Buildings
St Helens Station - goods shed and station building.
There are not many buildings on the HLR, but here are what there is so far. Most of them have come from Off the Rails.
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Lamp hut at St Helens
I bought several buildings from Off the Rails early in 2003. This was the smallest, and seemed a good place to start experimenting with paint. In the picture, it's just posed for the camera, but one day is destined to become a humble lamp hut at the end of the platform at St Helens. These buildings certainly come to life with some carefully applied paint over the grey primer they are supplied with.
Butterknowle signal box
A little gem from Off the Rails. It took a while to paint all those window bars and not get too much on the glass! The pictures show it freshly installed at Butterknowle. I know that this station presently only has two points and that the box could manage ten times that number!
The point rodding actually passes the signal box by, and goes to two levers just at the foot of the steps. Which has got me thinking. Maybe it could be re-routed to be hidden as it travels from the levers into the signal box. Then it could emerge, as it should, from the front. Mmm! Another job to do!
Goods shed at St Helens
The relatively small, but none the less impressive, goods shed from Off the Rails lives at the end of a siding at St Helens. There always seems to be something going on in this little corner of the yard. Today, an incredibly well preserved (pre-war) Ford pickup is being loaded with a very large crate. Are those a couple of barrels of that delicious Raby treacle I see hiding just inside the shed?!
Cockfield Station
This is the ‘standard’ small station from Off the Rails, which I think is just right in this deeply wooded location. The station master here (old sea dog that he once was!) certainly seems justifiably proud of his little empire!
St Helens Station
A rather larger station building from Off the Rails will grace the platform (not yet completed) at St Helens. There's quite a bit of this station and it took a bit of painting, but I think the result is quite posh.