MK Models Station platform handcart - real world to miniature

What's the backstory behind the MK Models Station Platform Handcart?

Sadly, as I write the industrial heritage of my hometown is rapidly disappearing at the mercy of mechanised demolition and the material of yesteryear gone forever. Thanks are given to a lesser changing world, namely the Black Country Living Museum where local heritage has been in preservation since 1967.  It was a need for inspiration that prompted my visit in April 2025. I must have been one of the first customers through the gates that day, camera in hand I made my way along the empty streets in search of industrial scenes. A small back yard chain shop sits on the side of the canal at the heart of the museum and it was here I was met by a chain maker preparing for a day of demonstrations. It was part way through a conversation about wrought iron when a rickety old hand cart caught my eye. Instinctively my attention averted to the two dimensional properties and how I might recreate it in miniature.

Bidding the chain maker farewell I took the opportunity to photograph the cart and record the measurements I would need back at the studio should I wish to create a model later. I won't take you through the ins and outs of the development process here but suffice to say I went on to develop a nicely detailed model of the station platform handcart in 4mm/ft scale, so nice in fact that I made it in 7mm/ft also.