started modelling in OO. In about 1988 I changed to P4. P4 is the same size as OO, but the track is much closer to scale. To find out more about P4 have a look at the Scalefour Society
Since being a child I have been interested in the GWR; tank engines and wagons, not the big expresses for me. For some unknown reason I also liked the railways that the GWR had absorbed at the grouping, particularly the South Wales lines. I'd already thought about modelling Merthyr Tydfil, and even today there is still a bookmark in Barry Norman's MRJ article.
Inspiration to model Penrhos Junctions came from another Barry Norman article in Model Railway Journal 85, a track plan for Curzon Street; with an entrance into a goods depot and three mainlines running behind, two of them on viaducts. So I had a good look around the Great Western system to find something similar. In the end I found something similar, Penrhos Junctions, which is actually very different. But what to me were the key features of the Curzon St design; a junction and a viaduct are key features, with the added bonus of a road bridge over the tracks from which spotters used to watch trains slog up the 1 in 47 'Big Hill'.
Three society's that have been very helpful are:
The Welsh Railways Research Circle,
Links to these societies can be found in Exchange Sidings.