Llanteulyddog

00 Gauge BR (1985 - 1995) / Ariva Trains Wales (2005 - 2015)

Llanteulyddog is a busy station located on a triangle to the north of the South Wales mainline à la Carmarthen. Indeed operations are very much based on those found at Carmarthen during the relevant period. However, space is limited and the layout is a representation of what the station might have been if history of the development of the railways had been slightly different - hence the name change as it does not depict the real railways facilities of Carmarthen. Why 'Llanteulyddog'? Well that was the name in the Middle Ages of the settlement now known as Carmarthen. The railway modeller always retains the right to change history to suit his needs!

Llanteulyddog is a departure from our norm, as it is a purchased layout that has been refurbished for a new purpose. Originally built by the prolific layout builder George Woodcock. Purchased from a friend who had bought it from George a number of years ago, it was bought to allow the running of stock that was used on Paul's Anilan Road layout before this was 'recycled' in to Portbury Parkway. It was originally named Llwydd Town, located in NE Wales off of the Shrewsbury - Chester line and was on the circuit for many years. A Google search will show photos and videos of it in this guise.

On unboxing the layout it became obvious that some renovation work would be required. The Quicksave building had started to demolish itself and several other buildings had either been damaged or were missing. Time for some TLC. It also needed to be rewired back to be able to run DC locos. In assessing the work required and thinking about what stock we could run, the suggestion was made to move the location to an area that allowed us to run more of the stock that we had available - hence the selection of a Carmarthen equivalent.

Much of George's good work was beginning to show its age. Quicksave, on the other hand was beyond reasonable repair. There were several options for replacement but, in the end, an existing model of the Falmouth Docks station canopy, built by Paul for John's previous Feock layout, was selected. Another change was the replacement of the existing fiddle yard with that used on Dovington Camp, as this both gives more/longer sidings and a greater range of cassettes available, which triples the number of trains available for a show. The exisitng fiddle yard may be recycled into it's own micro layout - Old Trafford Park!

The layout mades its debut in its new form at the West Wilts '0' Gauge show in Westbury on 11 Nov 2017.

The layout can operate with trains that would have served Carmarthen during the 1985 - 1995 period or in a more modern format in the Arriva Trains Wales era between 2005 and 2015. Perhaps a turn of the Millennium version too?

A new fully sceneic set of fiddle yard front boards was introduced in 2022 at the Nailsea Exhibition.