North East England - Steam Days Screenshots - Large Screenshots Possible

borderreiver · Apr 25, 2016

Down Express for Edinburgh hauled by A4 MERLIN passes K3 near Darlington.

Northeast England during the steam era. Here we have summer 1948 between Croft Spa station and Darlington looking south. An A4 4-6-2 pacific, number 60027 "Merlin" of Haymarket shed in BR experimental ultramarine blue livery on a Down Express passing a K3 mogul 2-6-0 waiting to enter Croft yard to the south of Darlington with its unfitted freight. Merlin, formerly 4486, entered traffic in March 1937 and was always a Scottish engine, based at Haymarket shed until 1962. She received her experimental livery in June 1948, and being a Haymarket engine was teamed with a corridor tender. Merlin often worked the full length of the ECML on top link express passenger services such as "The Coronation", "Flying Scotsman" and (in BR days) "The Capitals Limited". Here I have Merlin hauling the rake of Thompson pressure-ventilated coaches assigned to the summer 1948 Flying Scotsman service, though as you can see, there is no headboard proclaiming it. Construction delays and material shortages meant that 1948 was the first summer that Thompson's catering vehicles were available to replace the Gresley Triplet restaurant set used in 1947 on resumption of the service. This is the County Durham section of the TS12 built-in Kings Cross to Newcastle route which I have relaid and rebuilt for my own use to reflect the steam era. Nothing remained of Croft yard and the down loop situated north of Croft Spa station on the built-in route, so a great deal of track laying was necessary to get the result I wanted. Croft Spa station also required installing, along with the overbridge that spanned the Up end of the platforms. I used old 1:2,500 scale maps and the trackwork is probably a representation rather than a 100% accurate reproduction. A lack of NER/LNER specific signals and signal boxes are also issues to have to work around and thankfully the work done by the S&C/Potteries Loop Line folks provide a valuable asset pool to draw upon as alternates.

July 2017 - Photobucket link replaced with new one to imgur.

borderreiver · Apr 25, 2016

Class A10 2569 "GLADIATEUR" of York shed pases Croft Jcn Signal Box

Northeast England during the steam era. Here, a little south of Darlington station and looking east during the summer of 1945, LNER Gresley A10 Class 4-6-2 number 2569 "GLADIATEUR" passes Croft Junction signal box with an Up parcels train. LNER J77 0-6-0T No. 1344 stands on the freight only Croft branch with a short pickup goods train, while a LNER (ex-GCR) Class O4/1 2-8-0 stands at the north end of Darlington South yard. An unrebuilt O4/1 is a rare visitor from ex-GCR metals between Manchester and Immingham, so perhaps after bringing in a train to York a motive power shortage meant that it was dragooned in to bringing an unfitted freight as far as Darlington. After coaling and taking water, control will want it heading south as soon as it can be allocated an Up freight service. All seventeen surviving Gresley A1s were reclassifed as Class A10 by Thompson during April 1946. 2569 was renumbered 538, in March 1946, then 70 in June 1946. She entered the shop to be rebuilt to A3 Class in December 1946. This is the County Durham section of the TS12 built-in route Kings Cross to Newcastle which I have cropped and relaid to reflect the steam era for my personal use.

July 2017 - Photobucket link switched to imgur.

borderreiver · Apr 25, 2016

Hello Bogieman. Thanks for the feedback. FYI - Chathill is on IanOHoseason's route. I have the West line (N&C) as far west as Ryton station as well as to the north of the Tyne between Scotswood and Newcastle and to the south of the Tyne as far east as Gateshead. On the north bank of the Tyne to the west of Scotswood the transdem map is in place as far as Newburn but I have not gotten round to laying anything much on the North Wylam branch. Newcastle is a seriously intricate section, demanding a lot of work. I have done a lot of track laying and rebuilding at Newcastle Central, along with Forth Banks. Manors station and New Bridge Street depot are on the to do list.

