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.
