North East England - Steam Days Screenshots - Large Screenshots Possible

This is one of the sessions which I have still to add to my route, albeit only on the York to a little way past Pillmoor or via Harrogate. look forward to taking advantage of your commissions.

Placed an order for some data from NERA yesterday.


Hello kotangagirl

No, it is a Midland SB from the S&C payware route. The PLL route also has versions of it. I have been debating about commissioning Paul to build some NER Northern Division signal boxes, though I'd prefer them to be on the DLS. I currently have Paul working on the remainder of the consist for the 11:20 a.m. 1914 ECJS departure from Kings Cross for Scotland.
 
KotangaGirl, JackDownUnder & Robd, thanks for the kind words.
Jack re post#361, the 11:20 a.m. out of Kings Cross during 1914 was a summer working with ECJS coaches for Edinburgh, Perth, Montrose and North Berwick. The North Berwick through coach was a 65ft6in 12 wheel matchboard Diagram 45 BCK (2-3) built at York in 1905. It was selected for its luggage capacity in the guard's space.

Matchboard coaches were prominent in the GN&NEJS, with 10 of the 36 coaches being of the slab-sided matchboard type.

At Darlington a N.E.R. through coach from Keswick was attached, bound for Newcastle. Most likely it was a non-corridor type and I will be using an N.E.R. 52ft Clerestory roof BCL (2-3). I think that the duration of the journey justified a Brake Composite lavatory!

By 1922 the 11:20 a.m. was a completely different train. Bradshaw's GNR Table for the north describes it as a "London, Harrogate, Scarborough and Glasgow Express" and "Luncheon Car London to Scarboro". The GNR main core of the dining set did go to Scarborough, but a GNR portion was removed at 2:32 p.m. at Doncaster for Harrogate going forward at 2:44 p.m via Church Fenton (arr Harrogate 3:45 p.m.). At York ( arr 3:21 p.m.) the main GNR core for Scarborough was moved to the Scarborough platforms but an ECJS 3-coach portion for Glasgow Queen Street was removed and joined to an NER Leeds to Glasgow portion made up mostly of a dining set. The NER table for the north describes it as "Restaurant Car Express York to Glasgow".

An NBR through coach from Scarborough for Glasgow was added to the ECJS-NER portions for Glasgow. Finally, a 4/5 coach portion from Southampton Town (dep 7:36 a.m.) bound for Glasgow was added. This stock was NBR or LSWR on alternate days and routed via Didcot, Oxford, Banbury, Nottingham Victoria and Sheffield Victoria. Bradshaw's notes a Restaurant Car was added at Oxford, but whether it was GWR or GCR is unknown. It went all the way to York. From the description in Bradshaws in the LSWR section it seems that there was at least one through coach, possibly always an LSWR one, from Southampton Town bound for Scarborough. So, the train left York for Glasgow with around 12 coaches while the 3 GNR coaches and 1 or 2 LSWR coaches headed for Scarborough and the GWR/GCR Oxford dining car waited for its return working (the next day). A lot of shunting at York!

Update: The restaurant car added at Oxford at 10 a.m. was, in my opinion, a composite coach and going all the way to York would not have made a return trip south that day. I had thought about it coming off the train at Sheffield Victoria (1:51 - 2:00 p.m.) but the table for Sheffield to York describes it as having a "Restaurant Car" and stopping at Rotherham & Masboro, Pontefract (sets down by request) and Burton Salmon (change for Selby and Hull). I would choose a GCR coach but there is wiggle room to make it a GWR one (though probably the oldest one they could spare).
 
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More information about the Southampton Town to Glasgow Queen Street portion from the NERA 1926 Carriage Roster. In 1926 it was alternating between GWR and ex-NBR coaches. The GWR through coaches were a Corridor Composite and Corridor Brake Third and the ex-NBR coaches were a Corridor Open Third and Corridor Brake Composite. The minumum seating requirement was for 12 First Class and 88 Third Class seats.

By 1926 the York departure for Glasgow was at 3:50 p.m. This was identified as "Set 419" and was made up of:

Set 108. NE Area Corridor Brake Composite (Scarborough - Glasgow QS)
Set 413b. NB Section Corridor Brake Composite (Scarborough - Glasgow QS)
Set 414. GE Section Corridor Brake Composite and Corridor Third (Harwich - Glasgow QS)
Set 421b. NB Section Corridor Brake Composite and Corridor Open Third (Southampton Town _ Glasgow QS) - alternates daily with GWR Corridor Composite and Brake Third.
Set 424. NE Area "Dining First" (Restaurant First) and Open Third (Oxford - Newcastle), alternates daily with GWR Dining Composite and Corridor Brake Third (NE set works TuThSO, GW set works MWFO)

So, by 1926 there appears to be no ECJS portion, but the roster is notoriously silent on LNER/NE Area vehicles which do not start or end at a station in the NE Area. By 1926 there is also a Harwich - Glasgow portion, not mentioned in Bradshaw's 1922 as far as I can see so far. More research required. The Dining coach alternated between NE vehicles and GWR vehicles - no standing around at York as I thought! The vehicles spent the night at Heaton carriage Sidings.

