The Eight by Four Railway — With Extensions

The Eight by Four Railway — with extensions — is an OO scale model railway set in the garage of the Prodigious Controller. It features a main 8 × 4 ft (2.4 m × 1.2 m) board and a long five-metre extension shelf complete with a return loop.

The layout is modelled in the British post-war period, from the 1950s through to the mid-1960s. The railway remains firmly anchored by a fleet of hardworking steam locomotives. However, the recent arrival of a member of the formidable British Rail Class 55 fleet — Fife and Forfar Yeomanry — quietly foreshadows the end of steam in the not-too-distant future.

For now, the line remains busy with regular passenger services and freight traffic, including coal, stone, milk, and general goods.

Ddraig Goch – The Village Terminus

The main board is home to Ddraig Goch (Red Dragon), a small Welsh village somewhere near the England–Wales border. The village station forms the terminus of the Eight by Four Railway.

While the station anchors the village, there is also a garage, a general store, and the locally famous (some say infamous) Y Ddraig Goch pub — known for not asking too many questions of young couples arriving for a quiet weekend of relaxation.

The village is also home to Eglwys yr Holl Seintiau Fywiog (All Lively Saints Church), where the vicar has occasionally been known to get into trouble with the bishop for allowing hymns to acquire a rhythm section — that is, clapping in services and — gasp — the odd incidence of hand-raising.

Gladys Jones, the bell-ringer, has also been known to join in with the bells heard clear across Ddraig Goch — occasionally keeping time.

Stanley Halt

Stanley Halt is a small rural platform serving local farmers, complete with a modest cattle dock and a platform for loading churns into the daily milk train.

Industry & Yards

Tucked behind Mynydd Ddraig (Dragon Mountain), and home to Twnnel y Ddraig (Dragon Tunnel), lies Iard Cysgod y Ddraig (Shadow of the Dragon Yard), a small coaling yard working quietly in the mountain’s shadow — occasionally known to scare small red tank engines.

Crossing the plate girder bridge spanning the Great Abyss, the line curves toward Iard Caerffili (Caerphilly Yard) and the main engine shed. Caerphilly Yard also includes a general goods shed for unloading twenty-ton box wagons.

At the centre of Dyffryn Loop sits Iard Lo y Dyffryn (Coal Yard of the Valley), where Scarlet works the coal wagons back and forth to keep the hungry steam locomotives fuelled.

The Long Climb

From here, the line begins its long two per cent gradient climb, crossing the four-arch Glenfiddich Viaduct before continuing upward to span the Great Abyss once more via a pair of Warren truss girder bridges.

The Inglenook Industrial Works

Descending at four per cent, the railway crosses to a small modular Inglenook layout representing a large city industrial station, complete with goods yard, milk factory, and various industrial warehouses. A short fiddle stick extension allows trains to draw further forward through the mouse hole beyond the Inglenook board.

The Window Ledge Storage Yards

Finally, there is the Extension to the Extension — the window-ledge storage yards — not formally named, yet scenic enough to justify their own factory backscene.

The Eight by Four Railway continues to evolve — but for now:

Steam forever. Diesel perhaps.

The Prodigious Controller has his wife’s permission to say so. Mostly.