North East England - Steam Days Screenshots - Large Screenshots Possible

BR NE Region. 9F passes a wedding and probably drowns out the conversation, if not actually depositing ash on the bridal party!



The screenshot competition this week had a romance theme with St Valentine's Day coming up, so I got to work with Ray Whiley's wedding party people and a few others too. Thanks to Bob Sanders and Ray Whiley for their efforts.

1939 Brandon Colliery

Brandon Colliery and the A4 in T:ANE. No change to procedural track yet.

Daft question from a newbie - and apologies for being off the core topic.
I'm having trouble seeing any linked images hosted via Imgur. I've tried all the obvious (different browsers, browser blocking settings). I get the message that browsers cannot establish a secure connection to Imgur.com.
Anyone else get this? Is there an obvious fix?
Cheers, Tim

Some browsers have decided that they don't like Imgur Tim. It's something to do with Imgur's security licence, but beyond that I'm not too sure. I'm using Chrome and I'm not having any problems, but some other Chrome users have reported that they can't see images from Imgur.

KotangaGirl said:

Some browsers have decided that they don't like Imgur Tim. It's something to do with Imgur's security licence, but beyond that I'm not too sure. I'm using Chrome and I'm not having any problems, but some other Chrome users have reported that they can't see images from Imgur.

Click to expand...

Thanks KotangaGirl! Fixed it by using Opera on IOS.

Chevington

Northeast England during the steam era. Work is progressing on the N1 type North Eastern Railway Signal Cabins. A model, I have designated N1 Early Type Standard Height Extended Width Stone Left ladder (N1E SHEWSLL) stands in for the box at Chevington on the ECML in Northumberland. Several Signal Cabins on the NER section of the ECML in Northumberland were early type N1s, stone built during the 1870s. Lucker and Chevington were two such buildings. However, the cabin at Chevington was extended at a later date, with the side window filled in with dressed stone and three new N2-style windows installed in the front wall. A close examination of the stone revealed the extension had a slightly lighter finish. I will make do with an extended width early N1 type to do the job.

Now that is a fine looking signal cabin Frank.

Hi Anne. The actual N1E SHEWSLL will be in the dark dressed stone finish but I have expanded the N1 commission to have Paul build sandstone versions of the N1 Early type cabins in Standard Height Standard Width (N1E SHSSLL/N1E SHSSLR) and Standard Height Extended Width (N1E SHEWSSLL/N1 SHEWSSLR). As before, right and left ladder variants to give some flexibility to Trainzers rather than being 100% prototypically purist. There will also be two N3 types coming along in sandstone finish.

Sending them over for checking

I've received the signal boxes Paul, - gosh there's a lot! - I'll have a good look at them later this evening.

LNER NE Area 1929 - Coal for Amble

North East England during the steam era. 1929 on the Amble branch, a little to the east of Amble junction. A weathered J24 0-6-0 heads along the branch towards Amble with a loaded coal tain for the staithes at Amble harbour. Buckingham Palace had a contract with Shilbottle colliery near Alnmouth to supply domestic coal for the palace fires. Shilbottle coal was very high quality, burning with a high heat, making it suited to warming large rooms. Shilbottle shipped out a significant fraction of its output from Amble bound for London and the docks on the River Thames. In the background one of Gresley's A1 pacifics heads north on the down ECML with an express passenger train bound for Edinburgh.

Postwar on the Bishop Auckland and Simpasture branches

Northeast England during the steam era. I have been tinkering round with a on old route I have, part of the Bishop Auckland Branch (which included the western section of the original 1825 Stockton & Darlington line). Here, between Aycliffe and Shildon where the LNER Simpasture branch to Redmarshall diverges from the Bishop Auckland branch two trains are to be seen. A WD Austerity 2-8-0 "flying bedstead" with a 45-wagon train of empty diag 100 Steel body 20 Ton Coal Hoppers from Newport on Tees waits for the road to come off the western end of the Simpasture branch (originally The Clarence Railway route to the Tees via Redmarshall and Stockton on Tees) and take the Bishop Auckland branch for a short distance before entering the down yard at Shildon. Raven the NER Chief Engineer electrified the Simpasture branch during WWI but the LNER chose not to continue with the DC electification beyond the early 1930s when it fell due for renewal.

An LNER G5 Worsdell 0-4-4T loco passes with a local passenger train for Bishop Auckland and Crook while the 2-8-0 is at a stand at signals.



The G5 0-4-4T heads west towards Shildon station and will pass between the up and down yard complexes at Shildon.



The Austerity 2-8-0 comes off the Simpasture branch with its train of empty coal hoppers from Newport.

Postwar II

Northeast England during the steam era. Some shots after more work done on the Bishop Auckland branch.

The G5 heading west on the Bishop Auckland branch as the 2-8-0 stands at signals to come off the Simpasture branch.



