Welsh project

Bryn Goch

(2002) For a time, Jaap Stuurman has been working on his new project: a narrow gauge railway in Mid-Wales which unavoidably has slate transport as its main theme. An interesting variation on the theme however is a canal basin and narrowboats around which the layout is designed. Jaap uses card construction for his buildings and a good example is the small station building illustrated below. He recently joined the Talyllyn RPS and has participated in a week of track reconstruction at Rhydyronen during Spring..

During the past summer, Jaap completed the layout's construction and added the styrene scenic contours. When Jaap was away on Autumn volunteering work at Tywyn, our scenic wizard Henk Wust had a go at the layout. The result is an astonishingly spacious narrow gauge scene reminiscent of the Glyn Valley. The atmosphere around the canal basin and lock has been captured very well.

	Left: trains crossing in the station. Right: an overview showing the spacious setup.
	Left: the harbour with quay sidings. Right: a Corris engine on a slate working rolls over the level crossing, where fencing still has to be added.
	Left: a narrowboat passes out of the lock as Lynn crosses the bridge. Right: the atmospheric station in a view which shows the natural-looking effect of the slight differences in terrain level.
	Low level views showing the canal and the basin from their best angle.
	Recently, Jaap set up some of his models for a photo session. The photos show some kit-built models, the station building and a freelance reconstruction of the Roco 0-6-0.
	Left: Lynn was converted from a Roco 0-6-0. Right: Gwen was converted from a GEM 'Douglas' kit.
	Left: a row of houses made from card parts. Right: a Ruston on a train of Hudson skips.
	Left: another Douglas kit made as intended, with a goods train. Right: Lynn on a colourful mixed train. Below left: the well-known Roco diesel with various slate quarry wagons. Below: the Corris railway revived?

Right: a plan of the new layout for which the baseboards have already been built.		Above: Gwen with a bogie carriage and a van. Most of the extensive collection of rolling stock shown was kit-built.