North East England - Steam Days Screenshots - Large Screenshots Possible

The Amble Branch Water Tank

Hi Annie,

The Amble branch was originally built in 1849 by the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway as a mineral line for the export of coal through "Warkworth Harbour". A harbour had been built there in 1826, though at that time Amble was a small village to the west comprising of several cottages built along the bank of the River Coquet. The main forms of employment during the 1841 census were farming and fishing. The principal customer for the YN&BR was to be Broomhill Colliery, sunk some 76 years earlier during 1773 to extract high quality steam coal. Broomhill already had its own wagonway reaching "Warkworth Harbour" from the south by way of its sister colliery at Radcliffe, sunk in 1836. In contrast, the Y.N.&B.R. would approach from the southwest. Traffic grew throughout the 1850s, 60s and 70s and in 1879 the North Eastern Railway commenced running a passenger service, which would become an early casualty under the L.N.E.R. running the last branch passenger train on July 3rd 1930.

The water tank was brick built and appears to me to be a contemporary of the passenger service commencement, just as the station and water crane at Amble were. I cannot find out what locomotive watering arrangements existed on the branch under the Y.N.&B.R. and N.E.R. between 1849 and 1879. Both the N.E.R.A. line diagram for the branch and the OS 25 inch map refer to "cisterns" sited beside the line between the junction and the water tank. There are no details as to what their capacities were but I believe that it is possible that a degree of watering could have been accomplished by them. Alternatively, it is possible that a water tank existed at the harbour end of the branch from 1849, though its construction materials are a mystery. Colliery locomotives would have taken coal and water at their colliery shed at Broomhill.

I am going to put my neck out and say that the tank is likely to have been for watering mineral engines. Perhaps the tank at Amble was "reserved" for the branch passenger engine and, despite its remote location, the water tank at this end was the closest location found in 1879 at which to secure water in sufficient quantity for watering mineral locomotives.

I have uploaded a cab view video to youtube of the D49 running between Widdrington and Acklington stations.

And a lovely landscape it is too Frank.

Many thanks Annie. Still a long way to go with it though!

Excellent video, superb looking route.

Rob.

Thanks for that Robd. It is coming along bit by bit. I am looking forward to the day when I can post the video of a train going all the way to Amble station.

1913: ECML Northumberland

Northeast England during the steam era. An early morning during the late summer 1913 in rural Northumberland and a N.E.R. Wilson Worsdell P2 Class 0-6-0 approaches Amble Junction on the Down Independent line with a coal train bound for the N.E.R. Staithes at Amble.

Loving this thread and model. Spent lots of time in this part of Northumberland - good friends lived in that set of colliery cottages at Stobbswood featured in an earlier shot. Happy memories. A beautiful piece of modelling, captures the feel of that part of the county really well.

We lived in Dunston next to the famous large coal staithes, and pretty much on top of where the much older wooden tramline (long gone now) from above the Team Valley met the Tyne, so often replicated the journey the Worsdell was undertaking in the earlier shot....

1913 ECML Northumberland

Thanks for that Tim12Rob. The route will (eventually) include the Amble branch. The coal staithes there, like Dunston are long gone now. I recall as a child travelling on a bus on the road to South Shields and passing beneath the massive coal staithes at Tyne Dock.

A view of the P3 in the landscape. This shot was already posted on the UK Screenshots for Pre-BR Blue thread but you might have missed it.

1913 Factory Days

North East England during the steam era.
Industrial Tyneside.
A dirty N.E.R. E Class 0-6-0 delivers empty wagons to a factory at Derwenthaugh for loading.



Under the rules applying to consignments prior to the mid-1930s, if the factory had a load to transport to a single consignee which weighed two tons or more, then a wagon would be provided by the railwazy company. If the load was less than two tons, was two tons or more but for multiple consignees then the load would be collected, taken to a transhipment depot and then sent on its way to a hub in a transhipment wagon. From there it could be sent on to the consignee (if the hub depot was also the local depot for the consignee), sent on to a further transhipment hub and then sent onwards for delivery in a Road Wagon.

