Time for a quick update.
I've mainly been under the thinking hat.
I wanted to base the layout on the Suffolk coast but I was having problems with getting in enough details to identify it as a beach. To overcome this I was hoping to incorporate another beach area in the lid but couldn't hide the two walls of the suitcase. the idea was to hide the sides with a pier or wall but this then cut off the siding side of the water and besides I couldn't think of a reason why the structure would run parallel with the sidings.
So the location has gnow moved inland.
The following is true.
Just down the road from me are various pits . These are bordered on one side by the River Gipping and on the other by the A14 which is the main route through Suffolk. The pits are called Sharmford Mere, Causeway Lake and the imaginatively named Barham A & B Pits. These were quarried over the years for sand and gravel and have been "restored" and are now fishing lakes. One of the first two was a trout lake. This venture came to a premature end when the River Gipping kept flooding, releasing trout out from and pike in to the lake

Both lakes are now coarse-fishing lakes. Between the lakes is a picnic area.
Across the bridge over the A14 from the lakes there used to be a miniature railway in a garden. I'm not sure what the gauge was, perhaps someone could advise me
Now comes the fiction.
When the trout lake venture failed, one of the neighbours decided that he could afford to combine two of his greatest past-times, namely trout fishing and miniature railways. He quickly purchased the lake and decided to extend his 9.5" railway to the side of the lake.
He realised that he needed to have a small income from the lake to pay for the maintenance and the improvements to the riverbank to stop further flooding. He decided that to supplement the income from the day-tickets he sold to the anglers he would sell the surplus fish at local farmers markets. If this proved successful then he could later branch out with a fish smoker and maybe even purchase coaches to provide rides for visitors.
And gnow onto the modelling.
The sides were too steep for my liking so a "beach" has been added. This was a piece of insulation which was carved to shape and then had two layers of sand added. The water is a off-cut of thin perspex. Thjis needs to have ripples added and the edges hidden.
