South Yorkshire is the setting for CHRIS MATTHEWS’ compact 'OO' gauge exhibition layout, depicting a set of British Steel exchange sidings in the 1970s. Photography, Mike Wild.
Above: BR Class 76 76008 edges out of Bottom Works Sidings with a train of empty 16ton steel mineral open wagons.
HAVING not built a layout of my own for many years, I was prompted by a layout building competition to have a go at constructing a compact scene that I could use as a test bed for skills and techniques which, ultimately, I intended to apply to a future, much larger, layout. Bottom Works Sidings is the result of this.
It’s a cold January morning in 1973 and we have taken a trip to South Yorkshire to visit what is locally known as ‘Bottom Works Sidings’ - asmall set of sidings where British Rail exchanges coke and steel traffic with British Steel.
The assumption is that a steelworks was constructed south west of Wombwell in the Dearne Valley to take advantage of local coal reserves and ore that had been found in the area. This was linked by short branches to both the Midland Railway’s Sheffield to Barnsley line, and the Great Central Railway’s Doncaster to Barnsley line. Due to space constraints, further growth o…
