Sandside (FR) - an exercise in modelling rather complex buildings

[Jason T]

Those of you who have been on here for some time may remember that my original login ID was Sandside, the name referring to the village (next to) where I come from.

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with the Arnside to Hincaster former Furness Railway line, the one that passed through Sandside, which had a goods yard, station and served a limestone quarry that to this day is still operating. The railway itself closed as a through line in 1963, when the necessity for coke from the North East (via the Stainmore line) ceased as the iron ore smelting plants in Furness closed, but the quarry and goods yard at Sandside continued to be rail served until 1971 - too early for me to be able to remember it (although I can remember the signal box, footbridge and rails in the road near the quarry being extant until the late 70's as a painful reminder of what I had missed.

In it's heyday, the single track branch saw a stream of coke trains, a portion of the Lakes Express passed through it, empty excursion coaching stock used to traverse the line having dropped holidaymakers at Lakeside (to rejoin their trains at Windermere - 12 coach trains passing through a single track branch headed by Jubilees and Black Fives, tender first!!), Durham Minder trains taking the miners to Furness Abbey (LNER coaches deep in LMS territory), pick up goods and until 1942, local passenger services from Grange to Kendal, affectionately known as Kendal Tommy.

 

Some will know that I share this fascination with the line with Karl Crowther, who is now modelling the line for the second time as Kentside, although with some modellers license. Now I don't have the space to model the full environs of Sandside although one day, hopefully I will. It's always been my desire to do so though and it's what I really wanted to do when I built Bacup, the reason I didn't being that knowing the location so well, I didn't want to have to compromise at all (plus Bacup was so tempting!!).

 

So given the above, what's the point of this thread? Well, whilst I don't have the space to model the full site, I do have the space and inclination to attempt (I choose that word wisely) to build the station building and possibly the signal box and goods shed too, but let's start with the station.

Sandside station was not your run of the mill station building. Designed by Paley and Austin on behalf of the Furness Railway, it was dominated by the Station Master's house in the centre, with the booking office and waiting rooms to one side and the porter's office and gentlemen's toilets to the other. From the road side, it looked quite 'regular' but from the platform side, it had a full length canopy formed by the roof overhang and what looks like a serious lack of windows. It was built from limestone with red sandstone quoins at all corners and window surrounds.

 

To get us up to date, I have not done any modelling (other than a few wagon kits) in seven years and only recently, I realised that what I love more than any other aspect of modelling is creating buildings. Without exception, this is the most ambitious I have attempted to date.

As with the majority of other buildings I have built to date (and there's lots), my base material of choice is mounting board as it's cheap, available in A1 sheets, easy to work with and surprisingly, plastikard adheres to it really well. On Saturday, I headed to Hobby Craft and bought four sheets, the plan being to build something relatively simple but before I arrived home, I had made up my mind that I would tackle Sandside Station, finally. Talk about in at the deep end...

 

Luckily, Cumbrian Railway Association released a book on the line a couple of years ago (Kendal Tommy - fantastic book) and included in it are basic plans of the station building; basic and with different scales for each image! But, it's a start and as such, I set to measuring, calculating, swearing and drawing & cutting out the individual pieces that make up the 'it' to build the station. As always, I have included foundations so that I can sink the building into the platform (I'll definitely be building a diorama at some point).

 

So here's where we are. Below are some rather rough photos of the station, as well as some (probably confusing) photos of the basic bits of the model. As time goes on, I will post more updates and notes on why I have done things in a certain way; I just hope I can pull it off as it's rather complex to say the least. One of the hardest parts is what to use for the limestone blocks as so far, I've not found anything produced by the regulars (SE Finecast, Slaters) that's anything like suitable; Redutex is probably my best but I need to see what the relief is like (I can't remember - I used their stone setts sheets on Bacup and The Mill).

 

Any questions or advice then please fire away - anyone who has read my previous threads (Bacup, The Mill, various others) will know that I do like to prattle on and love interaction.

 

 

[Miss Prism]

Fascinating station building - if it wasn't for the track, it looked germanic to me at first sight.

[Jason T]

It really was, and such a shame it was demolished and replaced first with a garage and then a block of flats which admittedly have stunning views over the Kent Estuary, but the back of them is continuously coated in lime dust from the quarry.

 

One of my claims to 'fame' is that as a kid, I watched one of my neighbours demolish the signal box (he worked for the quarry).

[ColinK]

Very interesting, especially the photos as I go through Sandside regularly driving the bus.  I’ll have to get that book. Good luck with the project.

[Jason T]

40 minutes ago, ColinK said:

Very interesting, especially the photos as I go through Sandside regularly driving the bus.  I’ll have to get that book. Good luck with the project.

I’ll try and remember to get you the details when I get home.

[Oldddudders]

Given your previous form, first with Bacup, and then The Mill, plus your personal interest in the prototype, this should be spectacular.

[Jason T]

26 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Given your previous form, first with Bacup, and then The Mill, plus your personal interest in the prototype, this should be spectacular.

That could be my downfall with this one, as I really want to get it right and I am my own worst critic.

