due to another exhibition appearance (which I'll explain in a tick), it is likely that things will be perking up again shortly. Watch out for an update coming soon...

Fablewood's next exhibition outing is on Saturday 22nd October 2016, at the Stephenson Model Railway Group's third annual exhibition being held near Rainhill, Merseyside. The show runs from 10:00 in the morning till 17:00 in the afternoon, and Fablewood is among nine layouts appearing, as well as a few traders and modelling demonstrations.

The venue is the Old Guide Hall located on the corner of Old Land and Stoney Lane near Rainhill; five minutes or so away from the village centre. Entry is £2.50 Adult and £1.50 Child (Under 5's free), and refreshments are also available.

For more information, visit the SMRG's website at: http://www.stephensonmrg.org.uk

Updates coming soon!

 

October 2016
Time for a rather overdue update with progress...Since May 2016 when Fablewood was last out, yours truly has taken a break from working on it, while figuring out what needs to be done next. But with another recent exhibition appearance on the cards, a few minor things had to be put in order. We'll take a look at a few small examples.
First off, the field beside the cottages now boasts some grazing sheep and a gentleman out for a stroll along the footpath. However, there are one or two rebels in this flock; one is eating the flowers out of one of the cottage gardens...



...and another is wandering up the road towards the level crossing, where the Peco fencing also received some attention, and one of the trees which had been knocked down, was glued back into position with more scatter laid down around it...



The goods yard has also been seen to as well. The platform now boasts a Ratio goods crane (painted brown), and a few items have been added. A porter is moving milk churns over to the road loading area, and a few oil drums are awaiting collection. Meanwhile, the coal bunker now has a load of it's own; pink foam material cut to shape, painted black twice, and real crushed coal scattered over a layer of PVA glue. Not sure if I got the size of the coal pile correct, but I'll let you decide.



Five months back, I bolstered the steam fleet by taking delivery of a Peco 'Glyn Valley Tramway' style tram locomotive, which was purchased from the 009 Society's sales department. She's currently running in the livery it came in (though some slight touching up had to be done), but a repaint may be on the cards in the not too distant future. Here she is, with a passenger service at Fablewood station.



A few more passengers have been added to the station platforms, and a postman has turned up to do his usual near-daily collection of the local mail (passengers travelling on the trains and the cottage occupants often post letters/postcards into the letterbox outside the station, hence the post van coming out on an almost daily basis).
Fablewood enjoyed it's third and final exhibition outing for 2016, when it attended the Stephenson Model Railway Group's third annual one-day show, on Saturday 22nd October 2016. The layout performed very well, and was met with more positive comments from the public. Here are a few scenes taken during this exhibition appearance.

















So what's next, you might ask? One of the next tasks is to have some of the permanent way weathered (namely oil spillage and used ballast; if anyone has any tips on how to go about this task, feel free to speak up), and to fit some perspex in front of the layout. However, it won't be permanent; it would only be fitted for exhibition outings, and removed at home for photography purposes.
For now though, comments welcomed as always.