LLYFNI QUAY - back ground

Second Thoughts

As the public payed little attention to the auto layouts it was decided to recycle them. This has lead to the Bete layouts; Tal-y-Bont, Holyport, Drummore, Port Isaac, Skovdallund, and San Rocco. But what to do with Tram de la Frenesie's (below) quay board? I decided to revisit Pont Llyfni. Place names are historic and hopefully correct for the railway era.

History    in the 1820s the Nantlle Railway was built so the Nantlle slate quarries could compete with the Penrhyn Quarry with its new tramway built by Richard Pennant and the Llanberis quarries with their threat of a tramway to Dinorwic on the Menia Strait. The 42" gauge Nantlle Railway, actually a horse worked tramway, ran from Tal y Sarn to Caernarfon via Pen y Groes. In the 1850s the Llyfni Vales Railway and Harbour Company, effectively a branch, was proposed between Pen y Groes and a new harbour at Pont Llyfni.

As a harbour the mouth of the Afon Llyfni (above) has it problems it's only accessible at high tide and the river is shallow with exposed rocks about 200 yards upstream from the river mouth (below). In all probability the harbour would have been no more than a quay.

In 1865 the Nantlle Railway was acquired by the Carnarvonshire Railway that in turn was taken over by the London and North Western Railway {LNWR} in 1870. Between them the railways converted the Nantlle Railway to a standard-gauge except for the two miles east of the transhipment station at Tal y Sarn but called Nantlle. The LNWR was merged into the London Midland and Scottish Railway {LMSR} in 1923 that in turn merged into British Railways {BR} in 1948. The Nantlle Railway had a passenger service 1856 to 1865 and the standard gauge from 1862 to 1964 except Pen y Groes to Nantlle that closed to regular passenger traffic in 1932 and excursion traffic in 1939.

Branch    would have been 2½ mile long with the track following the footpath (above). In 1870 the LNWR would have had the option of leaving the branch as a 42" gauge horse worked tramway or conversion to a standard-gauge line with or without a passenger service. I've assumed the branch was built and converted to standard-gauge but without a passenger service till the 1905-07 LNWR railcar boom. The railcar's 50 seats would have been more than adequate for the passenger traffic from the halts at the hamlet of Pont Llyfni and Llyfni Quay.
The concept is influenced by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's failed attempt to convert the Tarleton Branch into an Edwardian basic railway (http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/t/tarleton/index.shtml).

Plan   to rebuild Tram De La Frenesie quay board to link to the Bete layout fiddle yard & throat boards. In theory the siding at the back of the throat board will cross the Afon Llyfni to reach the Y Swan Gravel Works about ¼ miles away (below).

Work  the back scene will swop side a task I view with some trepidation. Other changes are less worrying and include adding a mileage siding & halt [Ratio, in stock], removing the end scene to give the barge access and possibly changing the barge's load to gravel. In theory the out of pocket cost of the conversion should be less than a tenner!

Operation    will emphasise mixed trains and shunting gravel from Y Swan to the quay.

Stock as no LNWR railcar is available I'm going to take advantage of the Hornby or Hatton's ranges of generic coaches in LNWR colours to buy a break third coach and possibly a composite coach as my Christmas present. There should be sufficient seats given the limited traffic. Combined with my LNWR locos the layout can be rotated through LNWR, LMSR, BR (steam), BR (diesel), and heritage stock.

Second Thoughts

To increase traffic on the line the Y Swan Quarry now ships gravel by rail and the quay is used for outbound coal. Outbound coal traffic is implausible but there was a colliery at Bodfean Mine, Llanystumdwy, Caernarfonshire and several collieries on Anglesey that might have shipped via Llyfni Quay. See Gazetteer and Bibliography of the Mines and Quarries of North Wales.

Pontllyfni Halt and Llyfni Quay Halt are about 400 meter/quarter mile apart so a senior porter staffs both halts and handle parcels etc.

The availability of the LNWR coaches, I want, have been put back to summer 2022 so the layout is photographed LMSR.