Wynnstay Park

00, Great Western Railway/Western Region, 4 @ 4 foot

This is a spin off from Project Szymankowo. The plan is to convert the right hand u-turn board from group 'Vale of Twrch' (see below) to a layout.

At the exhibitions the layout will go on the middle front of the stage.

In 1905 the Great Western Railway created a suburban network round Wrexham by building twenty halts and deploying fifteen steam railcars to run the services. It was probably not a good investment as most of the services ran over lines that had limited or no passenger services prior to 1905 and were located to serve industry rather than potential passengers. Two services were withdrawn in 1917 [1] as a war time economy - they were not restarted. In the 1920's there was a switch from steam railcars to auto-trains. Three services were withdrawn in 1931 [2] victims of bus competition. The last three services were Beaching closures [3].
I have twisted history with the Wrexham - Rhos - Wynn Hall Halt service extended along the Plas Madoc Branch to a platform at Wynnstay Park with a halt at Wynnstay Colliery en route. Platforms were staffed halts that handled parcels traffic while halts were unstaffed. The other twist was an imaginary branch from Rhos Junction along the Clywedog Valley to Tir Celyn Quarry with after 1905 a halt at Bersham, and a platform at Nant Mill.
[1] Rhos to Wynn Hall Halt and Legacy to Ponkey Crossing Halt.
[2] Wrexham to Rhos, Wrexham to Moss Platform, and Wrexham to Berwig Halt.
[3] Wrexham to Llangollen and suburban services Wrexham to Chester and Wrexham to Oswestry.

The work required is: -
1.    Lengthen scenic boards by 9" and fit longer legs.
2.    Tangent the track.
3.    Add a halt (possibly from Green Lane) and industries such as a coal yard.
4.    Fiddle yard this is the most difficult to design owing to the need for automatic operation and the centre line being the passenger track.
        A. Fit an auto shuttle unit,
        B. shared with Nant,
        C. possibly have three tracks with movement between track by hand, and
        D. possibly fit card protectors to the centre/passenger track in the fiddle yard.

Mock ups of Wynnstay Park
 
The questions are (a) should the halt move to the other side of the track, (b) what industry, and (c) should the narrow gauge be extended?


It is unlikely the layout will be built