A selection of photos taken for the recent Railway Modeller article (April 2023 issue):

YORK is very different to most layouts in that it depicts a single scene: the one you get from inside the station.

A quiet moment at YORK station. The superb Modelu 3D scanned and printed figures really bring the scene to life. Painting them was a real pleasure!

A3 No. 2744 ‘Grand Parade’ brings the 4:00pm Newcastle to Kings Cross express into platform 4. The loco body is by Dapol with added detail and closer to scale handrails. The chassis is milled copper tungsten (for weight) with custom etched valve gear, The coaches are also Dapol but many are fitted with replacement etched sides.

A close up of ‘Grand Parade’. The entrance building was made from laminated 10 thou styrene sheet cut on the Silhouette craft cutter with window frames etched from 0.1mm stainless steel. The ticket collector’s booth, fencing and train departures board (still awaiting decals of the actual departures) are also custom etched.

The LNER didn’t run specific parcels trains on the ECML at this time, preferring to add multiple full brakes to other stopping trains such as this semi-fast York – Kings Cross service pulled by A4 class No. 4488 ‘Union of South Africa’ being run in after a period in the works.

Most freight trains took the alternative route via Poppleton and Holgate Junctions and thus didn’t pass through the station. However, trains, like this one, from the south heading onto the Scarborough branch had to go through the station. J39 No. 1532 heads the daily Gascoigne Woods to Scarborough coal train on the down through line.

O.S.Nock in 1934 wrote of York ‘Here may be seen trains from every corner of Great Britain’ and there were many through coaches and through workings. The Swansea to Newcastle ‘Ports to Ports’ train of Great Western stock (provided by John Aldrick) is headed by A3 No. 2750 ‘Papyrus.

Another through train, this time the LMS Liverpool to Newcastle is pulled by A3 No. 2578 ‘Bayardo’. With most of these through trains there were 2 sets of coaches (up and down services) one provided by each company.

At the time YORK is set (1937) ‘The Yorkshire Pullman’ travelled via York picking up the Hull and Halifax portions at Doncaster. The Harrogate portion being only 5 coaches didn’t require a Gresley pacific so was usually pulled by an ex-NER D20. 1217 was built by 3mm/TT stalwart Alan Smith of Leeds. The coaches are the superb Hornby/Arnold Brighton Belle models – the same design as those used on the ECML Pullman trains of the period.

A busy moment at YORK: The down ‘Yorkshire Pullman’ from Kings Cross is just pulling out headed by D20 4-4-0 No.1217. Meanwhile, the train in the nearside bay platform is the next passenger train for Scarborough and the daily Scarborough full coal from Gascoigne Woods is being held on the down through track until it has left.