North East England - Steam Days Screenshots - Large Screenshots Possible

Thanks Annie. I must recall where the number of transfers were mentioned. it might be on Steve Banks' website. I may recall it incorrectly but I think that it may have been as many as three hundred carriages. Whatever the mix between 49ft and 52ft types may have been Third Class carriages would likely have made up something like two-thirds or more of the total of which Van Thirds may have been a significant proportion. With the 3-compartment Van Third being the most common 52ft Van Third there must have been a bunch of them in the batches transferred.

The reasons for the transfers are a tad complex. Falling passenger traffic numbers, line closures, the arrival of new LNER carriages, electrification of the South Shields branch and the use of steam railcars (with the withdrawal of Clayton then Sentinel railcars then requiring stock replacements). You can easily justify the arrival of a 30 or 40 year-old former N.E.R. carriages on your Norfolk routes to form at least one set during the L.N.E.R. era. It will just need to be in a rather unflattering unlined brown teak paint.

The February edition of the NERA Express magazine has the recollections of growing up at Washington station in the 1920s as the son of the Station Master. The author passed away almost 30 years ago but his nephew has supplied it for the NERA to publish. In it he mentions that (in the 1920s) that former N.E.R. carriages at Washington were painted in "chocolate brown" paint, which is a surprise, since to the best of my knowledge, the given wisdom is that they were painted in teak paint. Now, a light shade of chocolate brown might well be teak. There was no national technical standard to describe "Teak" paint nor "Chocolate Brown" paint in the 1920s and in any event the author was not a professional railwayman at the time he watched the trains. A statement which generated more questions than answers.

1949 - ECML - Brown Days

North East England during the steam era. An A8 4-6-2T runs south on the Slow Up line towards Northallerton with a short set of pre-grouping NER carriages in unlined brown paint livery.




After 1940/41, during WWII, those pre-grouping carriages which found themselves going through works found themselves repainted in an unlined brown paint livery. The shortage of skilled labour meant that nothing fancy such as scumbling to resemble teak panelling was granted to these humble workaday veterans (not that scumbling was extended to them after the grouping either, though at least between 1923 and 1928 they'd been lined out).

This drab livery would persist in to BR days and even some former N.E.R. corridor stock suffered the indignity of being painted in the unlined brown livery. During BR days this must have been a clear indicator to passengers waiting at the platform that they were getting old stock for their journey. The premier expresses out of Kings Cross might still be in scumbled teak and white roofs (1948 - 52) and on other services L.N.E.R. Gresley and Thompson stock, along with new B.R. stock began to sport the new liveries of carmine and cream, or plain carmine, but the old carriages retained brown drab. Bear in mind that even as late as 1947 almost half the carriages in use by the L.N.E.R. were still pre-grouping in origin. Not all of them descended in to brown paint but many did and never received either carmine or maroon liveries as the cull of older carriages progressed through the 1950s.

The February edition of the NERA Express magazine has the recollections of growing up at Washington station in the 1920s as the son of the Station Master. The author passed away almost 30 years ago but his nephew has supplied it for the NERA to publish. In it he mentions that (in the 1920s) that former N.E.R. carriages at Washington were painted in "chocolate brown" paint, which is a surprise, since to the best of my knowledge, the given wisdom is that they were painted in teak paint. Now, a light shade of chocolate brown might well be teak. There was no national technical standard to describe "Teak" paint nor "Chocolate Brown" paint in the 1920s and in any event the author was not a professional railwayman at the time he watched the trains. A statement which generated more questions than answers.

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And if you're a chocolate lover Frank you'll know very well that chocolate definitely doesn't come in one colour which wouldn't have helped the ordinary person on the station platform to come up with an accurate description either.

Some of the LNER period NER clerestory coaches Paul sent me were in plain brown so I changed them to teak using my own textures. Since I do early grouping rather than late grouping should I venture outside the pre-grouping era it seemed more appropriate to me. I like teak coaches even though they are a lot of work to make textures for.

Post WW2 the sight of all those plain brown coaches must have been depressing. I read somewhere that the new BR 'Blood and Custard' livery was supposed to help people cheer up a bit, but it sounds like the new livery might have been a bit thin on the ground to start with.

Nice to see A8 Pacific tank engine at work. As a tank engine fangirl I'm surprised I don't have one in my collection. I've got a Robinson A5 (9N), but not a Raven/Gresley A8, perhaps I should go and do something to remedy that.

That's interesting about Gresley built GCR designed A5's working in the Northeast Frank. That's something I did not know. Having an interest in local railways as I do tank engines are always going to be a part of the picture for me. As always I'm pleased to read your informative posts that give so much in the way of background information.

