Presentation to the Urban Space Group and Friends of the Railway

This Thursday the Live Project Group will present their proposals to the joint meeting of the Urban Space Group and the Friends of the Railway. The meeting will take place in Cavalier Suite of the Royal Hotel on Thursday 13 November 2008at 1900. We are scheduled to present at 20:00. We hope to see you there.

Yesterday we had our final presentation which although apparently was quite long went well. To start the presentation off we did a video which accompanied the BBC York report aired on November 6th.

To launch the website and podcast, which went online on the 7th of November a number of carrots were planted in planters throughout Scarborough city centre. Attached to the carrots was an envelope with details of the site and inside the recipe book we have produced, seeds and a copy of the brochure.

The website address is: www.thecindertrack.co.uk and has the recipe book, podcast, origami instructions for turning the brochure once finished with into a seed starter pot, information of the lines history and upcoming event info.

Exhibition Under Woodlands Ravine Bridge

Wow. An amazing day was had yesterday as the team held an exhibition yesterday undr Woodlands Ravine Bridge. We were there showing our proposals and get feedback from the local residents and users of the track. The bleak weather and low temperatures were offputting but once we had set up a steady stream of visitors were drawn to the exhibition, keen to see our proposals and sample the Nettle soup on offer. We had great feedback on the project and created a lot of interest in the track's future, with the local radio and newspaper both present to record local reactions the exhibition was a success. Under The Bridge

Presentation preparation.

Prototypes - Orchard Setting

Prototype crates arranged in the orchard - various configurations.

Prototypes - Manufacture 04

The final day of building, all of the Prototyping Group getting stuck in.

Todays progress.

Prototypes - Manufacture 03

The above images show the first crate to be finished.  Thank you to  R. Pearson & Son Joiners for helping with the bulk of the cutting.  The rest of the crates will hopefully go together much quicker now.

Here's the plans of what we are hoping to build next week on site, the first is a conbination of planters and seating situated next to the park at the Manor Road bridge and the second is over the other side of the bridge, creating the shape of CT (cinder track), also providing signage at a confusing point on the track. The timber collection for this is going well, however the final decision is still pending with the council.

Here's some of the initial images produced from the prototype team, working towards the step-by-step guide to be included in the final booklet.

Prototypes - Manufacture 02

The timber hunt continued today, a big thank you to Mike at The Yorkshire Garden Centre who provided a number of pallets for us to use.  The dismantled pallets provide the slats to fix around our crates.  The above image shows the first crate to be built.  

Leaflet and Podcast

Leaflet_

The leaflet is ongoing with a print planned for next monday so that the first batch can be handed out at the public event proposed for Tuesday. Cover above

Podcast_

Last week, draft podcast scrips were sent out to a number of local figures including the author of 'Yorkshire Railway Rambles'. We are now getting feedback and re-working the script with the aim to record in the latter end of this week.

Front Cover of Booklet Unveiled

A (Very) Rough Cut of Cinder Track Podcast Trailer

Here we have the first very rough cut of the Podcast Trailer

Yesterday we tried out foraging locally to the arts tower and collected some nettles within 5 minutes walk. We were massively unprepared but suffered minimal nettle stinging and the result was scumptuous. We are considering serving this at our event along with our cookbook.

New Cinder Path Logo Unveiled

As the project nears its final stages we have narrowed the logos to the folowing.



The logo refers to the natural setting of the trail as well as its history as a transport route.

Prototypes - Manufacture

After our general group meeting today to discuss the book content, the prototype group met to finalise our designs for our two allotted sites.   

This afternoon we went on the hunt for timber for the manufacture of our crate modules.

We would like to say a massive thank you to Pagets Builders Merchants who very kindly provided a large amount of timber for us to use, also lending us hand saws and tape measures so that we could cut the timber to size in their yard.  All the help was very much appreciated. 

Focus on Entrances

We have decided after our meeting last week to focus on the two entrance spaces at Whitby and Scarborough as this will be most help in gaining further funding for these areas. Below are some initial ideas for each entrance.

Night Mail

I've checked on the poem that I mentioned yesterday.  It forms part of a short film celebrating the mail train and was written by WH Auden, with accompanying music by Benjamin Britten.

The film clip can be readily downloaded from YouTube.  The full film (part 1, part 2, part 3) is about 23 minutes long and ends with the poem, but is definitely worth watching.

The words are available here and there is a wikipedia article that you might find interesting.

Apparently there was a second film, also a collaboration of  Auden and Britten, about the train line from London to Portsmouth, called 'The Way to the Sea'.  It would be worth finding out more about this.

School Visiting

Thank you for great contribution of today's workshop, everyone! Energetic, splendid, inspiring ideas were created through "pure imagination", during our first phase workshop at school today! In the workshop, following things are done:

- Introduction, why local farm is important for us?

- Movie "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"

- Discussion / workshop, what, how to improve old carriage site?

- Discussion / workshop, what kind of activity would be held as school activity in the site?

- Workshop making origami pot / sowing seeds

Everybody successfully made origami pot for next step workshop which will be announced on this site soon. We all are hopeful that every seeds will start growing in your pots and you will take care of them well. 