borderreiver · Apr 25, 2016

Ex-LNER A8 4-6-2T and ex-LMSR 4MT 2-6-0 passing Gateshead Shed

Northeast England in the steam era. Here at the east end of Gateshead shed during the early 1950s, BR (ex-LMS) 4MT 2-6-0 Mogul No. 43054 and BR (ex-LNER) A8 4-6-2T pacific No. 69868 head westwards towards King Edward Bridge junction. The 4MT is on the goods lines from Pelaw, while the A8 has just left Gateshead West with a local passenger train from Newcastle to Durham. To the right outside the paint shed (the old roundhouse) stand an ex-LNER Gresley V3 2-6-2T and ex-NER Worsdell O Class 0-4-4T (LNER G5). To the left stand examples of ex-LNER A2, A3 and A4 4-6-2 pacifics in Brunswick Green livery, while an ex-LNER V2 Class 2-6-2 in Black livery has just left the shed and is heading towards Gateshead West. From there it will run on to the High Level Bridge and access the eastern end of Newcastle Central station. This is my personal route, NW Durham and is a work in progress. There is still a lot of work to do at Gateshead Shed. The four turntables are in place but their sheds have yet to be built. The LNER pacific shed is in place, as is the building which was the original Gateshead Greenesfield station.

July 2017 - Photobucket link switched to imgur.

borderreiver · Apr 25, 2016

The High Level Bridge, with LNER Classes A4, A5 and N10

Northeast England during the steam era. Here during the early 1950s, is the southern, Gateshead end of Robert Stepehenson's High Level Bridge which spans the River Tyne. The castle keep and Newcastle Central station are on the far bank. Ex-LNER A4 4-6-2 pacific 60034 "LORD FARINGDON" is running tender first from Gateshead shed towards Central station to take over a London King's Cross to Edinburgh express passenger train. Most Anglo-Scottish passenger trains changed engine at Newcastle Central and Gateshead shed was the usual source of engines, though Heaton shed did provide haulage for some services. An ex-LNER A5 4-6-2T No. 69842 of Darlington shed has just left Gateshead East station with a Middlesbrough to Newcastle semi-fast passenger train consisting of new Thompson ordinary bogie coaches. Heading south between Forth Banks goods depot and Gateshead Park Lane goods depot is a short inter-yard transfer freight in the hands of ex-NER U Class 0-6-2T (LNER N10) No. 69097. Several A5s of a GCR design were allocated to the north east to ease a shortage of large tank passenger locomotives. At this time the third rail DC electrified service to South Shields was still operating. The third rails can be seen beneath the Thompson coaches. This is my personal NW Durham route, though Newcastle and its bridges are from the TS12 built-in route, copied and pasted in to place. It is a work in progress. Visible in the distance above the A4 is the Forth Banks factory of Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn.

July 2017 - Photobucket link switched to imgur.

borderreiver · Apr 26, 2016

NER B Class 0-6-2T at Waskerley circa 1919

Northeast England during the steam era. Here circa 1919 in pre-grouping days an N.E.R. TW Worsdell B Class 0-6-2T (LNER N8) No. 185 of 1886 is at Waskerley with a short stores, coal and coke train from West Auckland shed via Burnhill Junction for Parkhead station and Weatherhill Stationary Engine on the old 1834 Stanhope & Tyne line. Coal was required to fuel the Weatherhill engine and the Crawleyside engine working the two inclines at the Stanhope end of the line. Limestone for Consett Iron Company was the main outbound traffic, with some sand, flourspar and lead. Waskerley was a railway settlement, originallly to work nanny mayors incline but the incline was superseded by the line via Burnhill. Waskerley's irregular passenger service ceased during the 1860s. The brake van is an old Shildon built 8 Ton "Bouch Van". This is a type originally built for the Stockton & Darlington Railway. On screenshot 2 a 290 Class 0-6-0T can be seen at Waskerly loco coal staithe. An NER V1 10 Ton "York van" brake van stands between the train and the 290 Class. A few "Bouch Vans" made it to the grouping but the LNER had disposed of them by the end of 1924. The V1 "York Van" type were all disposed of by 1929. Waskerley shed kept an allocation of 0-6-2T locos for a considerable time until the shed closed during 1940. If any line deserves the description "out in the wilds of Wonie" the old S&T line between Weatherhill and Burnhill surely fits the bill. It is now a cycleway, part of the C2C route. This is my personal route NW Durham and is a work in progress.

