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I would like to say that the first trip was a success. An impressive railway layout.

Congratulations Tony! 👍

Awesome Tony!

I love it when a plan comes together.

BTW: I have started an investigation with the postal service on your prize from the 500 member drawing which has tragically been lost in the mail.  And I did have insurance on the package.

I am considering what may be an appropriate substitute and will get a substitute in the mail to you soon.

I have never had a package lost before and I am in so sad that the package did not arrive.

Hi Charlie,

That is very generous of you and I am glad you had insurance.  Yes, lost mail is very rare even in the dim and distant when I was working with dozens of parcels arriving every day only a very few didn't arrive over years.

Take care Tony.

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Hi Gil,

Yes, I was very pleased with the layout finally connecting up even more than when I got it to fit in the trailer.

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The trailers measurements are length 5', width 3', height 2' the layout erected is 21'x 13'. As well as the 18 base boards there are six storage boxes for scenery and the like.  The flight case storage container on the top of the trailer is used for things that have to be easily accessed when traveling.

There are still quite a lot of things to keep my wife and I busy; a bit more scenery, finish the lighting and a skirt to go around the layout.  The layout will be called "Ffordd-y-Aderyn".

Its first exhibition hopefully will be next year.

Take care Tony.

Hi Eifion,

Glad you like the name.  You might be interested how it came about; my wife and I have built three portable 16 mm scale model railway layouts since the mid 1980's.  Naming a layout was a bit of a problem, though both born in Wales neither of us are Welsh speakers and the first layout we wanted to have a Welsh name as a lot of its buildings were based on various structures in use on slate railways. It was my late mother who came up with the idea 'Why not name it after the road you live in?' So. 'Rhydypenau Light Railway' came into existence.

After 80 plus exhibitions both in the UK and Mainland Europe a new layout was made and 'Rhydypenau' was sold.  The new owners re-named the the layout 'Westfield' and as we have a lot of stock with RLR on it we decided that the new layout's title would be Welsh and start with 'R'.  Whereas Rhydypenau is a small village north of Aberystwyth the name of the new layout was mythical 'Rhydypenderyn'.  When this layout was sold to its new Yorkshire owners they decided to keep the name mostly because after many years they could very nearly pronounce it!

This meant that the present layout would have to have a name visually different for non Welsh speakers so as not to confuse them. Not wanting to get away with the main theme 'Rhyd' we went for an English title 'Bird Ford' and then did a very bad translation into Welsh.  Your Welsh/English translation does sound a lot better!

Is this Wenglish?

Sad isn't it?

Take care and still stay safe.

Tony.

I can only agree with Charlie. Thank you for your explanations, Tony. Lets us non-Walisians understand the names too.