New Steam Era Route - Burnham Fay NER

[nathanmallard]

Hi

I have started work on a route set in late pre-grouping period (around 1918-1923ish) north-eastern England; completely fictional but with many areas based roughly on real locations. I'm going more for atmosphere over super-detail and accuracy as I tend to get burnt out when I try and super-detail layouts and they never get finished, nor do they ever get released! I do intend to release this one day and it uses all DLS content except from a few buildings I made myself and one or two reskins. It is also my first TANE-native route...now I'm going to let the screenshots do the talking:

More screenshots will come when hostthenpost comes back online!

 

[borderreiver]

Hi nathanmallard. A lesser-known variant of the BTP Autocar set there. The classic set was the BTP sandwiched between two NER Worsdell 52ft Diagram 116 Driving van Composites converted in from clerestory roofed ordinary Third Class coaches in 1905 but several more were required in 1908 and the N.E.R. built some 52ft elliptical roof Diagram 162 Driving van Composites. In the Diagram 116 the sole First Class compartment was the same size as the Third class compartments, 6ft 4in approx, while in the Diagram 162 the First Class compartment was a more orthodox 7ft 2in, though the Third Class passengers had to put up with only 5ft 11 3/4 in. The push-pull system in use differed from the later LNER vacuum system in that it was by wires, which ran from the driving compartments to the loco cab. I believe that the driver had to stand to see out of the porthole and with no wipers it must have been an un-nerving experience to drive one on a dark wet night. I am unsure if the porthole could be opened by swinging it in, which would hardly be something to look forward to when it was cold and wet!

 

[nathanmallard]

Thanks for the information, your knowledge of all things NER is truly impressive! I did wonder about visibility from those porthole windows, it doesn't look particularly good. IIRC isn't a clerestory version preserved? Push-pull trains used to run near me on the Hull and Barnsley line to Howden although these used a very different design with large square windows. I believe they were based on standard Gresley suburban stock.

 

[borderreiver]

If the portholes did not open the only other option for the driver would be to stick his head out of the door window! An NER clerestory coach is preserved, but it is not a driver van composite. When the BTP (LNER G6) engines were scrapped in the mid-late 1920s the diagram 116 coaches were probably scrapped too, though they might have been rebuilt to ordinary Third class coaches. There is no information about their fate. The diagram 162s did move back in to the general coach pool and appear to have had a second life in push pull workings a decade later when fitted with LNER vacuum push pull gear, though I do not know if they got larger driver windows at the same time.

I recall seeing a photograph from the mid-1920s where a BTP autocar was strengthened by adding a six-wheel Third as a trailing load. I presume that the train was going to a station with either a station pilot or turnouts with plenty of space either side. This is because the return working could not run with the driver compartment behind the six-wheeler! If there was no pilot to remove the six-wheeler the bizarre sight of the twin-coach autocar running round the six-wheeler would have been the alternative.

While the push-pull steam autocar is traditionally thought of as a solution for lightly used branch lines it is not the entire story. Some did run on branch lines, such as the Guisborough branch from Middlesbrough, but many had quite long rosters to work which took them all across County Durham. Sunderland to Middleton in Teesdale via Durham, Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle being one example. This was not worked as a single service but as three sequential turns with layovers between them. The first to Durham, second to Bishop Auckland and third to Middleton.

 

[borderreiver]

BTP Autocar with single Driver Van Composite

Hi nathanmallard, here is an old shot of mine showing a BTP Autocar with one diagram 116 Driving Van Composite at Sedgefield. Some BTPs ran with a single push pull fitted coach, here representing the service between Ferryhill and Stockton. Ferryhill has added a six-wheel Third as a strengthener.

 

[IanOHoseason]

Great to see some more support for the NER, best of luck with your new project.
Best wishes
Ian