1925 - ECML Durham and an A5

Hello Annie,

Here's a quick fix involving an A5. During 1925 No.1712 brings a main line four-set in to Durham on a down stopping passenger working.




The leading D130 BT3 remains in crimson lake but has LNER lettering and numbering. Works were still turning out new build carriages in Crimson Lake during the first half of 1923 and I doubt it was different for older carriages going through works visits. The D127 Third and trailing D18 BT3 have gained lined teak but the D7 CL remains both in Crimson lake and retains N.E.R. lettering. This mixture of liveries as rolling stock transitions from one to the other can still be seen on the railway today.

Modelling a transition period can certainly be interesting Frank and your picture at #886 certainly shows that. With my own early BR period layout Middle Vales I've done this to a certain extent with some coaching stock still in LMS livery and with there still being LMS and LNER lettered goods rolling stock to be seen as well. I reskinned the petrol/fuel tank wagons on the layout into 'POOL' livery to help the period look along. I should see if I can get permission to upload them to the DLS since I'm sure they would be useful to early period BR/WW2 era modellers.

I could send you copies of the artwork if you'd like to try them out.

1921 - ECML - Darlington and a W Class 4-6-2T

Hello Annie,

The "POOL" liveries sound interesting.
Here is an N.E.R. W Class rebuilt by Raven to 4-6-2T getting away from Darlington with a stopping passenger train bound for Saltburn.

1921 - Bleak times at a wintry Reedsmouth Junction

A bleak winter's day at Reedsmouth Junction turntable.




An old shot but we had a snowy spell of winter here last week,

1923 - A Footex, the D178 Third and a J22

North East England during the steam era. Professional Football attracted immense crowds during the early and mid-20th century and was considerd as "the working man's game". This is a period well before the vast sums of the current Premier League; Short-distance Football Excursions were frequently seen on Saturdays across the N.E.R. and match day crowds could be considerable. Here, to the south of Ferryhill, a fitted J22 0-6-0 has been pressed in to service to take a long train of ordinary stock on a Saturday afternoon during the 1923-24 season where Newcastle United are playing away to Middlesbrough.




The most common type of 49ft ordinary coach was the Diagram 178 Eight compartment Third (code YT), with 483 built between 1909 and 1923 for service on the N.E.R./N.E. Area. A further 10 were built in 1923 for the former N.B. Southern Scottish section. Some 192 would be transferred away from the N.E. Area to other sections of the L.N.E.R. during the late 1930s as new Gresley stock was received in the N.E. Area.

A significant use of the type was insertion between the end brakes at times of busy traffic, such as Easter, Whitsuntide and Christmas, with regular use on weekdays as strengtherners on busy trains. The other main use of the type was assembling a rake of them between a pair of brakes to form short-distance excursion trains. Football matches, works outings, religious or organised group outings were all frequent traffics.

In the above shot the J22 has to haul a 49ft BT5 (code YB(5)) four 49ft T (code YT) Diagram 150, four 32ft 6W T (code T) Diagram 15, a 49ft T (code YT) Diagram 54 Arc-roof bogie and a 49ft BC2-3 (code YBC(2-3)) Diagram 147. All in all, 670 third Class seats and 16 First Class. This month's NERA Express Magazine has an article written later in life where a man recalled his boyhood growing up at Washington station in the 1920s. He recalled the police warning that trains such as these were rife with cardsharps, who would shift between compartments at station stops.

Newcastle won 1-0 and Middlesbrough went on to be relegated to Division two. Newcastle rounded off the 1924 season by winning the FA Cup. April 1924 would have seen a considerable traffic to London for the match.

1948 - ECML - Eryholme Junction, an L1 and a New Thompson Coach

North East England during the steam era. 1948 and the first year of nationalised British Railways. The new company is still benefiting from decisions taken during L.N.E.R. ownership with two examples present in the train which has come off te Richmond branch bound for Darlington. One is the new Thompson L1 2-6-4T and the other is a new Diagram 339 Ordinary Third Thompson coach in the middle of the branch train.




Neither the L1 nor the Thompson Third would have anything like the working life of the former N.E.R. carriages either side of the new coach. The Diagram 30 Brake Thrd is thirty-eight years old and the Diagram 178 Third is thirty-five years old. The L1 would not reach fifteen years in service while the Thompson coach would last barely longer than that as the cull of pre-nationalisation stock gathered pace in the 1960s.

Nice to see a Richmond branch train a line I travelled along in LNER days & was nice a snot as crowded as Main line trains. Also football excursions interesting & remined me of platforms for Football grounds, Hull City ha done at Boothferry Park & one at Trafford Park. Seen an ex GC A5 tank with a rake of non corridor coaches in Manchester Central on a Saturday with football train.

