Huge congratulations to forum member Peter whose latest layout appears as Railway of the Month. It's great to see one in the 'smaller scale'. I had the pleasure of meeting Peter at a couple of shows when he was exhibiting 'Monkchester' before Covid put paid to having fun.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for it arriving on these shores. 

I will look out for that, I do not usually buy Railway Modeler every month preffering Model Rail. Monkchester which I saw at Wigan in 2019 and is one of my fav layouts and where I got the idea for my layout.

Thanks very much!  It has long been an aspiration of mine to get a layout on the cover of RM so I am delighted to have achieved that at last. The layout has been complete for about 6 months and has not been seen by any fellow railway modellers. Hopefully once lock down ends and exhibitions can restart invitations will arrive and Alston can go out on 'the road'.

Hi peter. Just planning to sit down over coffee as have been hectic. I did skim through a thoughtful ,  well worded article with a lovely comment on the history, setting the scene  , its construction. Congratulations on its publication. Chris

Hi Chris - Thanks for the kind words!  Peter

I did forget the research and historical information were useful peter. I will not spoil it for others who may not have had the chance to read or obtain.

That looks very nice indeed and totally my kind of model railway.  I look forward to reading about it.  Waverley Route layout in RM last month and now this.

Richard

Living in Cumbria and having been to Alston, I think you have captured the ambience of the town very well.
I hope Ratio have re-stocked on the gutters and drainpipes!
Phil

A good read and photos of an inspirational layout that I would like to see for real if this sort of thing is ever allowed again.

The residents of Mossdale are looking forward to seeing themselves in next month's Railway Modeller.

Absolute top notch work from Peter. I wish I had the talent/patience/ability to get to that level of modelling.

Thanks for the comments! With regard to the Ratio drainpipes, what I didn't mention was that you can't easily buy industrial quantities of the kits.  No one ever stocks more than two or three, so I had to buy them from lots of different stockists, ebay etc, and spent a lot on 'postage and packing'!
Peter

I do not have a subscription these days.  I scan the mags at the supermarket and buy if there is enough of interest.  I usually find I buy 3 or 4 a year!  But that photo.  Wow!  I think I may be buying this one!

I live in Carlisle and would echo @CumbriaPhil's comment that you have captured the feel of Alston superbly.
Stuart

Thank you for that!  I attach an iPhone photo I was quite pleased with but wasn't sent to RM as  it didn't show any trains!

Peter