North East England - Steam Days Screenshots - Large Screenshots Possible

[tailight98]

It must have been amazing for railway activity when all these colleries were open & the tank engines working around them. Sadly unless one lived near one not easy to see on weekdays with college & then work often even on a Sat morning rota as well. This is where the work was done away from the main lines & the Express which was the image
portrayed.

[borderreiver]

Hello Taillight98, the County Durham coalfield employed 145,000 men on nationalisation, though I doubt that even 145 are employed in coal mining today. Literally hundreds of miles of track serving dozens of collieries. Some from a siding on the main line and others on private colliery lines. The two "big names" in the 18th Century wagonways of NW Durham were "The Main Way" which wend its way down to staithes at Derwentheugh and "The Old Way", which made its way down to the Tyne at Dunston. Both changed in route length and alignment over the course of their existence. The Bowes family of course developed their Bowes system in the 19th century, along with the Lambtons developing theirs. The Beamish wagonway made its way down to the River Wear at Fatfield staithes. The Stockton & Darlington was built with the objective of hauling coal from the area around Shildon down to the River Tees at Stockton. Operating passenger trains and goods trains were just the "icing on the cake". In fact passenger and general goods trains were always just the "icing on the cake" for the North Eastern Railway too. The company made a prodigious amount of money from hauling coal down to the river staithes in Northumberland, County Durham and Yorkshire. Even when keeping their prices stable for over twenty years in the later 19th century the growth in profits was relentless.

[borderreiver]

Beamish Second Pit and a 0-4-0ST shunting at the screens.

[borderreiver]

The north east of England during the steam era. Part 6C of Locomotives of the L.N.E.R. by the R.C.T.S. which deals with the Class Q7 remarks that in June 1956 three Q7s were transferred from Tyne Dock shed to Sunderland. They were numbers 63466, 63467 and 63474 (formerly 625, 626 & 634 of 1924). They were used on goods turns to Consett, Newport (Teesside) Low Fell and Darlington, and on ore trains from South Dock to Consett. This is at a time when the 56T hoppers were in use between Tyne Dock to Consett. None of the trio sent to Sunderland were fitted with westinghouse gear in order to operate the 56T hoppers so these South Dock to Consett ore trains must have used hoppers such as the Diagram 167s, built in 1940 for ironstone traffic using underframes originally built for the B.E.F. in France but never sent. At nationalisation a thousand Diagram 167s were in the N.E.Area on coal traffic and a further 300 assigned to Tyne Dock ore traffic so sufficient examples of the type were available to make up ore trains. This assumes that Diagram 100 coal hoppers were not considered suitable for the ore traffic. However, if they were considered suitable by the NE Region then thousands were on hand from which to allocate an iron ore pool.

I am not familiar with facilities for receiving iron ore at Sunderland in the 1950s. Coal was exported from a multitude of staithes on the west side of Hudson Dock and timber imported in large amounts at Hendon Dock but I do not know of a bunker for stowing iron ore offloaded from ships. the 25 inch map for 1946 does not show one. Offloading by grab and depositing in small hopper bunkers on the quayside from which to load wagons would be a slow process and a lot slower than the operation at Tyne Dock. It makes me wonder if there was either a problem at the Tyne Dock facility, restricting operations, or if demand from Consett was so high that Tyne Dock could not meet it.

The route from South Dock to Consett is another mystery. If the trains were able to proceed from Hendon Junction in the docks up to Fawcett street and then along the Pallion branch it would reuire two reversals, one at Penshaw Junction and another at Washington South Junction to reach the Pontop & South Shields branch to South Pelaw Junction. that would have benefitted from two brake vans book-ending the rake to avoid having a single brake van switching ends. Another possibility was to head south from the docks to the Durham coast line at Ryhope Grange junction, reverse there and then head on to South Pelaw junction via Sunderland, Pelaw, Gateshead, Low Fell and Ouston junction. A third option would be to proceed from Penshaw junction down the Leamside route to Auckland Junction, accessing the Lanchester Valley branch via Auckland junction, Newton Hall junction, Relly Mill and Baxter Wood junction.




Q7 No. 63466 with a rake of Diagram 167s leaves the Leamside line, taking Auckland junction towards Newton Hall junction and the ECML.




Passing the brickworks at Frankland.




Running past Durham on the Up through line.




Leaving the ECML and taking the Lanchester Valley branch at Relly Mill




Approaching Baxter Wood junction.



Proceeding westwards from Baxter Wood.




Passing through Lanchester. I have a Q6 of Consett shed waiting at the Durham end of the trailing crossover on the Up line to assist with banking the train up to Consett North Junction.




The train coming off the site of the former Knitsley trestle.

[borderreiver]

The ore train arriving at Consett North junction from the Lanchester Valley branch.

[desertrt]

wrong discussion

[borderreiver]

The North Eastern Railway 52ft bogie 3-compartment Van Third evolved through four stages in the eleven years between 1895 and 1907. For most of this period, 1895 to 1906, the principal carriage of the type was the Diagram 18, which ultimately was built in three variants. The final evolution culminated in the Diagram 130 carriage built between 1906 and 1907.

