Author | Lightnews

Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 5h

2/2. But there was a machine there to surrender the token to lock a train into the yard and allow others to use the main line.

This is great for our operators who have to contend with a cramped fiddle yard which is like one of those tile-sliding games where there is one free space.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 5h

🧵 Why doesn’t our layout have any signals? A question I was asked this week.

Minffordd is in the middle of the token section between Porthmadog and Penrhyndeudraeth. The ‘signal box’ on the platform is really just a posh ground frame for shunting the yard. 1/2

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 1d

Mr Parry was the last station master at Minffordd (BR) station - in fact he was all there was at the end before it was reduced to an unstaffed halt.

He keeps a careful watch on proceedings also conveniently marking where the uncoupling magnet is buried beneath the main line.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 2d

On this one minor detail we humbly invite the viewer to suspend their disbelief.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 3d

If there was an unsung hero of the weekend on Minffordd it was this wee beastie.

‘Mary Ann’ was constantly phut-phut-phutting around the yard, smoothly and reliably.

It meant there was almost always something to see (and hear) moving on the layout, vital to ‘the show’.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 4d

Thanks

Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 4d

A prize winner first time out!

We’re honoured to have received the votes fellow exhibitions at the Greenock 40th anniversary show this weekend and be presented with the Keith Taylor Shield, awarded in memory of one of our former club members and a very accomplished modeller.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 5d

These were the only snaps I was able to take when the crowds thinned out. Back at Lyle Kirk in Greenock tomorrow from midday.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 5d

A very intense first exhibition day for ‘Minffordd’ - I’ve never before run a layout for 7 hours without a break!

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you - we fully intend to have a very enjoyable weekend!

Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 6d

The BR (Cambrian Coast) and the Festiniog Railway exchange yard at Minffordd in the mid-1960s.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 6d

After nearly three years in the planning & construction the time has come to put Minffordd on show in Greenock this weekend.

It’s been tremendous fun and a great challenge creating this together.

We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we’ve enjoyed building it.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 6d

Greenock, Scotland, tomorrow and Sunday for its first exhibitions. November it’s in Falkirk and in March next year at the SEC in Glasgow.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 7d

This weekend at Greenock with Minffordd will be the first time I’ve been able to attend a debut for one of our FR layouts.

With Dduallt I was over 400 miles away at university.

Two decades on with Bron Hebog I was still 400 miles away busy with work and a young family.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 8d

A lot has been achieved in a little over two and a half years. Feb 2023 vs Sept 2025.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 9d

It’s 2 years since w filled the gap in Bachmann’s FR ‘Penrhyn Ladies’ range with a 1960s era ‘Blanche’.

To do this we had to buy 2 models to make 1, taking the bottom half of a ‘Linda’ in 0-4-0 condition with original shape cylinders and fixing that to the body of a ‘Blanche’.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 11d

A final afternoon of yard shunting rehearsals ahead of the big debut for Minffordd next weekend.

Anyone who tells you practice makes perfect with Kadee couplings is lying!

They are wee bastards and will do as they damn well please, every single time!

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 11d

But beneath the fancy paintwork it was really a Toleman, of course. By the way, really nice Colossally episode on Bruce McLaren, particularly enjoyed the counter-factual ‘what if’ segment, could that sort of thing be encouraged in future pods?

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 12d

A layout is never ‘finished’.

Less than a week until it’s public debut and tonight a rush order for more slate stacks for Minffordd Yard.

Out with the resin, then….

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 15d

Spending the last few days preparing for the Minffordd debut by flicking a dry brush in the general direction of the Cambrian passenger stock to make it look less ‘out of the box’.

I must say for a 40-year-old model those ex-Mainline Collett carriages still look the business to me.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 18d

A motor-less Moelwyn.

We haven’t the ingenuity (bravery?) to shoehorn a decoder, speaker & stay alive into the Great War veteran tractor, but it would have been a frequent visitor to Minffordd yard in the 1960s, so Himself decided it should be a static exhibit on the layout.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 18d

Thank you, yes it is! Only had an hour or so at a time playing with it so far, so looking forward to our first exhibition weekend in a fortnight.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 19d

Testing out the DCC on the Dukedog. Some playing about required with the CVs on the Loksound chip to try to get it to coast a bit more, but it looks right at home on Minffordd.

(As the window sticker on the car might say, our other locos have Zimos onboard.)

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 21d

Layout building & exhibiting is always a team effort and we must record our thanks to ‘Herself’ for machining up a new set of drapes as the finishing touch for Minffordd.

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Bron Hebog @bronhebog.bsky.social · 22d

A day discovering Churchward tenders weren’t designed for the digital age - and maybe these gizmos need to come with more idiot-proof instructions! Got there in the end, though. A chuffing Dukedog for Minffordd.

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