Addition: - I also have to go looking for the Southampton - Scarborough through coaches (if they persisted until 1926).
 
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I like the Inkerman Signal Box model; - is that one of Paul's?

Hi KontangaGirl

You will find that signal box on the DLS now. The author mike10 has released quite a few of his S&C assets on to the DLS in the last couple of years. The signal box is asset S&C SB Nameable 2 <kuid2:35412:28369:2>

Peter
 
Thanks very much for that Peter. Have downloaded it from the DLS along with all its friends. mike10 makes good models.
 
The Coke Ovens at Inkerman

North East England during the steam era. Staying close to Tow law in County Durham, I have been working on building the town and its industry. The site of Inkerman colliery turns out to be more complex than originally planned. Back in 1916/1921 the colliery site was actually the site of older coke ovens, with coal supplied by the nearby Black Prince Colliery, further along the colliery line. By 1930 all these older ovens and Black Prince colliery, sunk in 1845, had gone too, with the 25-inch to the mile map of 1939 indicating the coke oven site here now was the site of a smaller Colliery called Inkerman. The Durham Colliery website reports Inkerman opened in 1873 and was gone by 1886, shows Black Prince as being there on a 1948 map but records that the seams were abandoned in 1929! it would seem to be anyone's guess as to what was actually going on at this site between 1886 and 1966.

I have been trying out Kemplen's Hoffman Brickworks ovens to stand in for this older type of oven, of which there were many examples in use between around 1850 and 1930. In one or two places they lasted longer but were very labour intensive and slower compared to the newer, larger types.

Here, looking north eastwards, late during the day, workers strive to fill the three 10.5 Ton NER Coke wagons overnight for despatch the next morning. Black Prince colliery is in the distance and there are more coke ovens there too. Out of sight to the left there should be four more sets of ovens.



Another view, looking south westwards towards Tow Law.

 
Another interesting post borderreiver. I love old OS maps, but sometimes they do raise more questions than give clear answers when attempting to trace historic railways.
 
Darlington Adelaide Street and J71 0-6-0T

I have been doing some work around Darlington on my County Durham section of the TS12 built in ECML route rolled back to the steam era. MasonTaylor's Modular terrace kit assets are standing in for the Adelaide Street terraced houses, which backed right up to the railway to the east of Bank Top station's northern end. A J71 0-6-0T has some 20 Ton loco coal wagon empties to trip to Croft yard as a Sentinel railcar stands in platform 2 bay and a J27 0-6-0 passes by on the down main line with a long Croft yard - Gateshead Borough Gardens loose-coupled goods working.





 
N.E.R. York Holgate - ECJS 11:20 a.m. ex-Kings Cross for Edinburgh, Perth and Montros

North East England during the steam era.
York Holgate summer 1914.
Around 3:15 p.m. the 11:20 ECJS Luncheon and Dinner Express in the hands of a G.N.R. Large Boiler Atlantic approaches York.
There, a N.E.R. Atlantic of Class V, V9 or Z will take the train onwards to Newcastle, with one intermediate stop at Darlington.
At Darlington a N.E.R. 52ft Brake Composite Lavatory through coach from Keswick will be added, going to Newcastle.

Below, the ECJS Diagram 45 BCK through coach for North Berwick at the south end of the train, detached at Drem.



Below, the northbound ECJS express meets a southbound coal train in the hands of a T2 0-8-0.



Below, the Atlantic brings the express under the Holgate bridge as a long coal train heads south from York yards.

 
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York Holgate is looking very fine indeed borderreiver. And an Atlantic with all those lovely teak coaches, - a sight to soothe sore eyes.
 
NW Durham and Newcastle - Black Prince Colliery Coke Ovens

North East England and my NW Durham and Newcastle route is evolving. I have done more work on the old coke ovens at Black Prince Colliery near Tow Law in County Durham. I have reskinned bendorsey's coke ovens x 30 as the basis for the old ovens. There were about nine sets of ovens like these at the site circa 1900 but all were gone by 1929. A labour intensive way to produce coke. Two days to clean out and load the double beehive ovens with washed coal, then three days to burn the coke in a low oxygen environment and finally a water drench to quench the fire and two days to cool and unload the oven. All thirty double ovens would not be in simultaneous use. Ten would be being cleaned out/loaded, ten would be burning and ten would be cooling/unloading. This would be a more efficient use of the workforce. I have horses drawing the 24-inch gauge skips up to the top of the oven, where it would be tipped in/shovelled from the top, then inside the oven other workers would bank the coal around the oven. Once cooled the coke would have to be shovelled out/removed by barrow and loaded in to wagons alongside the loading bank. Some old shots show iron "r" swinging davits, from which sacks of coke could be swung over the wagon side. Alternatively, gangplanks may have been rigged up which (strong) fellows pushed up a barrow of coke and tipped it in to the wagon (not a job for someone lacking balance). Until WWI the numbers of men required to do this work were not a problem. After WWI and with the invention of modern coke ovens the cost of production led to the abandonment of this type of oven in NE England. A single set of of five ovens remains mostly intact near Rowlands Gill at Garesfield as a historical testament to the 19th century industry.





