KotangaGirl
Pre-Grouping Railways Nut
Yes good to see you back here on the forum again.
North East England - Steam Days Screenshots - Large Screenshots Possible
- Thread starter borderreiver
- Start date
Yes good to see you back here on the forum again.
borderreiver
Well-known member
Hello John,
The ones you see in the screenshot are actually part of the package included with the Potteries Loop Line, which I think is in the N3V sale at the moment.
Quite old now, but the late great Bendorsey produced South_Hutton_Colliery for me on the DLS and it can be reskinned in to brick or stone textures instead of the concrete of the original.
Ben also produced several models of large UK collieries, such as Ollerton, Rufford and Shirebrook - you would have to do a search on the DLS to see what is available.
Paul Mace (Barn700) of PaulzTrainz had some UK Coal Mines based on the really old private coal mineand Paul has some Coal Mining Buildings in the "other Items" section of his site.
Vincentrh has several Coal Mine Rochbelle assets on the DLS but they seem to be more continental than UK outline.
The ones you see in the screenshot are actually part of the package included with the Potteries Loop Line, which I think is in the N3V sale at the moment.
Quite old now, but the late great Bendorsey produced South_Hutton_Colliery for me on the DLS and it can be reskinned in to brick or stone textures instead of the concrete of the original.
Ben also produced several models of large UK collieries, such as Ollerton, Rufford and Shirebrook - you would have to do a search on the DLS to see what is available.
Paul Mace (Barn700) of PaulzTrainz had some UK Coal Mines based on the really old private coal mineand Paul has some Coal Mining Buildings in the "other Items" section of his site.
Vincentrh has several Coal Mine Rochbelle assets on the DLS but they seem to be more continental than UK outline.
Hello John,
On Steve Flanders site ING4TRAINZ http://www.jatws.org/ing4trainz/other.htm
look for non railway buildings "coal mine basic".
Cheers, Ken
On Steve Flanders site ING4TRAINZ http://www.jatws.org/ing4trainz/other.htm
look for non railway buildings "coal mine basic".
Cheers, Ken
borderreiver
Well-known member
North East England during the steam era.
A work in progress.
A North British Railway branch passenger train stands at the single platform at Scots Gap station.
Scots Gap on the North British Railway's Rothbury branch.
This was the junction between the Rothbury branch and the Wansbeck branch, which met with the NBR's Border Counties line at Riccarton Junction.
Back in the late 1850s, the North British Railway sought to gain access to Tyneside.
To do this they approached both the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and the Blyth and Tyne Railway, which both had access to Newcastle.
The NCR was to be the means by which the Border Counties scheme would access Newcastle via Border Counties Junction and Hexham, while the B&TR would be the means by which the Central Northumberland Railway would access Newcastle via Morpeth.
Neither scheme would come to fruition in their original scopes. The NCR merged with the North Eastern Railway and got the better end of the eventual deal. The NBR's Border County Railway gained running powers in to Newcastle Central station but the NER gained running powers into both Carlisle Citadel joint station and the NBR's main station at Edinburgh Waverly. What is more, the NER was also able to use its locomotives to haul East Coast Joint express trains between Newcastle and Edinburgh! The Central Northumberland scheme dwindled in scope until it became the Rothbury branch, with the initial working crossing above the East Coast Main line to run in to the B&TR's station at Morpeth, though the B&TR did have a station in newcastle, at manors, to the north of the East Coast main line.. There was no connection between the B&TR station at Manors and the east Coast main line until the early 1900s as part of the North Tyneside electrification works. The NER soon swallowed the B&TR, limiting the NBR's access to merely the B&TR station in Morpeth. Eventually the NER diverted the NBR branch trains in to its own Morpeth station by means of a new junction to the west of the station and the former B&TR station became the goods depot.
The Rothbury branch became a rural backwater, though there was for many years a through coach to and from Newcastle, since some managerial professionals resided in Rothbury and worked in Newcastle. While the line survived through the grouping period it very soon was on British Railways' radar for closure of the branch passenger service, which occurred on 15th September 1952. Goods services lasted until 11th November 1963.
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borderreiver
Well-known member
North East England during the steam era.
This route is a work in progress.
During the early 1960s, a BR Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0 runs tender first as it brings a short goods off the branch from Rothbury and Scots Gap. Despite the passenger service being withdrawn in September 1952 there was sufficient goods traffic remaining to keep the line open. Rothbury station kept a Ford Thames truck at Rothbury to enable it to provide road collection and delivery to the district. Goods services were withdrawn in November 1963.