A J21 TW Worsdell 0-6-0 passes eastbound on the Bishop Auckland branch bound for Darlington with loco coal empties, an empty 6-plank wagon which had carried sand, an old 12 Ton covered van used for stores and two old 12 Ton plate wagons.



A Q6 Raven 0-8-0 passes eastbound bound for the Simpasture branch with a loaded coal train for Newport on Tees.

1940 - Shildon Yards - East End

North East England during the steam era. I have been laying tack in for the coal yards at Shildon.

An A5 4-6-2T hauls a four-coach passenger train for Darlington past a Q6 0-8-0 waiting to back on to a loaded coal train for Newport Yard on Tees-side.



The waiting Q6 and a view of the east end of Shildon yards.

That certainly is a big coal yard Frank.

Hi Kotangagirl, yes, it was. The screenshot shows only the eastern portion. There was also a western portion around half this size beyond the long footbridge in the far background. A small function of the yards was to send and receive wagons for the Wagon Repair works to the southwest of Shildon station. This function was to be the last surviving purpose of the yard, lasting in to the 1980s. The marshalling of loaded and empty coal wagons was un-necessary in this district by the mid-1960s.

The yards at Shildon were claimed to be "the largest in the kingdom" by the N.E.R. This was possibly true around 1914 when Raven electrified the former Clarence Railway Simpasture branch via Redmarshall to Newport on Tees-side, and even if overtaken afterwards the yards were "among the largest in the kingdom" for several decades. The peak in coal traffic to Tees-side was 1913. WW1 depressed coastal shipping, including that of coal to London, which would have affected the Simpasture Branch . After WW1 coastal shipping resumed but the 20s and 30s were difficult decades and the LNER de-electrified the Simpasture Branch during the mid-1930s. Several collieries in the West Auckland/Shildon area also closed during the 1920s and 1930s. By the early 1960s widepspread colliery closures were under way in the western part of the Durham Coalfield as the National Coal Board concentrated on the large coastal collieries such as Monkwearmouth, Seaham and Horden. The National Railway Museum's "Locomotion" satellite now occupies part of the the Southwestern portion of the former Shildon yards site.

The Shildon Yard certainly looks impressive, Borderreiver, and thanks for the detailed background information which you provide so clearly.
The 20 ton coal hoppers look particularly interesting and would be useful in many situations. Can you advise where they can be obtained?

The hoppers and other wagons are available from here:

www.paulztrainz.myenet.info/inside/LNER_Wagons.htm

The wagons used in the Shildon screenshots include the following:

LNER Diagram 100 20 Ton steel bodied hoppers, most in heavily weathered and some in weathered finish.
LNER TOAD B 20 Ton brake vans.
LNER TOAD E 20 Ton brake vans.
LNER liveried former NER Diagram P7 20 Ton wooden bodied coal hoppers, most in heavily weathered and some in weathered finish.
LNER liveried former NER Diagram P6 15 Ton wooden bodied coal hoppers, most in heavily weathered and some in weathered finish.
LNER liveried former NER Diagram Q2 21 Ton wooden bodied loco coal wagons.
LNER liveried former NER Diagram V4 10 Ton brake vans.
LNER liveried former NER Diagram V3 20 Ton brake vans.

The coal hoppers include both industry enabled vehicles meant for industry ops, and then vehicles for through train rakes with coal loads, coke loads and some are empty.

I have also had Paul build the following:

NER Diagram P17 12 Ton coal hoppers
NER Diagram P5 11 Ton coal hoppers
NER Diagram P4 10.5 Ton coal hoppers
NER Diagram R5 10.5 Ton coke hoppers

The NER built tens of thousands of coal hopper wagons with the main objective of rapid discharge at riverside staithes on the rivers Coquet, Tyne, Wear, Tees and Humber as well as from Seaham harbour. The NER tended to provide coal drops at stations in order to encourage the rapid turnaround of wagons in the domestic coal business. Coal merchants retaining wagons in sidings as storage for the coal they bought was an issue. I have seen reference to the Consett Iron Company defending its policy of not paying suppliers of coal, coke, limestone and ironstone until the wagons were discharged after a quarry company complained about the C.I.C. storing wagonloads for days/weeks in Consett Low Yard before tipping them. I have also seen reference to the NER writing to the Lambton Company asking them to cease holding on to empty NER wagons on their colliery system (The Lambton were possibly holding them for a day or two and sneaking in a trip or two to their own Lambton staithes to reduce the requirements of buying their own wagons). During LNER days a census in the LNER NE Area revealed that more than a thousand wagons had "vanished" without trace, having not been seen or heard of since leaving the wagon works!

That's a lot of wagons to go missing Frank. I wonder how many of those were taken behind the shed for a quick repaint job and the makers plates taken off.