High in the rain-soaked hills of Southern Elyri (aka Snowdonia) a small group of enthusiasts have preserved a little old narrow-gauge line (rumoured to be 2ft something….) serving a long-closed slate quarry. Due to the cramped nature of the site trains are kept short to fit in the loop and shunting can prove to be rather tricky, especially on the rare occasion an extra coach is required. Nevertheless more and more people are visiting this little line; whether the draw is the scenery, the quaint locos and rolling stock, or the nearby falls of Rhaeadr Annodadwy who knows. The latter are aptly named but they do attract a lot of influencers who go to either film themselves being underwhelmed by them, or be underwhelmed by how underwhelmed they are perhaps……
Pos Siyntio was originally a small shunting plank acquired (very cheaply) second hand off eBay back in the days of lockdowns, the original owner had intended for it to be a single baseboard shunting puzzle based somewhere in the south-west USA. My main layout project had stalled due to my own lack of experience in the hobby and the associated frustrations that brings, I needed something to test stock on while it progressed. The main layout continued to stagnate though, and I realised this small, crudely built layout could become a test bed for improving/learning skills, particularly with electrickery.
Since then, it has evolved to become a proper layout in its own right. The track has been partly re-laid for a slightly easier alignment; a new fiddle yard built; extended over a new surrounding board to give more space for scenery; legs from a previous club layout modified and fitted; and track re-wired, including permanent and electro-magnets fitted. There is still a long list of jobs to do but it is proving an enjoyable project to learn and improve skills, the modelling motivation has come back. It has also allowed me to try out some other ideas such as with the fiddle yard which is a sector plate with a traverser built in to reduce stock handling. Buildings are 3D printed examples from MS Models, track is (mostly) Peco code 100 (0-16.5 sleepers) although three of the points I think are small radius Peco 00 which does limit stock to the little locos, my L&B Taw takes particular umbrage with them but she is a little big for the layout.