A photograph in the Middleton Press book about the Morpeth to Bellingham line (incl the Rothbury Branch) shows 46474 at Rothbury, which was quite the catch, since she was allocated to 52B Heaton shed for only three months from October 1960. Sadly, the photograph mistakenly captions the loco as a 4MT 2-6-0! I do not know why the Class 2 was moved on to 52D Tweedmouth in January 1961. Whether she was not suited to the branch or whether the lines in to the Scottish borders had a greater need of the Class 2's strengths. The whole family of Class 2, be they Ivatt Class 2 or BR Standard Class 2 were all seeking homes rather frequently at this time as the traffic they were built for was fast disappearing. The BR Standard Class 2s preserved on the Great Central are well thought of as they are considerably more economical to run on off-peak timetables than larger tender engines but will take a four-coach passenger train without complaint.
As it was, I believe that the 44ft 1 inch wheelbase of the Class 2 was too long for the turntable at Rothbury station. A photograph of a former NER C Class/LNER J21 0-6-0 on the turntable shows it barely fitting, so the longer wheelbase of the Class 2 would have been a no-go. That longer wheelbase issue was shared by the J27 former NER 0-6-0s and they were seen at Rothbury in BR days, so that was not a deal breaker for goods trains.
At the Morpeth end of the branch, the Class 2 is coming off a mile of 1 in 95 in order to bring it to the elevation of Morpeth station. The J27 is standing on a loop line between the branch and the East Coast main line, which tightly curves away to the south on the left. Over the decades several derailments have occurred on that tight curve.
Originally, George Stephenson proposed a line north from Newcastle which would have run further to the east, and at a lower elevation in the vicinity of Alnmouth. However, a landowner objected to the line running between his stately home and the sea, "ruining his view". As a consequence, the route was changed, taking it further inland and at a higher elevation. In the process the county town of Northumberland demanded that the main line passed through. In the preceding plan, Morpeth would have been treated like Northampton on the west coast main line, being served by a loop from the main line.
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borderreiver
Well-known member
North East England during the steam era.
This screenshot is almost as far removed in time from the Ivatt screenshot as the current day is from the Ivatt screenshot.
An NER Thomas W. Worsdell J Class 4-2-2 with express lights takes a morning NER Passenger train northwards on the down East Coast main line.
It has slowed below the 40 mph limit imposed by the tight curve to the southwest of Morpeth station.
The train is made up of six-wheelers, which were the main style of carriage available for express work in the early to mid-1890s.
The trailing load for this train is about 130 Tons, which is a lot less than an express passenger locomotive such as an A3 4-6-2 would be expected to haul just 30 years later..
While built as a compound locomotive TW Worsdell's brother Wilson was no fan of compounding and in January 1895 began to convert the J Class to simples when the first conversion, No. 1519 was only five years and two months old. All ten of the class were converted by October 1896. No. 1522 was converted in May 1895.
The arrival of bogie passenger carriages and more powerful locomotives spelt the end of singles on main line expresses.
During the early years of the 20th century they gravitated to sheds at Hull and Scarborough but all made it through WWI, finally being withdrawn between August 1919 and August 1921.
No. 1522 was withdrawn from Hull at the end of March 1921 at age 30 years and 4 months.
In the background at left, a figure stands on a footbridge.
This crosses the East Coast main line on the original alignment of the NBR Wansbeck section line from Rothbury and Reedsmouth Junction.
On opening in 1862, a NBR train from Rothbury would cross the East Coast main line, join Blyth & Tyne metals to the south east of Morpeth and then reverse in to the Blyth & Tyne station, which was just to the south of the North Eastern's Morpeth railway station. An NBR train departing Morpeth for Rothbury would have to reverse out of the Blyth & Tyne's station until past the junction with the NBR and then head west.
Between 1862 and 1864 any passengers on the NBR train bound to Newcastle would have to cross to the adjacent NER station and take an NER train.
However, from 1864 the B&T had opened a branch in to Newcastle, with the terminus at New Bridge Street, adjacent to what would become Manors North station in 1909.
Twelve years after the NBR line opened, during 1874, the Blyth & Tyne was absorbed by the NER.
In May 1880 the NER closed the B&TR station at Morpeth to passengers, making it the town's goods station.
