Gifford Street was once a regular fixture of the exhibition circuit and was a showcase for 7mm scale on a large scale. JOHN EMERSON bids farewell to Gifford Street as it bows out to make way for his new ‘O’ gauge project. Photography, Mike Wild.
Scale: 'O', 7mm:1ft Size: 46ft x 16ft Era: BR, 1960s Control: Analogue and digital
Above: Type 4 1-Co-Co-1 D211 Mauritania heads for Manchester with a train conveying empty Travelling Post Office vans. Heljan's ready-to-run models have revolutionised the concept of ‘O’ gauge modelling for many modellers.
I BLAME Colin Gifford and my very battered copy of his book Decline of Steam for my fascination with the last days of the steam railway in the North West, so it was here that I looked for inspiration for an ‘O’ gauge replacement for my 4mm scale Hayley Mills layout back in 1996. Unfortunately the resulting layout never really developed very far and after a few years was dismantled in favour of a new project - Gifford Street.
Initially set in the Bolton/Bury area, it later changed (after a brief interlude looking at Bradford) to the area around Rochdale - although exactly where in that area was never fully explained. Whilst there was a large - by model standards - goods yard serving tra…