Below, the original variant of the Diagram 18, built between 1895 and 1900. with duckets at the van end.







Below, the second variant of the Diagram 18, with revised door arrangements to the guard's van, built between 1901 and 1903 where duckets were moved to the mid-van position.







Below, the third variant of the Diagram 18, with the revised door and ducket arrangements to the guard's van, but with two side windows added, built between 1904 and 1906. Some of the second variant may have had the side windows retrofitted after 1906 but the documentary evidence is scant. The N.E.R. did not issue a revised drawing for the diagram 18.






Below, the fourth variant of the 52ft brake Third, with the revised door window and ducket arrangements to the guard's van of the last Diagram 18s but with elliptical roof, built between 1906 and 1907.






The typical use of the 52ft 3-compartment Van Third during N.E.R. and early L.N.E.R. days was to book-end passenger consists. These were most prominently used on the nineteen mainline sets contained within the 1926 Carriage Roster, using thirty-eight 3-compartment Van Thirds. There may have been a twentieth set at some point prior to this as one set is marked as cancelled in the 1926 roster. With the way carriages were rotated through due to shop visits any two of the variants could have been seen in them, and the variants used changed over time as they rotated in and out. Ordinary carriages were not typically changed out all in one go in three, four or five car sets.

This information is based upon the article in issue 84 of the North Eastern Railway Association's "Express" magazine dated August 1981 by I.G. Sadler.

[KotangaGirl]

Absolutely lovely coaches Frank.

[euromodeller]

Nice coaches indeed!
I never thought I would see a Siemens Vectron MS in a N E England thread though .

[borderreiver]

Thanks Annie, thanks Euromodeller. The Siemens Vectron presages the new loading gauge enhancement in the UK to permit through running between continental europe and Scotland. Double deck trains by 2030.......
Enough of flights of fancy, meanwhile, back in the real world, I think that desertrt just posted in the wrong thread by mistake.

[borderreiver]

Some examples of N.E.R. main line set configurations. The example chosen is mainline set number 17's daily 12.18 pm Darlington to York service. Mainline set number 17 was rostered to start work at 5.55 am in Sunderland. After running to Newcastle, South Shields and Newcastle once again, come 10.01 am it found itself at Darlington. After cleaning it would form the 12.18 pm to York, arriving there at 1.59 pm. Following a 43 minute turn around it then returned north to Newcastle, arriving there at 5.18 pm. Saturdays excepted it would then finish its day at Heaton Carriage Sidings, running ECS from Newcastle at 5.37 pm. However, on Saturdays only it would stay at Newcastle Central in order to form the 5.30 pm to Sunderland, probably packed with football fans and shoppers returning home. After Sunderland the set would run on to West Hartlepool, return to Sunderland, run once again to West Hartlepool before forming a service to Trimdon at 10.50pm, probably taking home villagers who had spent Saturday evening in West Hartlepool at the cinema, music hall, dance hall or pub. From there at 11.50 pm it would finish the day by running ECS to West Hartlepool. it would arrive there at 12.10 am Sunday.

The carriages which operated set 17 on Monday had been rostered to main line set number 10 on the preceding Saturday. From Tuesday to Saturday they was in the hands of carriages which had operated mainline set number 3 the previous day. Once at Heaton CS on Monday to Friday night they remained there overnight to supply the carriages to operate mainline set roster number 5 the next day. On Saturday nights at West Hartlepool they were in position to supply the carriages to operate mainline set roster 479 on Sundays. FYI, mainline set roster number 479 on Sundays started at West Hartlepool but finished at Heaton CS. however, on the following Monday the carriages would start the week on mainline set roster number 6. It is important to realise that the set numbers were roster numbers, not the number identifying a specific rake of carriages. A pool of nineteen four-carriage sets were rostered as a pool to work the mainline set rosters 1 - 20 (Weekdays) and 475-484 (Sundays). It took nineteen weeks for a carriage consist to get back to the location working set roster 1 it had started at on day one of week one. That means that each day a different set of carriages was operating each of the mainline rosters from the pool of nineteen consists. It is not clear how the consists were identified or whether it was purely on the basis of individual carriage numbers. Once a 52ft carriage was removed for a works visit there was no guarantee that it would return from works and be deployed to the same consist as it had been removed from, or even a mainline consist at all. It could be sent on to a different set requiring a 52ft carriage.

The screenshots are of a theoretical set of four consecutive days at the same spot on the ECML as the 12.18 pm passes by.


Below, on "Monday" the 12.18 pm, in the hands of an R Class 4-4-0 heads south with a consist made up of original variant Dgm 18 3-cmpt BT, Dgm 5 CL(3-4), Dgm 14 T and original variant Dgm 18 3-compt BT.




Below, on "Tuesday" the 12.18 pm in the hands of an R Class 4-4-0 heads south with a consist made up of second variant Dgm 18 3-compt BT, Dgm 5 CL(3-4), Dgm 14 T and original variant Dgm 18 3-compt BT.




Below, on "Wednesday" the 12.18 pm in the hands of an R Class 4-4-0 heads south with a consist made up of third variant Dgm 18 3-compt BT, Dgm 5 CL(3-4), Dgm 127 T and second variant Dgm 18 3-compt BT.




