Locos Get Model Garden Memorial

By ERYL CRUMP

RAILWAY enthusiasts are flocking to North Wales to see the last of Britain’s loco-hauled trains hard at work.

Diesel units operate most train services, and just a handful of services hauled by locomotives, described by rail fans as “proper trains”, remain.

Virgin Trains use a loco to haul the London-bound Pendolino expresses from Holyhead to Crewe where it becomes an electric line.

But these locos are due to be replaced by diesel units in the next few months.

But the memory of the locos, and the Class 37s and the Class 37s in particular, called “Growlers” by enthusiasts because of their distinctive throaty roar, will live on in the garden of two brothers with family links to Cheshire railways.

Mike and Steve Dunning have built a model ‘O’ gauge railway layout in their garden in Saltney, near Chester.

It is modelled on the North Wales line with a replica of Llandudno Station built in the shed.

Mike, 47, said: “When I bought the first Class 37 locomotive it was mainly for display in my house.

“But as usually happens we decided we needed somewhere to run it.

“So my brother Steve, who is a very keen railway enthusiast, built a short length of track in the garden. That was only 5ft long but it soon grew!”

The layout, called Talacre, now consists of a circuit of the garden and a branch leading along the side of the house to their version of Llandudno Station.

He said: “We have tried to keep the trackwork as simple as possible but have incorporated a couple of sidings at Llandudno so that coaches can be stored and shunted as well as freight.”

As the track grew the first loco was soon joined by others the brothers built from kits.

(c) 2007 Daily Post; Liverpool. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.