Aspatria - Maryport & Carlisle Railway 7mm Finescale

[SteamAle]

Many years ago now a couple of friends started to build a model of Aspatria in their loft. Sadly Bill died and Ann decided to offer me the buildings to display at meetings of the Cumbrian Railways Association. She then decided to sell the stock and because of a set of good circumstances I was in a position to buy the Maryport & Carlisle stock, most of which had been built and painted, to commission, by a couple of well known scratchbuilders. The buildings had all been scratchbuilt by Ann, Aspatria being where she was born and bred. Ann decided to donate the track and boards to me provided I remove them from the loft (method in her madness?).

The best way to display everything is in a complete layout and so the 'project' commenced!  

This will be a record of the trials and tribulations of building a large exhibition layout by one individual.

The first photograph shows the layout on its maiden trip out to Workington Model Railway Exhibition.

[Edwardian]

Will look forward to more

[CKPR]

You wait 100 years for a model of M&CR No.26 and then two come along at once ! The Cumbrian Railways Association  takeover of RMWeb starts here... 

[Compound2632]

I'm looking forward to finding out what M&CR goods rolling stock looked like! The engines were certainly a handsome collection, in their various ways.

[CKPR]

32 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I'm looking forward to finding out what M&CR goods rolling stock looked like! The engines were certainly a handsome collection, in their various ways.

There's some photos of model M&CR goods wagons in 7mm by Phil (SteamAle) and 4mm by myself over on my 'Mealsgate' thread

[SteamAle]

The M&CR received their Act of Parliament in 1837. The aim of the line was to open up access to the North Cumberland coalfield as well as other materials. One George Stephenson was appointed as the lines engineer, having already surveyed the route! There were problems raising the funds, even though all the shares had been taken, as the first slump in railway 'mania' building had just occurred. As a result construction of the line was slower than expected but work started at Maryport and the second part to open connected Aspatria to Maryport in 1841. This allowed coal from the local pits to reach the sea at Maryport and fortunately it was all downhill, more about this in a future post. Having opened this section the M&CR had to start building from Carlisle, eventually the line was opened throughout in 1845.

 

In Carlisle the M&CR made an end on connection with the line to Newcastle and thus the FIRST Trans Pennine railway was opened connecting the North, or German Ocean, and Irish Seas. The M&CR remained independent until the grouping in 1923, although there had been a couple of occasions where amalgamations had nearly taken place.

 

So from a modellers operating point of view we had coal, initially moving west to the sea. There were lots of other minerals in the area and then of course came through traffic in both goods and passengers from the Northeast as well as Liverpool, Ireland and America. To add to the mix a new company built a line from Maryport to Whitehaven. This had been proposed by George Stephenson to be part of the mainline from London to Glasgow. In the event there would be a complete line round the coast to Carnforth to join up with the Lancaster and Carlisle line.

The M&CR built a branch from Aspatria to Mealsgate, to help with the transport of coal from local mines, which was then extended north to rejoin their mainline at Wigton. The Mealsgate branch had its own bay platform. Just north of Aspatria, at Brayton, a line was built by the Caladonian company which crossed the Solway Firth into Scotland. This brought stock from both the North British, Glasgow & South Western and Caladonian Railways. To the south of Aspatria a line was built, from  just past Bullgill, to Brigham on the line from Cockermouth to Workington. This was operated by the London & North Western Railway. This latter operated through trains from Carlisle to Whitehaven over the M&CR. Through coaches and excursions came from the Furness Railway to the south as well. The M&CR operated their own excursions over a number of these lines as well. Prior to the grouping, trains, operated by their locomotives could be seen heading down the coast line to Barrow-in-Furness and in return regular Furness and L&NWR locomotives and stock.

As can be seen a wonderful selection of stock can be justified on my model of Aspatria.

The track plans below, courtesy of the Cumbrian Railways Association, shows the two main layouts. My layout is based on the latter as I will be running anything that appeared on the M&CR up until the grouping (modellers license applies).

Looking at the trackplan for 1910, you may notice that there is no headshunt for the goodsyard! This of course will mean that any shunting will require the mainline to be closed to through traffic. As with the majority of layouts, based on a prototype location, space is always at a premium and selective compression will have to take place. To the west, the top of the plan, the point and two tracks to the right are excluded as are the merchant's shed, its point and track and those tracks above the number 12, for yard cranes along with the cottages numbered 6.