 

There is a cop out for the signal box as Bachmann did the very similar one at Arnside, two miles down the line (and very much still in use) as a RTP building a few years ago, but you already know that I won’t be using it and will build my own.

as can be seen below, Arnside box is larger and has stone steps; Sandside was taller, had wooden steps and Alex smashed it with his digger :D

[Jason T]

Just noticed as well that the plate layers hut in the foreground has fancy finials; I guess the Furness Railway really went to town at Sandside

[MrWolf]

Just found this via the Gill Head thread, I'll be following with interest as we regularly travel through the area on our bikes and have tried walking some of the remains of the line.

[Enterprisingwestern]

2 hours ago, Jason T said:

There is a cop out for the signal box as Bachmann did the very similar one at Arnside, two miles down the line (and very much still in use) as a RTP building a few years ago, but you already know that I won’t be using it and will build my own.

as can be seen below, Arnside box is larger and has stone steps; Sandside was taller, had wooden steps and Alex smashed it with his digger :D

 

As a timesaving cop out, you could initially use the rtp box to allow you to concentrate on other buildings?

 

Mike.

[Jason T]

2 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

As a timesaving cop out, you could initially use the rtp box to allow you to concentrate on other buildings?

 

Mike.

It would annoy me Mike, plus I think I prefer the journey over the destination, if that makes sense

[MrWolf]

8 minutes ago, Jason T said:

It would annoy me Mike, plus I think I prefer the journey over the destination, if that makes sense

 

It does indeed. I could have used RTP or kits for my layout as the line was proposed but never built.

I wanted to give the place its own identity, that was of an independent line baled out at two minutes to midnight by the Great Western, so kits became a source of materials for some of the buildings, rather than the finished result. I like making things, so I would have felt like I was cheating to do otherwise.

[Jason T]

27 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Just found this via the Gill Head thread, I'll be following with interest as we regularly travel through the area on our bikes and have tried walking some of the remains of the line.

I’ve walked most of the route over the years, including the mess of brambles and rubble between Marsh Lane and Heversham Station (could the rubble be the remains of the viaduct?).

 

When I was a kid, you could walk from where the footbridge was next to the Ship all the way to Arnside; I think they filled Friar Coates bridge in back in the late 80’s (not long after a truck or bus hit it for the thousandth time). That wasn’t long after they tarted up the embankment from track bed to what it is now; way more interesting beforehand!

[Jason T]

Tenuous link here but I filmed a ride I did around Storth, Sandside and Arnside a while ago. Not really railway related other than riding down the steps of the footbridge at Arnside and then doing a wheelie on the old trackbed :D

 

I think about 10% of the trails ridden are ‘legal’ :)

 

A trip down Memory Lane - The South Cumbria trails I first rode bikes on
https://youtu.be/we5pTyXG5XU

 

[Jason T]

So the astute amongst you may have noticed that I messed up the upstairs windows on the station master’s house section; they stand proud of the roofline.

There wasn’t a cat in hell’s chance that I could live with that so the walls have been reduced by 2mm around the windows.

[Jason T]

I also try and build structures as modular as possible, to add strength, rigidity and ease construction later on (I never bother with interior detail). This resulted in me also having to reduce the central unit for the station masters house by 2mm, not easy but done with no pain.

 

Also below are photos of the porters office and yard surface, as well as some of the main structural parts leaned together to hopefully show how it will all slot together (the yard floor slots under the chimney stack for the station masters house, for instance)

[Jason T]

And finally for tonight, what I am working from (ends and signal box plans are on the next page)

 

Also, the roadside view; the limestone construction is vexing me as I can’t find the perfect representation yet (Scalescenes is not an option as I like a bit of relief to my surfaces, plus will make all quoins, etc. from Plastikard so that I can hide the edges (lots of filing, filler and scribing in the future). I think it pays off; I managed to just about hide the edges on the loading shed on The Mill

[Jason T]

9 hours ago, ColinK said:

Very interesting, especially the photos as I go through Sandside regularly driving the bus.  I’ll have to get that book. Good luck with the project.

Here’s the book Colin. Published by the Cumbrian Railways Association, ISBN number is ISBN 978-0-9570387-8-3

 

Hope that helps 

[figworthy]

I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

 

Adrian

[Alister_G]

50 minutes ago, Jason T said:

the limestone construction is vexing me as I can’t find the perfect representation yet

 

Wills coarse stone (SSMP200) seems a fair match, but sadly as you know they are very thick, small sheets so it would be both expensive and a pain to do the whole building.

 

Al.

[Jason T]

8 minutes ago, Alister_G said:

 

Wills coarse stone (SSMP200) seems a fair match, but sadly as you know they are very thick, small sheets so it would be both expensive and a pain to do the whole building.

 

Al.

It’s a bit too random too, Al. Not that it would be an issue here but for the corners on the retaining wall on The Mill, some of the stones were far too small for an edge/corner, so I ended up filing them  right back and making new, more suitable ones out of plastic putty. It took ages but was worth it.

[Jason T]

This is probably the closest I’ve seen so far

 

 

[Jason T]

Wills Coarse Stone on The Mill; you can see where I built up the corner stones 

[2ManySpams]

7 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

As a timesaving cop out, you could initially use the rtp box to allow you to concentrate on other buildings?

 

Mike.

 

I've tried that approach myself Mike but the result jarred and I ended up building it anyway. Jason I suspect would be similarly afflicted and would rather enjoy the build than the shortcut.

[2ManySpams]

7 hours ago, Jason T said:

It would annoy me Mike, plus I think I prefer the journey over the destination, if that makes sense

 

Fully agree.