Jason T

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

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

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).

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.

You could argue that it mimics real life as in the railway is no more but the majority of buildings remain intact! One thing rejuvenating the thread has done is make me realise just how much I love creating buildings and as such, I bought a few A1 sheets of mounting board on Saturday and started to create a building that I have wanted to model for ever, Sandside Railway Station (demolished in the late 60’s). I will probably start a thread for it in the Scenery, Structures and Transport sub-forum but it’s one complex structure and quite unique so is already proving to be one hell of a challenge.

Thanks. As can be seen (if anyone has the patience to read through so many pages), it really was a case of learning as I went along :)

To be honest, the thread had slipped way down the list of topics until I posted the other day. Spoiler alert: the layout is no more as I no longer had space for it; interests changed slightly too and the draw of the EMGS 60th anniversary competition to build a full layout in 5’ by 18” was too great (another spoiler: our layout, The Mill - thread is in the Industrial Railways sub-folder - won). If you look at The Mill though, you’ll notice that the architectural style doesn’t differ much from Bacup although I’d like to think that I stepped it up a few notches. The Mill still exists and fingers crossed, I would like to get it back out on the exhibition circuit at some point.

I was just telling people at work that it’s fish & chips night

… pointing at things?

Wonder why? The first image in the thread was always an odd one, don’t think it ever displayed properly

Thanks Andy, really appreciate it. There’s so many, it appears to have broken 4G :D

So the one with blue things is fine? Typical…

Does that mean that you can’t see this one Mike, the only one you would approve of? :)

Thanks mate, we’re back in the room. Thread was basically a load of nonsense without photos. Some may argue that a lot of it was nonsense anyway !!

Andy will be drowning in a mix of Hornby froth and Advert spittle at the moment so don’t want to pester him :)

Thanks Andy, but I still have access to all the photos myself, it’s just that there are thousands of them and I haven’t the time nor patience to replace every linked one with an uploaded copy, especially when there’s going to be very little new content in here.

How about now?

Can someone go back a few pages and see if the images have miraculously reappeared? Sorry to be a pain but I really would like this thread to be a full record of the building of the layout and a record of how it looked. The buildings all still exist and are in storage for future use...

ok, for £5.21 a month, I have now paid up and apparently, photos can be shared. I hope it works: https://photobucket.com/u/51CharlesStreet/p/f8c62002-0dfd-4012-aa1b-815aaf4d58de

Damn. Wonder if it’s because I hyperlinked to my page after I logged on? Will see what I can do (username to search for, if that works, is 51charlesstreet)

Daft question maybe, but can someone confirm whether they can see the photos in this link? (It's basically all the photos for Bacup and most from The Mill, as well as a few other random ones): https://photobucket.com/u/51CharlesStreet?scrollTo=a7ece594-e092-42e4-9e07-8d9a9ec14b2b

Hi Peter, long time no speak. Not sure if you remember but I used 3 links on all the stock on Bacup; I used Smiths and really liked them. As others have said, I very quickly gave up with the springs and split pins as they offered no advantage whatsoever, plus it was a damned sight easier to fit them (especially to RTR stock) when you didn't have to carve away so much behind the headstocks. I got quite adept at coupling and uncoupling but when Jeff (Physicsman) and Andy P came round, they struggled a bit, mainly being able to see what the were doing. I haven't got one to hand right now but my solution was to buy some cheap pen torches and then add brass wire to them to do the uncoupling - illumination made a huge difference! I just had a look in my Photobucket account (where all the photos for Bacup are still hosted - Photobucket doesn't allow them to be shared unless you pay them £££ unfortunately) and found this, which I screengrabbed.

Not that much at the moment Ian, but plans are afoot. I didn't lose interest as such, it's just that life kind of got in the way for a while, I have precious little space in the house and bicycles kind of took over again (been a passionate mountain biker since, well, since they first came out basically). And then I started a YouTube channel, so at least some 'creativity' was kept alive with editing although to be honest, they're pretty basic. The below is probably the only video that doesn't contain bicycles (so probably bearable for non-mountain bikers :D ). I was pondering on whether to start a separate channel for railway modelling, sort of do it in the same style as my mountain bike ones (being brutally honest, being a bit controversial, trying to add a bit of humour, not taking the hobby too seriously) but I'm not sure it would go down too well :).

And just to show that the bug hasn’t completely gone, I have been continuing with the building of the 13 ton hopper and a Parkside van, a bit still to do with both (as can be seen)

And more. the photos were ones that Chris and I took for the MRJ article but in the end Karl (Crowther) took a load of far better photos. They were also taken prior to the two Rustons being completed. The final one obviously shows the sector plate/fiddle yard.