SeanNeedham

That's looking superb, Ron. Nice work indeed! I can't wait to see how the Castlefield Viaduct develops, and waiting patiently for the instalments with that project!

Doing a bit more looking around at the local places, so I went a mooch round earlier, with the camera, just to get a few snaps of the local station. I'm going to go back when the weather is a bit better to get a few more (it was mixing over bright, with thunderstorms this after, so I didn't fancy setting the camera up on mounts and going busy with a yardstick). However, if anyone is interested in pinching them (the roof does bow like that), the edge of the platform is 18" from bed, the distance from platform edge to building is 6' exact, and the bottom of the door frames to get a measurement line is 4'. I'll be going back when the weather is more stable to get some better ones, so these are only temporary images! This first is the north end of the station, where the twin line would have gone through (passenger/freight passing loop), and latterly a spur running behind to the old factory that is off to the left hand side about a kilometre away. Just a view of the north end elevation. South end elevation showing the goods loading bay (where the park is now). General front elevation. The rear elevation had the same window pattern, but the outer pairs of doors were replaced by windows of the same dimension that run along the top floor. And this place is one of the two little goods stores that were on the back to the old factory. With a scaling meausrement across the bottom of the door frame at 3.5'. I didn't manage to get a good image of the other store, as with the distortion from the ultra wide angle lens I was using, and the bowing of the structure, it just didn't look right! As I said before, if anyone is interested in nicking the images, feel free to do so, but please do not link them directly off my server.

With this conversation, it feels more that I'm not building a layout as such (and still not turned a tool in anger, bar painting up stock), but actually creating a historical document or reference. Whilst the weather is nice this afternoon, I'm taking one of the works cameras to go and do a research run of one of the old stations in the area; as even with the photos from the gentleman, and the only one I found on line (which is a scan of a postcard and can be found here), there are very, very few references to it at all. I think that the picture on the postcard is the only one that shows a track plan, and I think over the weekend I may nip round to the gentleman's house and ask him about the track plan, and then recreate a diagramme based on this reference and what his knowledge was. This is the only shot of the station building I have in my collection which is online, even though I go past it every day (and this one was taken about a week or so after a road accident which damaged my shoulder and knee, so the only place I could balance a camera was on the deck). http://www.flickr.com/photos/catalafotografia/894101918/in/pool-21113710@N00/lightbox/ I suppose I really should take the tape measure and notebook as well, just to go and get some measures, as even though I have decided on building a street scene, I think that some time in the near future, I may end up building here as well. Thanks for the comments, and I will try and keep the project updated, either as just a research piece, or to use as my main focal point and put the english on the back burner totally.

Ditto here, Ron... We've a mix of foggy mornings, overly bright sunshine mid part of the day and then torrential thunderstorms, not conducive to research jaunts (but if the weather holds out this afternoon, me and my camera are going to do one) or scenery building as I can't leave things to cure out on the balcony. I look forward to the images!

Just putting that one down in my modelling notebook! Can't wait to see some photos of the painted up structure, Ron!