Big thanks again.

Tommorrow we are going to visit a school close by the old railway line. We are going to get the children attempt to redesign the old carriage yard into a park which fits within our wild food masterplan, the starting point for this is 'Pure Imagination' from Charlie in the Chocolate Factory which is the scene where Willy Wonka showing the children round his psychadelic wonderland of choclate rivers, edible sugar mushrooms and lickable wallpaper. We would also like them to contribute to the first phase of the masterplan by starting growing herbs at home and then returning to the line to plant them with their parents. How this lesson will go I'm not sure I'm currently very nervous but we have a big bag of compost ready currently on my shower floor.

We also have our second client meeting, our ideas have progressed a lot and it will be interesting to hear their feedback. Shown above is our proposal for the whole school event where we would like to build a series of podcast waymarkers out of mud, compost and turf and intergrate them along the route.

Prototype Group Meeting Today - We are developing an overall design for the crate composition [seating/playing/planting/etc.] with options that can be applied to various locations along the trail, plus 3D images and construction details to aid the production of the modular crate elements.

Concept - crate as a cast to create modular objects...

Prototypes - Sketch Ideas

Sketch Ideas produced over the past week for the design of modular bench/planter/play system and intergrative landscaping.

Crates 'n' Pallets

Just an update from the prototype team:

We are currently experimenting with the idea of using crates and pallets. These are available in a range of shapes and sizes, as shown. We envisage being able to use these basic elements to create various arrangements that can be implemented along the trail.

We plan to incorporate:

• planting (food and flowers)
• seating
• shelter
• playful elements
• 'micro landscapes'
• lighting
  

Prototypes - Precedents

Precedent Images for the modular bench/planter/shelter/play system proposed by the Prototyping group.

I have spoken to Sainburys today about sponsorship and they have asked for a written proposal of the event, so I have completed it and I am going to post it tommorrow. Also good news today the map for the materplan was finally finished after a really painful couple of days for Dave and I.

Wayfinding

Graphic Designer Kathrin Jacobsen was commissioned to produce a signage system from Southwark tube station to The Tate Modern art gallery. This system used existing street furniture to provide a clear route to and from the destinations. I think this is a simple method to implement that could both raise awareness of the beginning of the old railway line and be easy to follow. Possibility of approaching Sainsbury's to sponser the work, orange being their colour and they would simultaneously lead to their shop.

Planting Project

Along with previous post "Wild Flowers", today masterplan team worked Origami pot. This project possibly cooperates with school children, therefore we examined origami instruction at the same time looked at paper choice as well.

By putting moist soil in different type of paper pot, best paper choice will be decided.

Wild Flower Meadows

Wild flower meadows could be used in the open areas with good sun, they grow well on poor substrates and improve bio-diversity. 

I think they would receive a good reception from passers by and those local to the area due to their bright colours, they may even attract people to come and see them.  

Group Meeting

Today the smaller groups [Master Planning, Prototyping etc.] got together to put forward their work/ideas/findings to the group as a whole. From this we have developed a more definite direction and set up a timetable for the remainder of the project.

Here are a few of the sheets produced in the workshops carried out in the meeting on Thursday 9th October at the Royal Hotel in Scarborough

An idea for the brochure was to give it a futher use beyond just as a source of information. The brochure will have a small seed bag containing seeds of a wild british vegetable and when the walker or cycler get homes the brochure contains information of creating an oragami seed started pot which they can plant their seeds and return to the old railway line and plant the box somewhere along the route. This is accompanied by a cookery book which identifys the plants along the route and suggest recipes.

An idea to launch the event is to get a set of school children to start the seed boxes in the classroom and then plant them along the route along with an LED plant a prototype we made which is shown above. The children are encouraged to come back and collect the vegetables when they have grown creating ownership and the LED flowers will act as markers across the site at the Scarborough end where is there is confusion of the location of the old railway for one night. The problem is the estimated 100 LED flowers required for this event.










The big idea for the masterplan is using the routes natural resources and turning into a linear orchard where people can forage for food and educating the local community about healthy eating. The focus site we have indentified is the old railway yard and a couple of initial sketches are shown above. The scale of the old yard is massive so we are taking a diagramatic approach and suggesting a number of elements that could be incorporated into its design are: an outdoor learning/theatre space, orchard, market space and a wild meadow.

After a pretty tense day before the presentation where at points it seemed we were going to face total failure we eventually managed to get our presentation finished, and I think we have learned how in future we will manage our presentations. The format we used for the presentation was a 15 minute talk where we put across our initial ideas a combination of realistic and more fantasy ideas to evoke debate. Then following this we had a workshop session where split into groups of the areas discussed within the presentation: Masterplanning, Marketing, Events, Exhibitions, Waymaking and Interventions. The results were generally good as the people there were genuinely passionate about the site and for some people was particularly emotive as it had been an important part of their childhood holidays. I felt it was important to get across to some people who felt that nothing should be done, although that is a possible final conclusion it was important to look at a number of possibilities for development they may not have thought of and to emphasis that other things could be done to the line which didn’t have to be something physical or permanent. Some good ideas were put forward which will be summarised in a following blog and was interesting to here the variety of opinions and views. I would say in general the ideas were well received, but there was the general view that whatever had to be done, should be sensitive and should relate to the context which was quite confusing with its previous industrial and urban heritage compared to the current rural cycle path. There were so many ideas we used the meeting as a way of starting to focus on a number of areas and have split up further. We have decided to focus on: the interventions and possibly a prototype, the podcast and the masterplan.