Below, on "Thursday" the 12.18 pm in the hands of an R Class 4-4-0 heads south with a consist made up of a Dgm 130 3-compt BT, Dgm 127 T, Dgm 5 CL(3-4), Dgm 127 T and third variant Dgm 18 3-compt BT.

[KotangaGirl]

Wow Frank that is one amazing example of the way you thoroughly research your chosen prototype.

[robd]

Good looking NER clerestories! Presumably they're made by Paulz, I may grab some for myself. Interesting detailed info by borderreiver.

Rob.

[borderreiver]

Hello Annie, hello Rob, thanks.

Yes Rob, they are Paul Mace's work at paulztrainz.

With four versions of 52ft bogie 3-cmpt BT(3), two versions of 52ft bogie T, one version of 52ft bogie CL (3-4) to distribute as BT, CL, T, BT I have estimated that there are 32 consist variations to that. Swapping the CL and T around in the consist technically add 32 more. With 19 mainline sets it means that swapping in and out as carriages became due for sending to the workshop that the eagle eyed could (if they had the time and determination) log each of the 64 variations passing one location over a number of years. How many observers looked beyond the locomotive at the head of the train and noted the carriages behind it is unknown, but they probably were in the minority. However, the variation lends to the richness of the "railway tapestry", especially in periods of transition, such as from NER Lined Crimson Lake to LNER Lined Teak paint in the years 1924 - 28. I have noted in various publications that the LNER was still turning new carriages out of the works at York in crimson lake during early 1924. This might have been in order to use up stocks of paint or because no final livery had been decided for new stock coming out of the NE Area. Older carriages eventually transitioned to lined teak paint depending upon when they went through works. If we assume a five-year interval for ordinary carriages going through works then theoretically N.E.R. carriages were turned out in teak by late 1927. I may consider early 1929 for carriages turned out new in crimson lake during early 1924.

IG Sadler mentioned that the former N.E.R. clerestory bogie carriages were not heavily withdrawn until post-WWII, but that British Railways had withdrawn all of them from normal service by 1953. What he meant as constituting normal service was presumably in daily use in scheduled trains. Whether they eked out a couple of more years in sidings for use on summer Saturdays or to cover for failed carriages is speculation. I assume that they weren't seen around the NE Region past 1955.

[borderreiver]

A very different view looking north at Belmont Junction in 1924 than you'd get if you put a drone aloft today. Here, an intrepid aviator is taking passengers up for a circuit round Durham and is passing above the junction on the Leamside branch.




This section of line was part of the original East Coast Main Line between York and Newcastle patched together during the 1840s by George Hudson "The Railway King". He created the Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway (N.D.J.R.) in 1842 after the Great North of England Railway (G.N.E.R.) ran out of money when building its line from York to the north at Darlington during 1841. His line to Greenesfield station in Gateshead opened in June 1844 and he bought up every existing bit of line that he could to save laying new track.

From Darlington he pushed up to Ferryhill, where he used the Clarence Railway's cutting to reach Rainton Crossing. He took control of the Durham Junction Railway , Pontop & South Shields Railway and Brandling Junction Railway to achieve a rather circuitous route, which was still far better than the pre-existing options available to people from the River Tees or south thereof wishing to reach Sunderland on the River Wear or Newcastle on the River Tyne.

However, Durham city was not served by the line and to save a road trip out to the station at Belmont the N.D.J.R. provided a short branch to a terminus at Durham Gilesgate station. This only lasted in passenger service to 1857 when Durham station opened on the new N.E.R. branch from Sunderland to Bishop Auckland, which left the Leamside route at Auckland Junction (the line to Durham visible in the background running left-right). After that Gilesgate was for goods traffic only until closure. The station building at Gilesgate is now part of a hotel.

Hudson's circuitous main line route was shortened somewhat in 1849 by the building of the line between Washington on the former Stanhope & Tyne (Pontop & South Shields Railway) and Pelaw on the Brandling Junction Railway line between Gateshead and Monkwearmouth. The Tyne was spanned in the same year by Stephenson's High Level Bridge, rendering Gateshead's Greenesfield terminus obsolete (It became the N.E.R.'s Gateshead works) and eventually, in 1868, the Sunderland to Bishop Auckland branch was the jumping off point for a new line between Durham and Newcastle via Newton Hall junction and the valley of the River Team. This then led, in 1871 to the N.E.R. diverting the E.C.M.L. via Durham on building a new line between Ferryhill on the Leamside route to Relly Mill Junction on the Sunderland to Bishop Auckland branch. The Leamside line then lost its status as a main line but remained an important route for freight traffic, especially as it had slightly easier gradients than the new route through Durham and the Team valley. The steepest grade on the Leamside route was 1 in 177 when climbing towards the summit in the down direction south of Shincliffe station. that compares to the 1 in 101 between Durham station and Relly Mill in the up direction. This required banking engines to be stationed at Durham to assist the heaviest trains to ascend the gradient out of the station. it was not helped by the site limiting the through lines to 25 mph. No "building up speed" for a run at the bank at Durham!