Christmas Cameo: Bae Ceredigion (N part 34)…

It’s time to introduce my seasonal layout, however this year I decided I didn’t fancy building a proper layout (unlike Kinross and Bear Creek the past two festive holidays). Mind, a project is good for the soul, good for the heart and good for unwinding after a busy year…

A few weeks ago I shared some ideas around Ynyslas, on the Cambrian mainline to Aberystwyth just north of Borth. These focused upon the beach and river estuary, and would have needed somewhere to store a larger footprint of a layout, or live in a box and never see the light of day. 

In parallel, a pair of Mosslanda (55cm long, 12cm deep) shelves from IKEA were gifted by my Mum about a month ago, perhaps these might offer something of a more permanent and convenient home?

In the spirit of simplicity a piece of thin ply was cut to fit within the shelf (rather than sit on the other side, this felt more secure). I intend to add a piece of mounting board card as a backscene using the same ‘water colour’ painting method I used to good effect on Bear Creek last Christmas. This and the layout will be removable from the shelf, perhaps interchangeable? I will also look at lighting options once I’ve found a more permanent home for the shelf in my workshop. What to model though?

My N scale adventure has taken me from North American logging of the Pacific North West to a 500mm long area agnostic British Rail goods yard cameo via lots of interesting learning and reflection. Whilst the next step is more obviously a ‘proper’ layout perhaps there is an opportunity here to practice ‘this is N’ and test my own skills and methods whilst creating something wonderful in its own right.

The bridge at Ynyslas across the Afon Leri is a typically Cambrian wooden structure. Larger and smaller examples exist up and down the coast, curiously the one at Ynyslas sports piers at varying angles, but I am more interested in capturing a feel of the Cambrian coast along Cardigan Bay in general, so consider this ‘inspired’ rather than ‘slavish prototype’. I found some approximate dimensions and picked up some suitable Evergreen strip, taking it along with me to my Mum’s last week to make a start.

I drew up a small template and built a cutting guide to ensure the 25 verticals were all ‘the same’ give or take! This is visible above top right. I noticed the prototypes 5 piles were unsymmetrical and copied this in my construction, all carefully done with nothing more complicated than a blade, ruler liquid poly and the template and guide.

The two end piers were build up with styrene ‘banks’ and will be set into the layout, whilst the bridge will only be ‘tacked’ in place eventually, in case I ever need to remove it. This of course will also aid painting! How else could I hope to get around all the tight spots in the bridge supports.

The piers were then glued to a solid 80thou styrene ‘deck’ and then a layer of styrene planking was added to represent the planked deck, the 80thou section appearing as a frame rather than the solid piece it is on the model. Some styrene was added for the longitudinal sleepers under each rail with suitable cross members. To fabricate the delicate handrails I decided to use styrene for the uprights as it is a little flexible, would glue easily to the deck and would be easy to replicate parts in, so a small brass U channel was used to create a cutting and drilling template , see above, added to the same guide I’d created for the styrene uprights. 14 short an 5 long posts were created for each side, and threaded with 0.35mm brass rod, yes this is tiny…

This is really pushing me…

I love working in N!

This is the greatest H&M quote of the year: “I love working in N”.

I’m a bit biased because my connection is so strong to the scale. Setting aside the bias though I love how your exploration of the scale has maybe also reconnected you to trains like the ones you’re connecting to, in N. 

Thanks Chris!

So, the result, with a deck of just 190mm, to me at least sings Cambrian. I would also argue that the ‘fidelity’ was fiddly rather than difficult, and the result feels scale enough, certainly I challenge you not to at least consider this may be OO and that’s before I’ve even splashed any paint on it. This project is pushing me in a comfortable but still gently challenging way, pushing yes but against an open door. I’m already through to be honest, for British standard gauge BR modelling this is definitely ‘where it’s at’ for me going forwards, and a wonderful contrast to Canadian H0, narrow gauge 009 and British industrial OO. I shall keep the progress coming through the holidays, the next ‘step’ is to work out how I will add the river, before then creating the scenic backbone of the embankments. Then I’ll have a model railway rather than just a bridge, and I can’t wait. Until next time, more soon…

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