To the east, or bottom of the plan the line to Baggrow is being laid to run parallel to the mainline but sparated by the embankment. In the first model this was just a single line. In the revampted one a second line will also be laid representing the sidings and line to the pits (more to come in a later post).

The viewable layout will start with the bridge to the south, so the cottages to the southeast of it, will not appear. To the north there is a short tunnel where the main road to Carlisle crosses the line, just off the plan, which will provide the scenic break here.

This arial view shows most of the site. From the bottom left we have the Merchants shed with goods shed above it. The long goods siding with its crane and fencing along the back of the platform to protect the passengers. The mainline passing the signal box on the very left and the line to Baggrow curving away tot he top of the photograph past the site of a couple of pits. The bay platform can be clearly seen as well as the footbridge and some of the station buildings.

The factories include what is now Aspatria Creameries and Sealy beds, both still open but the latter is expected to close later this year, 2020.

 

Edited June 29, 2020 by SteamAle
expanded description

[Compound2632]

Quite an expansive layout - not that the prototype often co-operates with compact ones! Will you be retaining the bay platform for the Baggrow trains? I note that the trackwork for that bay has been simplified in the aerial photo compared to the 1910 plan - on the plan, there is no facing connection into the bay from the main line, i.e. it conforms to best practice of the day! The crossing on the plan is presumably a double slip?

[SteamAle]

Yes, it is expansive. In my case the original loft layout was just over two foot wide so did not have the goods shed on it but did have the bay. My first build was three foot wide and had both! More in a later post to come.

I will retain the facing crossover, in between the main platforms, as it allows a runround for the guards van if needed. There was never any direct access from the mainline to the bay. The crossing will be a double slip as it aids running round the coaches of the 'Baggra' trains.

[Compound2632]

I hope you are going to have sound. I've just been reading up on William Brough...

[SteamAle]

Having managed to remove the original layout from the loft and lift track from boards that were not coming my way it was time to start building a new layout! Lots of the track was still on its sundella base so I decided to make use of it to save time. A portable exhibition layout with a continuos run, minimum radius, as close to six feet as possible. Baggra loop to run into fiddle yard as well. Easy peasy?

 

  In the loft before removal, looking North on the up line. Loco No. 29 is wrong line working!

Looking at the space I had available and how the track was configured resulted in four x five feet by three feet boards for the main layout and then one foot wide curved boards to the fiddle yard which would be two foot wide boards. The only thing was I did not have this much room available at home. I had a garage that would allow me to put up three boards, but they would have to be above my layout of Haverthwaite (this is an EM layout). In order to facilitate this Aspatria would be four feet high to allow the boards to cantilever over the layout. The fourth board could be erected as and when required at the front of the garage but not for any length of time due to needing access to various items in the garage that were needed for other railway commitments! The boards were built of 2" x 1" planed wood frames, 3/8" plywood tops and then the sundella screwed down. Legs, two on one board and one each on the others, were hinged so that they would fold into the frames for transport, with a cross member length ways to help strengthen them.    

  The main station buildings in the loft before removal. Ballast was cat litter I think.  

My aim was to have the layout ready for exhibition at Workington in 2011. In the event the layout went as a 'work in progress', the fiddle yard had not been completed so two traverser boards were used to allow end to end running. Members of the Carlisle & District O Gauge Group (CDOGG) helped operate and provided stock, some of it M&CR.

 

Setting up with tool box and reference manual lying on south end traverser board

 

 Next board along towards the station with signalbox in foreground.

  The centre boards, signalbox just off to the right. Passenger train is just arriving at the down platform, goods yard has a few wagons in it..

  The passenger train entering the station has the M&CR Horsebox, number four, behind the tender so must contain horses as it allows for a better ride for them rather than being at the end of the train! A horse and cart is outside where the Goods shed should be. There was no room on the loft layout so it was never built. This shows the advantage of a wider board, more work!!!

 

   Number 26 sits in the Baggra bay with an empty wagon. The footbridge was built from an etched brass kit by David Gibson a CDOGG member. The buildings on the up platform are almost unchanged today, albeit they are a private residence.

 

  Looking North across the station. Nobody pointed out that the main station building, at this end, was not the right way round! Two days it sat like that!

 

[DLT]

Beautiful!

[MarcD]

Keep up the good work Phil. It will keep you from trying to eat the carpet.

Marc

[SteamAle]

Marc

Not eating the carpet but seem to spend lots of time on hands and knees on the one in the railway room looking for bits that seem to get eaten up by it!