1944 Derwent Valley Branch - Swalwell Freight

Northeast England during the steam era. On a misty spring morning a L.N.E.R. J26 sporting WWII Black livery and a tender marked NE makes its way through Swalwell station on the lower part of the Derwent Valley Branch. While there are a couple of sheeted open goods wagons most of the load is steel from Consett Iron Company, carried in a variety of wagon types, including rakes of three single bolsters, twin bolsters and double bolsters. Proabale destination, a shipyard on the Tyne or the Armstrong Vickers armaments factory at Scotswood. The Consett Iron Company's Derwenthaugh Coke Works can be seen in the background.

1920 A Day Trip to Saltburn

North East England during the steam era. Railway companies made significant amounts of money from excursions and the North Eastern Railway was no exception. It was slightly different, along with the Great Central Railway, in that it built carriages explicitly for the traffic, with its successor the L.N.E.R. following suit during the 1930s with its distinctive Gresley Tourist stock. In the main though, excursion traffic was catered for by using older carriages and, if available, sets which were not required on their regular weekday working. Summer Saturdays could see almost anything with automatic train braking and capable of turning a wheel mustered for duty. It is often the unusual and the out of the ordinary which was captured by photographers of the period, especially with their hobby being followed during their time off, typically at weekends and during the summer. This can give a somewhat skewed view of the railway.

By 1920, T.W. Worsdell's C Class 0-6-0 was a veteran class, with thirty-four years of service under its belt. Most were originally built as Worsdell-Von Burries compounds but TW Worsdell's brother Worsdell was no fan of compounding and after T.W.W. ceased consulting for the N.E.R. following his retirement as Loco Superintendant, Wilson wasted no time in starting to rebuild them as simples. All the class also received Wilson Worsdell steel boilers in due course. Automatic train brake was fitted to several of the class and Raven added superheating to some, extending the smokebox to accomodate the superheater. With differences in brake rodding (inside/outside), superheating and automatic train brake fitment the Class J21 (as it became under the L.N.E.R.) was quite varied.

Below, on a summer Saturday, a superheated example with ATB from Darlington was not left to sit quietly at the shed. it has found itself sent to Spennymoor and Ferryhill to haul an excursion to Saltburn on Sea. The company has provided a mixed rake of arc-roof 49ft bogie stock and some venerable six-wheelers (though they could be up to eight years younger than the C class loco!). The train is seen passing Chilton sidings on the line between Ferryhill and Sedgefield. From the empty sidings, it may be during the "pitmens' holiday" when collieries closed for maintenance for two weeks over the summer. It was at this time that the "pit ponies", who spent most of their time in stables down the mine would be brought up to the surface for a holiday of their own.

The C Class/J21s would last until 1957. A service life of seventy one years was quite an achievement.

Nice looking shot, but I read from other sources like LNER.info the last J21 was withdrawn in 1962.

Thanks H.
I stand corrected.
I forgot about the small group of nine which made it past 1957 (65033, 65039, 65061, 65064, 65070, 65099, 65103, 65110 & 65117), though just four made it 1960, with only one left in service at the start of 1961.

65033 w/dn 10/62
65039 w/dn 11/58
65061 w/dn 5/58
65064 w/dn 9/58
65070 w/dn 9/60
65099 w/dn 10/61
65103 w/dn 12/58
65110 w/dn 7/60
65117 w/dn 2/59

Among them is the story of 65033 and 65099.
65033 (built as 876 in 1889) and 65099 (built as 1576 in 1891) and 65099 withdrawn and condemned Oct 1961 (losing its boiler Sept 1960), with 65033 withdrawn as condemned in April 1962.
The statement in Yeadon's for 65033, "laid aside until June 1968 for preservation at Beamish Open Air Museum" is not quite the story.

65033 was condemned in November 1939 but the decision was rescinded and she was repaired due to wartime requirements for locomotives. After condemnation in 1962 she lay at Darlington, along with the mortal remains of number 65099 waiting for a decision on which, if any, J21 to preserve. Allegedly, 65033 received the boiler from 65099 in 1960, with 65099 having a cracked frame at the time. Yeadon's has the last repair for 65033 in 1956 with repainting during May 1960 for a railtour. The works records may not have been updated with a boiler removed from a locomotive due to be scrapped finding a home on another member of the class with "imminent" withdrawal hanging over it.

