Jason T

Good to hear from you mate. None of the Slaters embossed sheets are anything like; their Random Stone is so random, I find it hard to believe that anyone in real life would use such an odd collection of stones to build anything but crazy paving. I’ll find a solution, I’m not in a rush to build it. After all, I have waited most of my life so far 😃

Is that Spud out of Trainspotting? Quite apt all round if it is!

Thanks Chris, hopefully a bit different to the norm (at least for model railway videos) but still including semi-interesting content. Note how during the in-car footage, my daughter doesn’t even bat an eyelid. That’s how used to seeing Daddy filming himself saying/doing weird stuff she is. Saying that, when I dressed up in one of Mummy’s dresses and drew all over my face with lipstick, and later rode a hobby horse up and down the street prior to punching a pumpkin Jack-o-lantern in the face a while ago, she did seem quite confused (as were the neighbours)! She’s not forgiven me for the x-rated puppet show I put together for an early video either:D

So, I created a new YouTube channel and made a video, ostensibly about the contents of this thread.

Having the space is always the frustrating thing, especially when you know and are passionate about a location. Even though everyone else would love it, you yourself would always be aware of the compromises. If/when you do start, I’d be really keen to follow your progress.

Would actually make a really decent (kind of) Inglenook, especially if you were to use the trees near the embankment as a blocker for the fiddle yard. The goods shed is still there; Nelson’s Haulage used it and the site for years.

Thanks Iain; been keeping an eye on your progress too, very impressive. Family life is all good thanks. Yesterday, I had no choice but to let this happen; a 7 year old with face paints! At least it prompted me to have a shave :D

It’s far from perfect and the close up shots above highlight some real boo boos but as a test and proof of concept, I am pretty chuffed with it as a method. I found a few more photos of it on the Cumbrian Railway Association site and I made too many errors to allow me to use it; chimney appears to have gone by the 60’s, the stonework is too random (and not neat enough for the quoins, lintels and sills) and there was a small window on the opposite wall to the door. It may also be a bit diminutive. I do know that it was built on the site of the original signalbox, but now wonder whether it used the base/locker room structure itself? It being a shed, I guess it’s pretty much ignored. The hut on the embankment leading to the viaduct has been in an awful state for as long as I can remember; it was definitely like that in the late 70’s. Talking of relics, until the late 80’s, there were still rails in place crossing the Quarry Lane at Sandside, and a length of fully chaired track in front of Berry’s Warehouse (now tarted up but a decaying relic full of danger any mystery until relatively recently). Funnily enough, although the siding ran right in front of it, it never served any purpose as far as the railway goes (as far as I know); it’s a much older customs house/warehouse from when Sandside was the port for Milnthorpe.

I will definitely be buying that then, thanks

I should’ve said, it’s got the usual foundations too. So I made a little temporary base for it. And a door and window frame from the same cardboard packaging. Quite looking forward to having a go at painting it, see if watercolours work (will test it on a scrap piece first of course)

I am still spending far too much time wondering how best to represent the limestone construction of the building and am at the point now where I can’t move on until a solution/decision is made. As you do, I was messing around with a discarded Lindt chocolate bar cardboard wrapper and an old kitchen knife yesterday while waiting for a mate to turn up, basically giving scribing a go. So, today I knocked up a lineside hut, wrapped it in Lindt cardboard and had a go at scribing stone on it. It turned out ok (I think) but not sure that I would want to do the full station in this way. Really like how easy it was to recess the card into the window and door though; I hate it where you can see bare card/plastikard in the recesses.

Thanks; I hope this doesn’t disappoint:)

It will be interesting to see what footage there is, all I have found to date is some scrappy 16mm footage of a target goods service, most of it reversing down the line to Arnside (they did this and then continued from Arnside to Grange). Obviously from after the line was truncated to Sandside but I bet that if you were to operate a layout as such, punters would think you were mad!

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

This is probably the closest I’ve seen so far

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.

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

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

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)

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.

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

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!

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

Interest’s definitely come and go, I know that only too well as other than messing around with a few wagon kits, I have done nothing in years (last exhibition I went to was the SFG one we organised in Gnosall, where you brought along some of your buildings in progress and stole the show :D). However, I am awakening from my slumber and have started on my most ambitious building to date, Sandside Station. Whilst it’s minuscule compared to the Mill I built for, erm, The Mill, it’s way more complex. Just what I need. I have started a thread for it in the Scenery Structures & Transport section, if you are curious.

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