by Dave Ayres
Treleavens Folly
I made this layout for a friend who I had met, aged 5, when we both started school and we became good friends. We grew into teens and adult hood sharing our hobbies of Photography, Computers and Electronics. When I became interested in building a Model Railway, in our early 70’s, he had become disabled and asked me to build a layout for him which I did, all of the ideas concerning the layout and operation being his. Operating his layout gave him a great deal of pleasure but eventually his disability prevented him from even putting the rolling stock onto the track. He continued to purchase scenery and rolling stock until the layout was complete. It became obvious that his disability would not improve so reluctantly he decided there was no point in keeping it so he offered the layout to ExNGRM, (Exeter N Gauge Railway Modelers)
ExNGRM purchased the layout in 2012 for use by members to “Play trains” at club meetings. The layout was built as a stationary fixed model. It has been structurally improved to make it more robust and mobile and this allows it to be used as a club layout and again be shown at this exhibition.
The name “Treleavens Folly” is in recognition of my friend.
