The Breakwater...

The idea of building a model of the Holyhead breakwater railway, in some form, in some scale has been gnawing away at me for at least a decade. Why then, has it until now, never progressed to paper?

I guess there are two reasons - and the same two reasons I've never seen anyone else do a layout built around the same theme either... One, the locomotive requires kit building and two, the operational interest is somewhat lacking...

What then, was the Holyhead Breakwater railway? If you've never stumbled upon this time capsule before it's a fascinating prototype. Built in the 19th century to help construct and maintain a breakwater for the port of Holyhead, it ran, at its height, for 1.7 miles from a quarry to the end of the breakwater. Its sole purpose in later years to transport heavy boulders along the structure, from a loading pad at the land ward end of the structure along to where a travelling crane was able to lift them up and place them on the seaward side, to sure up the structure or effect repairs.

In the 1970s it became something of a mecca for the rail enthusiast. The last two BR class 01s had been moved to the isolated system - even receiving their TOPS numbers 01001 and 01002. From the late 70s the line was barely used, officially closing in 1980 and the locos cut up on site in 1982. Today, there are a few remains of rail in the road - and the loco shed survives (albeit re-roofed). 

It was a conversation with Matt Owen that pushed me to finally put pen to paper - and more (but we'll mention that later). He expressed that he'd always fancied it as a project - and we joked it might be a good follow on to our joint 'Dim Byd' (which is slowly progressing). When I got home I realised I had the Barclay wheels from a failed Planet Industrials kit project - and the 01 would be a great little project so the Judith Edge kit was duly ordered...

In the meantime I couldn't stop thinking about the line and how it could suit a small layout... from MOSSLANDA shelves to LACK 'cameo's and a few left field shapes including a sort of freeform wave...

The energy grew and a Bachmann Wickham trolley is also finding its way to a new home in North Wales and I seem to have committed myself to building a OO version... but which one?

I have no real space for the proper cameo - and whilst a Shell Island -esque table layout is very appealing it might need to be somewhat more limited in scope... that said, is this exhibit-able? Would you watch it at a show? An 01 crawling up and down some overgrown poorly laid light weight track, the sound of seagulls and gentle waves... perhaps the smell of sea weed drying on the rocks and you could picture yourself sitting on a picnic blanket beside the gorse hedge, keeping out of the keen breeze and enjoying a sunny afternoon beside this most industrial and basic of British Railway branch lines...

Hmm - we'll have to see. For now, perhaps there is something in these composition that help you with your own ideas and projects. Until next time, more soon...

Addendum 

Through the conversation below several useful links have been shared, but as they’re in the comments they don’t work so I’ve copied them here:

Ian’s notes:

http://www.iholmes.com/pages/journal/planning_08.html

Alan’s photos: 

https://paxton-road.blogspot.com/2025/05/alan-sewell-visits-holyhead.html

Matt’s thread on Western Thunder forum:

https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/threads/the-holyhead-breakwater-railway.13816/

Ben Bucki’s RMWeb layout thread:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/173450-all-along-the-breakwater-holyheadish-in-00-another-lockdown-project/

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