North Wales narrow gauge railways and the Bachmann ready-to-run Baldwin 4-6-0T were all the inspiration STEVE JONES needed to build his first ‘OO9’ layout. Tal-y-bont is the result.
GAUGE: ‘OO9’, 9mm SCALE: 4mm:1ft SIZE: 20ft x 14in REGION: North Wales PERIOD: Preservation CONTROL: Gaugemaster Prodigy
Welcome to Tal-y-bont - one of the undiscovered ‘Great little trains of Wales’. Situated on the west coast of North Wales, it runs through spectacular scenery, deep into the mountains of Snowdonia.
The line was originally built to transport Welsh slate to the main line at Tal-y-bont Wharf where it was transferred to standard gauge wagons for onward transportation to docks for shipment overseas, or to roof the houses of British towns & cities. I appreciate this is the story of almost every narrow-gauge line in North Wales but I like to build layouts that have credibility and if not a model of a prototype at least based upon one.
I have built a number of ‘OO’ gauge layouts over the years but this is my first foray into the world of ‘OO9’ narrow gauge (4mm:1ft scale using 9mm gauge track). I’ve admired many layouts in the scale and it’s difficult to beat a visit to a narrow gauge railway for charm and the scenery that they tend t…
