This may be regarded as rather pedantic, but with regard to the wording on the NCB sign in the last photo, if your layout is based on a Lancashire colliery in the late 1960s - 1970s the correct area title was "North West
ern Area".
On Nationalisation (1/1/1947) collieries were formed into eight divisions, each of which was divided into a number of areas. Collieries in Lancashire were included in the North Western Division and initially comprised Areas No.1 (Manchester), No.2 (Wigan), No.3 (St.Helens) and No.4 (Burnley).
On 1st January 1961 the Area numbering was dropped, and Area No.1 became the East Lancashire Area, absorbing some collieries from No.2 Area which was disbanded. The remaining parts of No.2 Area, plus the whole of No.3 Area, became the West Lancashire Area.
In August 1966, the East Lancashire Area was expanded to become the East Lancashire, Burnley & Cumberland Area, absorbing the remaining collieries from the Burnley Area and also collieries in Cumberland.
The next change took effect from 26th March 1967, when a major national reorganisation replaced Divisions by eighteen 'New style' areas. Surviving Lancashire collieries, together with those in Cumberland and North Wales, formed the North Western Area.
With the continued run-down of the industry, the North Western Area was merged with the Staffordshire Area on 1st April 1974 to form the Western Area.
Although I visited most of the remaining collieries in Lancashire in the 1960s I didn't record or photograph any such signs, which would have been at the colliery's main entrance, mainly because most of my visits were "unofficial" so I didn't normally use the "front door" !
