Abergwesyn was a ‘rabbit-warren’ layout built in the early 1970’s by my older brother Dave and myself. Dave was the inspiration and leader – I just did what I was told. Abergwesyn took 2 years to build and Dave started it when he was 15. I followed a year later with Meifod (which also took 2 years to build).

We became members of the Warrington Model Railway Club shortly after finishing it and exhibited it at their show in September 1972. The show also featured the new Z gauge ‘layout in a suitcase’ and the show was very successful as the suitcase layout appeared on ‘Blue Peter’ which plugged the Warrington show! The layout was 5ft by 3ft and was inspired by Cyril Freezer’s rabbit-warren plan but adapted by the furtive imagination of my brother.

It was built for fun and to be entertaining for the public – and it proved to be very successful and went to most of the shows in the North-West.
It was extended over a timber viaduct to link up with my layout ‘Meifod’ – a 4ft by 2ft folded eight rabbit-warren.

Brian Monaghan took pictures on a couple of occasions – he was based in Manchester which was an easy trip to Warrington for him. He was often criticised over his ‘eye in the sky’ photos but it was mainly due to his old bellows full frame camera and huge wooden tripod. That camera was amazing as it had full adjustability so he could tweak the shot to get the best focus. I have managed to scan some of the transparencies he took but they are a bit dark as I haven’t got a scanner that can back-light the large film.

Abergwesyn was a plain loop low down with a station in the left hand front corner and a 3 track fiddle yard at the back. This gave us four train variations. The Tal-y-Bont top line was a figure of eight with the station on the right hand side and hidden siding on the back of the left hand loop (not shown on the track plan) – again giving us a potential three train variation. Both lower and upper loops were connected so trains could be exchanged between them – just to confuse the public periodically.

A line came off from Tal-y-Bont to the back of the layout which subsequently joined on to Meifod over a wooden trestle bridge linking board. The two layouts together forming a ‘U’ shape. Both layouts were operated from within the ‘U’ and it was possible to operate the whole thing by yourself (providing you were not interrupted by questions).

Meifod was a simple folded eight with a quarry siding and a triangle joining on to the trestle linking board. We could send a train from Abergwesyn all the way to Meifod and back, turning it in the process. This screwed things up completely as we had fine-tuned all the trains to fixed formations in specific directions to get the best running!

We were quite creative in those days with as much as possible done on a shoestring. The baseboards were traditional 2”x 1” timber on a 1ft lattice and the track bed was ½” thick insulation board (a bit like soft Sundeala). The track was hand built with thin balsa sleepers and two small ‘Bambi’ staples punched in to which the rail could be soldered. Point motors were home-made using Gov surplus enamel coated wire wound onto solenoid armatures and micro-switches to change the frog polarity.

Only Meifod had the overhead wiring which was non-functional, although we could have made it work as it was isolated from the track – but not installed in the tunnels. I made a jig from plywood and nails to bend up scrap bullhead rail into an extended ‘u’ shape. One end was soldered onto a length of brass rod and a wire tensioner added from the top of the rod to the other end of the ‘u’. Wire was added along the bottom and another carrier wire was added across the open end of the ‘u’. I suppose this was really an ‘n’ as it was an upside-down ‘u’! Glass beads from an old necklace were used to represent the insulators as they were free and didn’t melt or crack if you were quick with the soldering iron! It was great fun to make and I learnt a lot in the process, but the overhead wire was a bit like cheese-wire and very unforgiving when cleaning the track!

We built a much bigger link section with its own loop and auto control. Dave was the electronics wiz with the section being run from a surplus ex-GPO uni-selector. I don’t seem to have any photos of that bit which is a shame as the whole thing looked quite impressive when set up.

Abergwesyn appeared in the Railway Modeller in May 1973 and then in the “History of Model and Miniature Railways”. The combined Abergwesyn & Meifod Railways appeared in the Model Railway Constructor.

Abergwesyn & Meifod was followed by a 009 exhibition layout built by the junior member’s in the Warrington MRC. This was a bit more serious and reflected the fact that I understood more about narrow gauge and slate quarries. This was called the Llanhaiadr & District Quarry Railway and it featured the January 1976 Railway Modeller just in time for its appearance at the Manchester show. It was great fun to build and I remember we spent most of the school summer holiday up at the club room building it. There is an awful picture of the four of us titled ‘those responsible’ in the article – an embarrassing picture that Adrian Ponting reminded me of recently. That was the prevailing fashion – honest!

I was then attracted to the new Stephen Poole 7mm scale Glyn Valley Tramway kits seen at that Manchester show and Dyffryn was the result. However, layout building got a lot slower after these 009 efforts as university, work, marriage, children and house renovation all took priority!

There are more photos on the Gallery page.