As the British Rail diesel pulls into Canonbury overground station, it could be that privatisation never happened.
But this is a freeze frame of the north London line in 1970s, captured in the memory of former delivery driver Mark Tate and recreated with a love for detail.
The 44-year-old took six years to recreate the station and the immediate area in his front room, painstakingly putting together model houses made of cardboard, balsa wood and recycled materials.
Photographs of the real-life buildings front the miniature cardboard equivalents and tiny billboards line the platform.
Mark, who used to travel with his dad to visit an aunt who lived in Canonbury from his childhood home in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, has always loved the north London line.
“I first became interested back in the early 70s; I was fascinated by the amount of different trains that you would see at Canonbury. The station meant something for me and it’s always been an ambition of mine to recreate a model of it.
“Some people like to recreate King’s Cross or Liverpool Street but I love the north London line. It was dirty and it was brilliant. Too many railways look too clean these days.”
The model track, contained entirely in a large wooden box, goes through the station in the direction of the now-closed Broad Street station and heads back in a loop.
Model British Rail diesel multiple unit trains clink down the track, similar to the full scale ones that ran the route in the 1970s.
A rail enthusiast all his life, Mark remembers the line from the era and says that it was a bit of a “ghost line” that hardly anyone used.
“In the 70s, nine times out of 10 you would have to wake up the ticket man at Canonbury when you went for the last train at round 11 in the evening. Because the line was seldom used, he’d quite often be asleep.”
Mark, who now lives in Waltham Abbey, was left disabled in one leg after a battle with cancer. He is now in remission, and spends a lot of his time working on his model railway.
“I’m making a new, better version of the track now. I wasn’t entirely happy with the old one, the curves on the track were too sharp and it was direct current. The new one will be digital,
“Sometimes I have a bit of a play on it, but I shouldn’t. I should be working on it.”
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