It’s the early 1960s and the transition from steam to diesel traction is in full swing on the East Coast Main Line. JOHN WHITE takes us back to the heyday of Doncaster station with his fabulous home-based ‘OO’ gauge layout. Photography, Mike Wild.
GAUGE: ‘OO’, 16.5mm SCALE: 4mm: 1ft SIZE: 37ft x 12ft REGION: EASTERN PERIOD: 1959-1966 CONTROL: DCC, NCE Powercab
Allow me to start from the very beginning by turning the clock back more than 60 years to spring 1959The location is Platform 1 at Doncaster station on a chilly day where I was about to embark on a family visit to London. It was at that point I saw my first sighting of Deltic on the front of our train to ‘The Smoke’.
I can still vividly picture it now. I was a young lad wearing long trousers for the first time, with mouth open staring at the blue machine humming away waiting for the all clear. I was in awe of this magnificent beast! Needless to say the rest is history -I was well and truly hooked from that moment.
To compound my interest in railways, I lived in earshot of Doncaster Carr locomotive shed and the adjacent marshalling yards. In the still of the night, instead of being asleep I could constantly hear heavy shunts in the yards or locomotives being prepared for w…
