The Model
The planning for the model railway commenced as soon as the problems with scale had been resolved. I did not want to base the railway on a prototype as that would too restrictive but I did want something with a particular reference to a time and place. It needed to be a real railway. A study of an Ordinance Survey map found two quarries that did not appear to have been served by a railway and a location on the coast where a harbour could be formed. A railway was planned and a route determined for the Talysarn and Pontllyfni Light Railway (T&PLR), shown in red on the map.
Meanwhile our retirement home on Anglesey had been purchased, though we were still a little time from retirement. The garden was actually larger than might have been expected and the site would allow for a larger railway than the original plan. A further examination of the map revealed stone quarries to the south of Pontllyfni and the plans were extended to link them to the port with a railway shown in blue.