July 2017 - Photobucket links switched to imgur.

hholdenaz · Apr 26, 2016

Say where did those brake vans come from?

borderreiver · Apr 27, 2016

Hi hholdenaz, I commissioned barn700/paulztrainz to build them for me. He has also built V3 and v4 type North Eastern Railway brake vans for me, along with several different types of hopper wagon. The V1 "York Van" had three variants, V1/1, V1/2 and V1/3. The "Shildon Van"/"Bouch Van" was a holdout from Stockton & Darlington Railway days, with some being built at Shildon after the S&DR became part of the North Eastern Railway. For almost a decade, until 1873 the S&DR section was semi-autonomous, being run by the Darlington Committee and called the Darlington Section. The "Bouch vans" had five chain link couplings, with eight brake blocks acting on the four wheels and all had timber buffer blocks to permit working with chauldron type wagons (which could be found in north east collieries until around 1900). They had primitive solid iron buffers.

borderreiver · Apr 28, 2016

NER A Class 2-4-2T between Tow Law and Burnhill circa 1913

Northeast England during the steam era. The pregrouping days on the North Eastern Railway pre-WWI. A T.W. Worsdell A Class 2-4-2T (LNER F8), No. 1578 hauls a rake of 45ft bogie clerestory coaches between Tow Law and Burnhill Junction with the 6:57 a.m. Darlington to Blackhill branch train via Crook and Tow Law. The line, known as the Weardale Extension Railway, was built by the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1844 and originally ran to the Stanhope & Tyne's 1834 line at Nanny Mayor's incline. The site became Waskerley. The S&DR built a deviation line between Burnhill Junction and Rowley in 1859 to bypass Nanny Mayors incline. Only three passenger trains ran each way daily between Darlington and Blackhill via Tow Law, with a fourth train added on Saturdays. The journey took almost three hours to cover the 34 mile journey with 12 stops en-route. The L.N.E.R. assigned a 4-4-0 tender engine to Waskerley to work the first train south from Blackhill and the afternoon train back from Darlington. The passenger service across the moors was an early casualty, being closed by the LNER north of Tow Law in March 1939. This is my own route NW Durham for my personal use and is a work in progress.

July 2017 - Photobucket link switched to imgur.

Saieditor · Apr 28, 2016

Fascinating history you are giving here.
Also, you are giving a very interesting story of the evolution of different wagons.
I'll never look at 8 plank the same way again. :hehe:

Thanks for all the sharing.

borderreiver · Apr 28, 2016

Hoppers hoppers everywhere

Hi Saieditor, thanks for that. The NER encouraged colliery owners to use railway owned wagons and maintained rates over many years to keep them happy. The company adopted hopper type wagons as an efficiency measure as vast quantities of coal mined in County Durham made its way to coal staithes on the River Tyne (Derwenthaugh, Dunston, Hebburn, Tyne Dock), the River Wear (Pallion) and Seaham for loading by gravity on to ships. Domestic coal depots were also often gravity drop staithes, to discourage depots holding on to wagons while they were shovelled out for weighing, bagging and delivery. The company had thousands of 4-wheel wooden coal hoppers with 10.5 Ton, 11 Ton, 12 Ton, 15 Ton, 20 Ton and 21 Ton capacities (the extra ton on the diagram P8 eight-plank due to anti-friction gear - removed by 1923). They also had a 40 Ton steel bogie hopper type dedicated for trains running between Ashington and the staithes at Blyth.

borderreiver · Apr 29, 2016

Lunchtime at Reedsmouth Junction on the Border Counties Railway

Northeast England during the steam era. In the roaring twenties on the Border Counties Railway, LNER Class D21 (formerly NER R1 Class) brings the 10:50 a.m. Newcastle to Hawick passenger train in to Reedsmouth Junction station at 12:25 p.m. The 42 mile Anglo-Scottish BCR ran between Border Counties Junction west of Hexham and Riccarton Junction on the Waverley route and was built by the North British Railway. Reedsmouth is where the former NBR Wansbeck branch from Morpeth joins the BCR. A J21 0-6-0 shunts vans in the exchange sidings while a J24 0-6-0 stands with its goods train from Hawick waiting for the token to proceed southwards on its way to Blaydon yard. This is a small personal layout inspired by a Railway Modeller article about the station. I doubt that Reedsmouth was as busy as this on a regular basis. Passenger trains on the BCR were infrequent. Bradshaws for 1922 shows Reedsmouth with three trains each way daily, at 7:46 a.m. 12:29 p.m. and 5:55 p.m ex-Newcastle and 7:44 a.m. 11:04 a.m. and 5:51 p.m ex-Riccarton. There was also a train from Reedsmouth to Bellingham at 3:41 p.m. returning at 4:09 p.m for school children. This ran onwards to Scots Gap on the Wansbeck branch. The "Wanny" had three trains daily, with a fourth on Tuesdays only between Reedsmouth and Scots Gap (6:05 p.m departure, returning at 7:18). On the Wansbeck branch a single bogie brake third usually sufficed to meet passenger demand.