 

[DLT]

18 minutes ago, SteamAle said:

Marc

Not eating the carpet but seem to spend lots of time on hands and knees on the one in the railway room looking for bits that seem to get eaten up by it!

 

 

And finding the bit you lost last month....

[Regularity]

31 minutes ago, DLT said:

 

And finding the bit you lost last month....

But only after you have a replacement for it...

[Caley Jim]

4 hours ago, Regularity said:

But only after you have a replacement for it...

When making small parts I always make at least 25% extra to keep the carpet monster happy! Same with small or tricky to form parts on my etched kits. 

 

Jim 

[SteamAle]

Well this Covid 19 thing has caused all work to stop on Aspatria and I've been rather busy doing other things for various groups but to continue the story.

My last major posting had photogrphs that were taken at Workington MRE in 2011. On its return to Carlisle the layout was put into storage while a decision was made about its future. This was considerably longer than expected. I needed space at home so the layout was moved to Carlisle station and hidden away with the last remaining Carlisle Tram body. Yes you read that right before you ask. Something that distracts me from modelling occassionally as it needs fully restoring.

Through the good offices of Virgin Trains an area was found where I could erect Aspatria for 12 months while I worked on it to get it ready to exhibit again in 2018. Being several years older I discovered my body had changed somewhat and I was not as strong as I used to be. Worse, the dampness in the station had been absorbed by the sundella. The boards were considerably heavier so something had to be done. I had acquired some 5" thick foam insulation board so decided that the best thing to do would be to  make new lightweight basenboards and start again.

Being a skinflint I needed to use as much of the original track as possible. Most modellers use PVA glue, as indeed I used to as well, but when I put Aspatria together I used French polish, or shellac as it is also known. Shellac is disolved in metheylated spirit or similar and the resulting mixture is used to polish furniture. If you use it instead of PVA for ballasting you get a slight sheen on the track but it holds pretty firm and if you need to move or lift a piece of track drip methylated spirit onto it and wait for it to soften then lift or move. This process can be done add infinitum. No damage to the track occurs. Always work in a well ventilated area. I think I first read that Hull MRC used this many years ago. Anyway it has saved me a small fortune by not having to buy new track.

So all track lifted, buildings removed and anything else that I could reuse and then the boards were dismantled and the sundealla disposed of. Most of the wood has been reused.

 

The first bits of wood starting to pile up

 

The old temporary control panel and bits of track salvaged

 

Buildings put to one side

 

Amazing what you can save to reuse.

 

Time to start thinking about how to build the new boards! Watch this space to find out how they went!

Edited December 5, 2021 by SteamAle

[SteamAle]

And then, Nothing!

Well I did write a lengthy post, that had taken over an hour, to update things. While checking it all I hit a key, not certain which one, and lost everything. So peed off I decided not to spend time posting when I had so much else to do.

So what has hapened in the intervening years? I had major surgery on my neck several months ater Covid made an appearence, in a Covid hospital. I was only kept in one night instead of the usual five. Boy did I suffer! The Tram has moved to a new home, five months after my surgery. Lots of physical exercise that I'd been told to avoid actually did my neck some good, but not recommended. The family all got Covid 19. I broke a toe. SWMBO is not well as her bone cancer has returned with a vengence. Eldest granddaughter had fantasic exam results and is now at university studying to be a Mental Health Nurse. Nursing runs in the family.

So, what about the layout? The thread was planned to be a record of a build and for the history of the layout. Having dismantled everything, produced a pile of track and bits of wood it was time to move on.

The plan, well what there was of one, was to build ten 4' x 2' boards, giving a floor plan of 20' x 4', the same length but a foot wider. This would allow me to use the CDOGG fiddle yard if an extra four foot board was built for it. As previously mentioned I was going to use foam board but not being as clever as a certain modeller who has had his foam board build published in MRJ I wanted a bit of belt and braces. 3 and 6mm MDF was my choice for the board sides the ends being 2.5cm block board, thick enough for alighnment dowels purchased through the EMGS. For the braces I used 2.5 x 5cm planed wood. These choices were maybe not the best in hindsight!

assembling the inner sides to the planed wood.

Mixture of old and new clamps.

First boards going to going together.

On the right hand side is the front of the layout. Of five boards the two outside end ones have higher edges as the ground will rise, they may be trimmed in the fullness of time. Looking at the nearest board you can see the planed wood, on which the foam rests, the  holes for the locating dowels and the 3mm MDF. The planed wood will be very useful when the boards have to be lifted and shifted.

Edited December 5, 2021 by SteamAle
missed a bit out