Summer Saturdays on Yorkshire’s East Coast in the 1960s are the theme behind this marvellously realistic ‘O’ gauge layout. DAVID WELLINGTON explains how it was built – and the trains that run on it. Photography, Jonathan Newton.
Nafferton is a village of about 3,000 people, three miles North of Driffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Its station, on the Hull to Scarborough line, is served by hourly Northern trains between York and Bridlington while non-stop trains between Sheffield and Scarborough pass. 60 years ago, many of the latter were holiday excursions and strengthened to ten coaches with steam haulage. They were supplemented by other expresses from West Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Midlands.
In the days before package holidays and mass car ownership, the resorts of Scarborough, Filey and Bridlington offered sand, sea and even occasional sunshine to workers and families looking to enjoy themselves.
Above: BR Standard ‘3MT’ 2-6-0 77003 powers away from Nafferton station at the head of a three-coach stopper, as Gresley ‘K3’ 2-6-0 61932 rounds the corner with a holiday extra express.
Choosing Nafferton as a model location in this era was a logical choice to replicate the summer activities of the early-1960s, but in
