It's likely that like most things in life our tastes in model railways started to develop at an early age. I know most move on from ready to run trains whizzing round the carpet, though there's still something captivating about tin plate rattling away on scenery free bare boards. I'm also fairly sure that it's not just the obvious that influences what we choose to make models of. Looking just at the real railway or the modelling press can only lead to an incomplete picture, at best a railway centric vision of the real world at worst something disconnected from the other realities of life.
It's hard to tease out the exact starting point that Morfa originates from, but in general terms it's strongly influenced by childhood family holidays to north and mid Wales. That it's a Sulzer stronghold probably owes a lot to watching class 24s splutter away in the sidings at Penmaenmawr as they walloped mineral wagons and hoppers about. Though Penmaenmawr was the most frequented holiday destination the Cardigan bay resorts of Barmouth, Tywyn and Aberystwyth also featured. I carry some half remembered magical memories of journeys over Talerddig, the ramshackle halts at Abertafol and Dyffryn, the cool of the slate caverns at Pensarn and having the freedom at fourteen of being able to go out on my own with a rail rover and explore all this fascinating and enchanting world.
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