 
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Thank you Kotangagirl. There is about three hours work to assemble each oven bank on site with assets from around ten different asset creators. The site needs two more banks like this to the south of the colliery line, you can see the two oven banks off to the north which were ovens 5 and 6. The colliery will have ovens 7 and 8 while the final oven bank closest to the colliery will be a bank of sixty ovens. I will then place the colliery headstock, winding gear house, boiler house and screens. The headstock will have an extension since there was a drift mine to the northeast feeding in to the Black Prince colliery by a tramway, which I intend to lay as a 24 inch ng line. The tramway motive power may have been horses or even winding engines but I will use 24inch gauge quarry 0-4-0T locomotives pulling 5 or 10 1 ton capacity skips. Each oven would produce about 3 tons of coking coal over a seven day cycle. 8 x 30 and 1 x 60 means 300 ovens producing 900 tons per week. With a six-day working week on the railway for mineral traffic (Monday a minute after midnight to Saturday around midday) that means 150 tons going out each day, roughly equating to a train of 14 NER 10.5 Ton coke wagons. There is about 0.28 of a wagon spare though the loading out and production would not have been a perfect or entirely consistent process. Some coking coal would have been sold on site on a "land sale" basis by the colliery agent and the town's coal merchant would likely have taken several cart loads a week (or possibly one hopper wagon tripped to the depot down by the station if the NER were willing to do that, dropping off a wagon from the train at the station, to be shunted to the coal drops later in the day). The town's iron foundry was rail connected and would have been a potential customer too. The train load of coke would have found a customer at Consett Iron Company to the north or the ironworks on Tees-side to the Southeast. Given the Stockton & Darlington origins of the railway in this district there is a likelihood that most went off to the works along the banks of the Tees, getting there via the large coal yards at Shildon and the electrified line to Newport on Tees. I read a letter from Consett iron Company written around 1900 in response to a complaint about payment for limestone. The adverse weather had caused a backlog of loaded wagons at Consett and the CIC defended a delay in payment because they only entered an authority for payment upon discharge of the wagon at the works! This obviously created an incentive to store loaded wagons in the yard at Consett in order to provide a steady supply rather than build a stockpile by the furnaces. This would have greatly irritated the NER too, since their wagons would have been parked up in a siding for days rather than earning revenue. That was the subject of a stern missive from the NER to a colliery owner around 1905, where the railway insisted upon prompt loading of empty company wagons delivered to the colliery exchange sidings. from the wording I took it that the clerk was no stranger to writing and sending this kind of letter and there was probably a standard form of words!
 
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Yes I could see that the coke ovens were assembled from many pieces and that it wouldn't be any kind of instant process borderreiver.

As always your historical notes make for very interesting reading.
 
Ferryhill NER

Northeast England during the steam era. Ferryhill in County Durham in pre-grouping NER days. One of Raven's S2 4-6-0 Mixed Traffic locos heads north with the morning fitted goods from York for Newcastle Forth. The colliery spoil heap dominates the skyline. A J71 pauses between shunting duties in the background while a southbound loose-coupled goods for Croft Yard waits in a loop.

 
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A great atmospheric screenshot borderreiver. I was going to ask if the Raven S3 was a new model from Paul, but I see it's been on offer on his website for a while now.
 
Hi Kotangagirl

Thanks for that. Both the S2 and S3 (B15 and B16) are on Paul's site. It is a while since I commissioned them but I have tweaked the footplate crew and produced new HD numbers/letters for NER locos (and numbers/letters LNER locos in green and black liveries).

At Newton Hall Junction. I need to fix that hedge spline. Look closely, there's a foreign van bringing goods from the west midlands in there.......

 
Ferryhill NER

Northeast England during the steam era. Ferryhill in County Durham once boasted an island platform station with two bay platforms at each end, north and south. Passenger trains ran north to Newcastle via Durham & Newcastle via Leamside, east to Trimdon & Hartlepool, southeast to Stockton, south to Darlington, and west to Bishop Auckland via Spennymoor.

Here a Raven S2 4-6-0 runs past Ferryhill station on the ECML through lines. A NER "Main line set" of 52ft coaches stands in one north bay while the other is occupied by an autotrain preparing to form a branch service to either Bishop Auckland or Trimdon.



A Worsdell T Class 0-8-0 takes a coal train south on the slow lines which ran to the east side of the station as the S2 continues on to the north.



Passenger trains scheduled to stop at Ferryhill had to leave the ECML and take loop lines.
 
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