Nant-y-glo Mine 4’x2’

Nant-y-glo Mine was an experiment in layout design and composition. It is so easy to cram too much track in a small space and spoil that unique narrow gauge ‘feel’. I wanted the layout to not only look as realistic as possible, but also have a function, ie, coal being brought from the mine and tipped into waiting standard gauge wagons.

For photographs showing the construction stages of Nant-y-glo, click here.

Nant-y-glo has been exhibited at many shows all over the country and was featured in the February 2001 Railway Modeller.

All photos by Len Weal, PECO Studios

One of my favourite shots taken from the mine entrance. It is fair to say that getting the details to look right on Nant-y-glo beacame a bit of an obsession. It could take me a whole evening just placing an old oild drum! This shot shows a mine tub emptying its load of coal into the awaiting standard gauge wagons. It takes approximately 20 minutes of exhibtion time to fill one wagon, an event that can raise quite a crowd!!
Getting the scenery to look convincing is a job that I find most rewarding. The old lorry was found at the bottom of a box of 'junked' toys and suitably distressed and weathered before being planted onto the layout. Another one of my favourite shots. The caravan, an old Corgi toy was another junk box find. The chap standing in the doorway is the mine guv'nor. The mine tubs were built from scratch using brass sheet.
A tub being unloaded on the tippler. The tippler was built from Mecanno and suitably 'dressed' using bits from the odds 'n' ends box.
The wagons are wedged on the tippler and uncoupled using Kadee magnets. The tippler is manually controlled using a Mecanno axle. It all works 99% of the time!