The history of the Dinorwic light railway
In 1908 the villagers of Llanberis and Dinorwic wanted a direct route to Caenarfon without using the roads which were difficult to use, especially in winter months. The local councils decided upon a 2 foot narrow gauge line that started in Dinorwic and ran to Caenarfon. So the Dinorwic light railway was born.
Of course none of the above is true there never was a light railway and it never went to Caenarfon. The real railway is in my garden. It started with the decision of a christmas present, either a MSS loco or a Wilesco stationary engine. Eventually an order from PPS brought a red tank engine and a loop of peco track.
The construction
So I had an engine and track but nowhere to use it. The top lawn was to be the site and work started. For the track bed I wanted something that was stable but could be easily altered or removed. Then at a builders merchants I found just the thing, concrete bricks that were 60p each. These when laid in the grass became a very quick and fairly solid track bed and so far it hasn't moved. A further extension was made using gravel boards on top of cut up fence posts. This method has also shown to be fairly solid, so long as the boards haven't got any large knots in them as they twist easily.
The track is a mixture of peco flexitrack with set track curves and home built rail (not built by me) and that is made up from whitemetal chairs, wooden sleepers and various types of rail. Although it doesn't look very neat it's surviving quite well. The points are different again being brass rail soldered to copper clad sleepers. The line is completly level within 5 to 8 millimeters or, at least it was.
The old track plan
This is the old layout. From the station the line runs along side the path passing over the level crossing. From here it continues around the raised bed, about 10 inches in the air. It then crosses the bridge and passes betwen the two bushes before passing the engine shed and continuing through the cutting and arriving back at the station.