1948 - Eryholme junction

Thanks Taillight98. Here is one of Darlington's A5s taking a rake of new Thompson carriages on to the branch at Eryholme junction.




It might be the branch train or it might be a test train for the newly delivered rake. The 4-compartment Brake Third on the rear was new in 1948, post-nationalisation, but both the Lav Compo and Third started building in 1947. Eryholme's function as a junction station ceased as far back as 1911, with the platform faces on the main line being demolished. Passengers wishing to travel north or south on the main line had to change at Darlington. During WWII and during the post-war period when conscription was still going on many thousands of army personnel used the line.

1954 - ECML Darlington, a 4MT and Mixed Caoaches

Northeast England during the steam era. the Riddles BR Standard Class 4 2-6-4T large tanks were rare birds in the BR NE Region. One (80117) arrived at Whitby in May 1954, followed by 80116 going to York and 80118 going to Whitby in May 1955. No. 80116 joined the pair at Whitby in June 1955.




80117 coming off the branch to Eaglescliffe at Geneva Junction, Darlington.




Running in to the platform at Darlington.




leaving Darlington for Bishop Auckland.

Regarding heavy tank haulage at Whitby shed, from what I have read so far, it seems that 80116's arrival at Whitby coincided with Class A8 69890 moving away from Whitby shed to Malton shed, from where it would be withdrawn in January 1958. Number 80117's arrival at Whitby in May 1954 was followed by Class A8 69882's arrival there in June 1954 for the summer season (she returned to Neville Hill in September 1954).

There were two long-term A8s on shed at Whitby during the BR period. No. 69865 from May 1948 through to April 1958 and No. 69864 from June 1950 to October 1958. A third A8, No. 69861 was a Whitby engine for a four-year period, between May 1952 and June 1956.

Nice shots, interesting rolling stock. In particular, please can you tell me about the bogies on carriage E82650E directly behind No. 80117? Are they Gresley Moulton type bogies 8' 6", are they from Paulz or available elsewhere?

Thanks,

Rob.

Hello Rob. They are Paul's. Around two years ago I commissioned Paul to do an upgrade of Fox, ECJS and Gresley bogies. There are standard and heavy Gresley types in lined teak and black. All with various step arrangements. They were part of my recent Thompson corridor coach upgrades during 2019 and 2020, which all now have updated bogies, nightmode, autopipes and autocouplings. Next up in the Thompsons will probably be the eight diagrams of Thompson non-vestibules.

Thanks for the info re: bogies, borderreiver.

Rob.

1926 - ECML - An A1 and a J21 near Birtley

Northeast England during the early L.N.E.R. era.




A new Gresley A1 Pacific with short-travel valves heading south from Birtley on the ECML.




A veteran J21 0-6-0 heads northwards with empty cattle wagons on the down slow towards Birtley.

At this time the vast majority of cattle movements were accomplished in unfitted wagons. Prize cattle, like horses, could be moved in specialist fitted wagons.
The L.M.S. and G.W.R. were the big players in the movement of livestock due to the volume of traffic arriving at Fishguard, Holyhead and Stranraer from Ireland.
This left the L.N.E.R. in a distant third place and the Southern further behind that.

1924 - Beamish and Q7 with ore train

Northeast England during the steam era, early during the L.N.E.R.'s existence. A Q7 0-8-0, Raven's former T3 Class 3-cylinder heavy freight engine is hauling a train of ten 30 Ton diagram S3 ironstone hoppers through Beamish station en-route to Consett.







As powerful as the Q7s were, they could not drag 300 Tons of ore up the grade from South Pelaw through Pelton, Beamish, Shield Row to Annfield Plain and then beyond over the high ground to South Medomsley, Leadgate and Consett. On the back banking the consist is one of Raven's 2-cylinder former T2 Class 0-8-0s, the ubiquitous L.N.E.R. Q6.




A more traditional place to capture the ore trains in later years, on the steep 1 in 37 between Shield Row station and Annfield Junction. I believe it was O.S. Nock who wrote about his experience on the footplate of a Q7 hauling a load up the line. He said the regulator was fully open and the roar was very loud, but that he felt the locomotive could go like this all day (I expect that the fireman would have had words with him on the labour required to realise that concept!). The fireman's turn on a Tyne Dock to Consett ore run was very hard labour on the climb, be it on a Q6, a Q7, O1 or even a 9F.

1955 - NW Durham - Beamish wagonway - Beamish Second pit

Beamish Second Pit on my NW Durham route.
Still plenty of work to do.