In any event, the decision making process on preservation dragged on in to 1968 but when it came, neither would be preserved. 65099 was promptly cut up and 65033 put out to bids by scrap dealers. The legend attached to the loco is that the train crew coming to haul it away forgot to marshall it in the train, taking away only the wagons. Another version of that is that the footplate crew assigned to the loco to take it away did not show up after a heavy night in the pub. In any event, Frank Atkinson, the first director of Beamish North of England Open Air Museum arranged to spirit the loco away from Darlington and hid it at Consett Steelworks. He did not actually pay for the loco before having it hauled away. That happened later, which subsequently caused Durham County Council to ask Frank how a debit for £1,200 appeared in the County Council accounts for the purchase of a locomotive! The locomotive moved to the Tanfield Railway for restoration during 1970 and went to work at Beamish from 1974. It was discovered that the cab fitted to 65033 was not the correct one, coming from one of the 651xx series of J21s. The last of those was withdrawn in July 1960 (number 65110) so perhaps the cab from 65110 went on to 65033 along with the boiler from 65099.

1948 Leamside Route Mineral

North East England during the steam era. Time to give one of my new J26 0-6-0 locos a run. Sporting a diagram 57A boiler and paired with a later pattern 3038 gallon tender from a Class J27, one of Newport Tees-side shed's stable is heading south along the Leamside line with a loaded coal train. The train is made up of a mix of 20 Ton ex-N.E.R. wooden bodied coal hoppers to diagram P7 and 21 Ton ex-L.N.E.R. steel coal hoppers to diagram 100.

Passing south of Leamside station.




The L.N.E.R. discontinued local passenger services between Leamside and Ferryhill during 1940, making the line freight only apart from occasional engineering diversions. The majority of passenger trains passing Leamside station during 1948 are local passenger trains between Sunderland and Durham, with some going forwards to Bishop Auckland. This section of line was part of the original east coast main line.

The Wilson Worsdell P2 Class was a large 0-6-0, built to haul the increasingly heavy goods and mineral trains on the network. Fifty saturated engines were built between 1904 and 1905, with his almost identical P3 Class following on from the build of P2. Unlike the P3, none of the P2s were superheated and the modification of cab windows from spectacle to shaped ones as seen on the T2 (Q6) 0-6-0 was never extended to the whole class. The Worsdell 0-8-0 T and T2 Classes displaced them from most long distance goods work. By BR days half the class was concentrated on Tees-side.

The J26 is by Paulztrainz gantry and signals are by Chrisaw.

Thanks for sharing the story of No. 65033 Frank.

No problem Annie.
Number 65033 worked at Beamish until 1984 when its boiler ticket ran out. I saw her at the NRM's outpost at Locomotion, Shildon a couple of years ago and she was looking in quite a sorry state. Since then the Stainmore Railway at Kirkby Stephen has become involved and that will be her home, the J21s working on the line at varying periods of their long service. I was not sure whether she is at Kirkby Stephen being restored or is still at Shildon so a bit of research online suggests that she is being returned to steam at Shildon and once completed will move to Kirkby Stephen East. The NRM has loaned N.E.R. 901 Class 2-4-0 number 910 to the railway and it is displayed in the Darlington Trainshed at KSE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainmore_Railway_Company#/media/File:J21_No.65033_at_Shildon.jpg

Below, J26 65763 passes Belmont Junction Signal Box on her way south on the Leamside line towards Ferryhill.




Taking the Leamside line and the goods lines through Ferryhill will keep the train clear of the ECML tracks. The train will proceed onwards from Ferryhill via Sedgefield to Newport yard on Tees-side.

1955 - J26 at Aycliffe on the Simpasture branch

North East England during the steam era. Mid-1950s on the Simpasture Branch at Aycliffe, with a Class J26 0-6-0, number 65757, heading for Newport yard on Tees-side with a goods train.




