This multi-level digitally operated ‘OO’ gauge layout is the latest to be completed by the Redditch Model Railway Club.GUY CRADDOCK takes us back to the 1970s – the era of British Rail blue, rattling DMUs and steam heated Mk 1s. Photography, Mike Wild.
IT IS 1976 which is best remembered for the long hot summer and the Montreal Olympic Games. On television we had the delights of When the Boat Comes In, George and Mildred and Noel Edmonds’ Multi Coloured Swap Shop has just started on Saturday mornings. Steam traction ended nearly 10 years ago and the railways have yet to change significantly other than the total use of diesel and electric power. Down in the railway backwater of Smallwood, somewhere in England, we have a terminus station and town that have both seen better days.
The 1970s were an interesting period in railway history with continual underinvestment and a ‘make do and mend’ attitude set against the general industrial unrest that the decade is remembered for. Smallwood is a microcosm of that era. Much of the glass has long since gone from the overall station roof and the provision of four platforms is from an era of far more affluent times. The station still boasts a parcels depot as well…
