SteamAle

Ian Best of luck with the op and hope all goes well. You know where I am if you need anything. Philip

Nick CRA would love to produce a definative history of the MCR. Work is going on in the background on various aspects with articles appearing in the Journal as and when. There is one on coaches with the editor at present but no idea when it will appear in print as we have rather a lot of copy at present, which is great, but some authors get frustrated if 'their' piece does not go in the next edition after submission! The Journal is planned 12 months in advance to give a balence of subjects so it is not usually possible, unless a planned article has to be pulled for whatever reason. I'm looking at starting a specialist interest group for those of us interested in the MCR be it historians or modellers. Several people have already done lots of work on the locomotives, both sorting out the numbering and building as well as trying to identify every photograph ever taken of them! Wagons are in the early stages although numbers built, repaired and scrapped over the years has been done. Newspaper articles have been copied and are being worked through for all sorts of information and so it goes on. What would you like to work on? Please PM me or contact via e-mail as shown in LX. Anybody else on here like to join us do likewise. Philip

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!

Just to let you know that following the sad passing of Adrian Swain, Sanspareil/CSP Models are pleased to anounce that they have purchased the Zero Zephyr Steam Locomotive range from his estate. We don't know when we will be able to bring some of the range back to the market but if there is a specific model you would be interested in them please send an e-amil to cspmodels@outlook.com Philip

I approve of the workbook!!!!

I need to try and find time to amend all the instructions to read: 'fit to rear axle with motor pointing forward into boiler. You may need to remove parts of the supports (this depends on the kit) to get it t fit'. I'll own up and say we have not tried to fit motor and gearbox to all of the kits but Chris Gibbon used his magic film, held against lots of them and said they should all be OK. Not had any complaints yet! Any issues please PM me.

Can't believe how long it has been since I last posted on here. Fingers in far too many different pies. Just recovering from major surgery on my neck so have found time to look at this site at last. Can't do much in the way of heavy physical work so tapping on the keyboard is OK. The business is till ticking over. Lots of work done on 7mm kits. Not enough on 4mm ones although ... a set of etches turned up the other week for a GWR 0-6-0PT. No instructions done yet. No idea what castings will be required but if our builder can find time to wield his soldering iron we will find out if the etches go together correctly, which will be a start! Work has progressed well on another kit, that we know is wanted, in 7mm scale. Because of the unusual connecting rods we need to prove it first in the larger scale before trying to get it to work in 4mm. Nothing seems to be easy and it is also easy to get distracted in these strange times of the Covid 19 pandemic. Thought I'd have time to do some modelling but having to take on the role of head teacher and full time entertainer has put a stop to that idea. I'm just pleased the weather was so good for the first couple of months. For those of you that model the GWR we have introduced a 4mm cast brass Spark Arrester Chimney. CSP52 and only £7 including p&p. Find it on the 4mm kits page at the bottom. I'm also hoping to make some of the brass castings available separately from the kits. Peckett buffers and cab control bits have been suggested, so when I'm fully fit I'll see what I can do.

Recently added to their range are a set of Six Plunger Pickups priced at only £10 including postage ref L&F59. For those that model the GWR a Bell that was fitted to a number of their tank locomotives is also available for only £9 including p&p ref L&F56 Visit cspmodels.com and click on the link for Lost & Foundry.

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!

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!

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.

This is my current project, well one of them!

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.

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.

Hi Ian Trying to catch up with lots of things now that I'm feeling better (not for discussion here). Having just got used to operating the full BNW track layout at our last session this is going to be a whole new board game! A locoshed to run from/to rather than a fiddle yard will be very different. Will there be a turntable? Will we need another operator? This is going to get interesting. All we need is for full lockdown to be lifted and the pubs open so that we can have the full experience of a Cragies session. Looking forward to our next visit. Happy days are defineatly coming soon. Philip

Well this is a turn up for the books. More than happy to have you and a layout.

Ian Looks like No.14 has had a hard shunt judging by one of the buffers! Think I'm finally getting to grips with Collingwood Yard Signal Box on North Shields. Chris has put a couple of new points in which means you could have three trains running through the throat at one time!!!! Philip

Hi, which book is that you have open?

Great to see that you have managed to get round to M&C again. Articles in the CRA Journal have been good of late. Hopefully coaches may appear later in the year. If you need anything to add for this build let me know.

Ian Don't mind what you bring as long as it is yourself! Plenty of space for you display things, just let me know how much you want. Philip

Well we still have room for you next month in the demo class!

1361 has been sorted and is available to order through the website! Kit number CSP 18. In addition I have added fireiron tools and Steam and Vac pipe castings. Philip

KETTERING SHOW 2019 SANSPAREIL will be attending this show for the first time with a couple of new models. New release: - GWR River class locomotive. A fully revamped kit with lots of new lost wax cast brass fittings along with a CD that show how a model was built. Makes it really easy to understand how to fit the parts together. GWR Mess and Tool Van kits. These complement the GWR Brakedown crane and will make your train look complete. New release: - Hudswell Clark 0-4-0 saddle tank Contractors locomotive kit. A lovely little model that will make up into more than one prototype. Used on many Industrial lines. Etched brass with lots of lost wax cast brass detailing bits. There will be further Industrial locomotive kits to follow in due course. Rocket Locomotive kit. What more could you really want? Makes up into a fully functional working model. All you need are a couple of coaches. A large range of Locomotive lamps that will help bring your model to life. Lots of detailing parts also available including: - wool sack barrows, firemans tools, coupling hooks, steam and vac pipes, etc. Check out cspmodels.com and follow the links to the Lost and Foundry and Sanspareil catalogues.