We visited a couple of the key regeneration projects within Scarborough the following day the rotunda and the spa. The master planning group had fun sketching out their ideas on the beach to the amusement of passing dog walkers.

Next Step

With yesterday's exciting workshop feedback followed by our presentation,
today, we step in new stage of live project. Team is divided into four groups: Events, Marketing, Prototype, and Masterplan, so that each group concentrates on further specific area research and proposals for final physical achievements.

Adding the final touches to our presentation the team is looking forward to the meeting tonight. It will be interesting to gauge the reactions from those present and get more of an idea of what is desired from us whilst working on the project. It will also be a useful exercise for us to see what the current aspirations are for the line, and to see if we can bring any new proposals and ambitions. The team believes that there is great potential for the old railway line and that if enough community support can be generated then it could flourish.

Preparing our presentation in the studio. Producing images for our slide show of ideas and proposals. Also deciding on the format for the meeting, to include our presentation, group workshops and discussion.

At the end of the first week the vast linearity of the site is becoming clear but also the massive potential for improvement it has. We made our initial site visit on Thursday 2nd October where we struggled to find to current entrance to the old railway line in Sainsbury’s car park. It is a very confusing entrance to a site which is an important part of local history and a main cycling artery. There is a beautiful sign and a refurbished play area with picnic benches which is very successful in bringing people to the site and keeping people there for longer periods of time but do not create the celebration or orientation to the entrance that is required. Andy Sharp from ‘Old Railway Line Friends Group’ provided us with a short tour through the Scarborough urban section of the line, his local knowledge of the area and the communities was very useful and even had ideas of suggested small scale interventions that would help to improve the urban section. The line is important historically as the coastline between Whitby and Scarborough had previously been inaccessible and so provided access to the picturesque landscape around Robin Hood’s Bay, but our initial impressions were that the site had lost its historical identity and after its closure had been left with a series of awkward spaces and problems of antisocial behaviour. There were some really inspiring remaining features just within the short stretch we have visited, the variety of bridges and the river running across. There was also the problem of the surrounding housing was not designed to face away from the railway not providing any observation to the spaces and was a contributing factor to the problems.
















To sum up, key findings are:
- There is currently a lively entrance environment which with further refurbishment could be an attractive entrance to the site.
- "veiled" entrance
- Faded historical identity of old railway line
- A series of awkward spaces
- A main cycling artery
- The inspiring various bridges and the river
- The problems faced by the relationship between old railway and housing orientation













We also had our first meeting with, Tom Mutton and Alan Tomlinson who were Parks and Development Officers for Scarborough Borough Council and Matthew Smart a landscape architect for the council. We were also accompanied by Benjamin Costello who is the project assistant who was a previous student of Sheffield University. The initial meeting went well and there was real enthusiasm from the council team who were eager for new and exciting proposals for the project and next Thursday we are a meeting where we will introduce our initial ideas. On Monday we intend to cycle the full 20miles of the old railway line to explore the possible sites, so we’re pretty hopeful the weather will be nice…

Next meeting –
Monday 6th October (group) : Cycling workshop
Thursday 9th October: Client meeting

Introduction

1 - Scarborough Railway Project

Co-ordinators: Russell Light, Ben Costello, Stephanie Stead

The Old Railway Line that runs from Scarborough to Whitby in North Yorkshire was once a well used steam locomotive route transporting passengers and industrial products. It has now become a popular recreational route for horse riders, cyclists, runners and walkers. The line links a wide range of places with differing characters – villages, pubs, bays, towns etc. There is a voluntary ‘Friends’ help group that lobbies for the line and encourages awareness and investment. Some sections are in better condition than others, in terms of access, signage, anti-social behaviour etc. Some minor works have already been undertaken to improved access and information, but there is no coherent overall plan or programme. The Urban Renaissance programme in Scarborough values the project as a high priority.

Project Objectives:

- Work in conjunction with local stakeholders in developing a framework for phased ‘development’ project

- Produce an accessible brochure explaining the proposed overall framework

- Develop a prototype example project for a key town site in Scarborough (Manor Road /Woodland Ravine junction) which

currently suffers from severe lack of legibility

Overall Framework:

- Work needs to briefly illustrate critical analysis of key concerns surrounding the site

- Engage with stakeholder consultation (key Renaissance groups – Urban Space, Tourism, Transport, Art, etc, Town Team, Local Authority)

- Present final overall framework proposals in accessible format (website/pdf/brochure etc)

Prototype Project:

- Illustrate an example of how a key site already identified along the line could be taken forward

- Critical site analysis

- Consultation

- Funding Research

- Design Proposals

Final Exhibition

- Show case student work