While the J26 is on the Simpasture Branch the to lines in the foreground are the Bishop Auckland branch between Darlington, Shildon, Bishop Auckland, Crook, Tow Law and Wearhead. Taking the right hand junction at Bishop Auckland will take trains via Willington to Durham. The junction between the two branches is to the west, near the bridge faintly seen in the background. The Simpasture branch was electified by Raven in 1915 to 1500V DC, though twenty years later during the depression the L.N.E.R. could not justify renewing the overhead line equipment.

The J26 is one of the class which received shaped cab windows.
This saturated engine is therefore easily mistaken at first glance for a Class J27, since most of that class was also saturated rather than superheated and all J27s had shaped cab windows. Initially the differences between the two classes was down to differences with the firebox. However, the LNER diagram 57 boiler essentially eliminated them, and with modifications to the frames of J26 the diagram 57 boiler and its later 57A derivitive was interchanged between the classes. During the BR period post-nationalisation the 3038 gallon tenders on both classes were swapped. This meant that several of the later 1921 pattern 3038 gallon tenders with oval frame cut-outs originally paired with the superheated J27s were seen with Class J6 engines. The later tender tipped the scales when loaded at 37 Tons 12 cwt (38.2 metric tonnes) compared to 34 Tons 8 cwt ( 34.95 metric tonnes ) for the 1904-1909 pattern 3038 gallon tender

Today, the Tees Valley line between Darlington and Bishop Auckland is double track at this point and a two platform unmanned station, Newton Aycliff occupies the site.

1926 Sedgefield

North East England during the steam era. Here, during the mid-1920s one of Blaydon shed's Class J26 0-6-0s is passing Sedgefield station hauling a Newport Yard to Carlisle class H goods. This turn, and the Carlisle London Road to Newport Yard outward leg used to be a lodging turn for the Carlisle crew but this was discontinued in L.N.E.R. days, with the working being split between two locos. I have the changeover taking place at Blaydon, with the train from Carlisle switching from a Carlisle engine to a Blaydon one.




The J26 is still fitted with the squat Ramsbottom safety valve trumpet which was a distinctive feature of the class in its first two decades of operation. Less noticeable is the lack of balancing weights on the middle driving wheel. The saturated engines of N.E.R. Class P2 and P3 (L.N.E.R. Class J26 and J27) did not have balanced wheels. From 1932 the saturated J27s began to receive them, something the superheated Class P3s/J27s had fitted on construction. I had believed that the Class J26 also began to receive balanced wheels at the same time but I find that I am struggling to verify that. Number 1369 was built with spectacle type cab windows. When the T2 Class 0-8-0 emerged in 1913 with shaped windows footplate crews lobbied for the P2 and P3 0-6-0s along with the T/T1 Class 0-8-0s to be similarly treated. Twenty-eight of the fifty P2 Class were altered between 1914 and 1918 but the process then stopped for the class and was never completed.

Regarding the train between Carlisle and Newport. What is not certain is whether the train ran via Dunston, Low Fell and the ECMl to Ferryhill or ran via Scotswood, Newcastle Central, Gateshead East and then the Leamside route to Ferryhill. The route via Leamside would permit the dropping off and picking up of wagons at Newcastle Forth Banks as well as Gateshead Park Lane, with the consequential time penalty that incurs. However, traffic from Carlisle to Newcastle (Forth Banks, Trafalgar and Heaton) and Gateshead Park Lane could be detached at Blaydon and taken forwards by trip workings. As for traffic heading from Newcastle (Forth Banks, Trafalgar and Heaton) and Gateshead Park Lane to Ferryhill there were several trains a day doing this journey. In any event, the Carlisle to Newport yard working would stop at Ferryhill to exchange sections as required. A section may have been dropped off at Ferryhill to go forwards to Croft Yard at Darlington while a section from Gateshead Park Lane may have been picked up to take forward to Newport. Any wagons from Newcastle for Newport could be trip worked to Gateshead Park Lane for inclusion in the working to Ferryhill.

1926 ECML Low Fell

North East England during the steam era. Here, J26 number 1369 is on the outward journey to Newport Yard on Tees-side and comes off the bank from Low Fell Yard on the Teams branch to Low Fell station on the East Coast Main Line.