The NBR line was diverted in to a new platform face on the far northwest side of the NER station's down platform with a trailing connection from the down East Coast main line to the east of Morpeth station.
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borderreiver
Well-known member
North East England during the steam era.
This route is a work in progress.
A North British Railway Drummond D Class 0-6-0 locomotive passes Morpeth South Signal Box on approaching Morpeth off the NBR's Wansbeck Section, which was the branch to Rothbury and the Wansbeck lune between Scots Gap and Reedsmouth Junction on the Border Counties line.
borderreiver
Well-known member
Seaton Bank Top in the early 1900s as a Worsdell 2-cylinder T Class 0-8-0 brings empty coal hoppers up the bank past the signal box.
The Rainton and Seham Railway is still in place at this time but would be gone by 1914.
Times were about to also change for the NER line through Seaton Bank Top.
For decades it had been the main line between Sunderland and West Hartlepool, but in the near future the NER would open its Durham Coast line from Ryhope through Seaham to Cemetary Junction near Hartlepool.
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borderreiver
Well-known member
As is usual with myself, I have begun to do some reading about the Rainton and Seham Railway now that it has come on to my radar (thanks Lewisner!), Some sites are available and the first I am reading is at durhamrecordsonline.com.
What a start: "In 1813 Sir Henry Vane Tempest of Wynyard, MP for County Durham, died from an apopleptic fit at the age of 42 and left his considerable fortune and his mines at Penshaw and Rainton to his only legitimate child, 13 year old Frances Anne. At a stroke, as it were, she became the second largest exporter of coal from the River Wear with an income of £60,000 per year, a tidy sum now, a fortune then."
If I recall correctly from the likes of the Brontes if an eligible bachelor was worth "Ten thousand a year" he was considered as quite "the catch", so you can imagine what Frances Anne became at age 13 with an income of sixty thousand a year. Officially her businesses were under the control of agents appointed by the court of chancery but I expect her Guardians were relentlessly assailed by callers. Only to be sociable of course.
"In 1819 Frances Anne, as old as the century, married a man old enough to be her father – 41 year old Lord Charles Stewart. He stood to eventually inherit a marquessate, money and land from his father and childless elder half-brother Robert Stewart. That same half-brother, better known as Viscount Castlereagh, was Foreign Secretary, Leader of the House of Commons and Prime Minister in all but name, able to exert immense influence on behalf of his friends and relatives."
What went before could be the script of a period drama, but there is more to follow.
"Sir Ralph Milbanke’s plan for a harbour at Seaham (‘Port Milbanke’) now came to Lord Charles Stewart’s knowledge and he determined to buy the estates of Seaham and Dalden when he heard that they were to be sold at a public auction. This took place on October 13 1821 and his bid of £63,000 was successful. He raised part of the money by charging it on his brother’s Irish property. Lord Charles simply wanted to avoid middlemen on the Wear and be independent of the port of Sunderland. As yet there was no thought that coal might lie under Seaham itself, but such ideas could not be far away. The chosen spot for the proposed harbour was the limestone promontory called Dalden (or Dawdon) Ness on his new estates. Frances Anne was rich but her money was controlled by trustees who had no confidence in the venture and for the next seven years Charles Stewart failed to find financial backing despite obtaining the favourable views of leading engineers of the day such as Rennie, Telford and Logan."
When Castlereagh committed suicide in 1822 his half-brother Charles became the 3rd. Marquess of Londonderry. Marquesse Frances Anne Stewart leased the coal rights from the Dean and Chapter of Durham and already had six shallow pits in the Rainton district, with export being through the port of Sunderland on the River Wear. In 1820 Marquess Londonderry (who I will now call "Londonderry") began to sink a seventh, the Adventure, followed by an eighth, the Alexandrina (or Letch) in 1824. Londonderry was not finished though.
"A completely new colliery complex was sunk at Pittington (consisting of the Londonderry, Adolphus and Buddle pits) from 1826 to 1828 on land leased from others. Londonderry had also previously leased land at Hetton in 1820 from the estate of the Earl of Strathmore. Here the future North Hetton Colliery (later called Moorsley) would appear in 1838. In 1825 Londonderry combined this tract of land with an adjacent part of the Rainton Royalty, which he leased from the Dean and Chapter and where two more pits (Dun Well and Hazard) were planned, and sub-leased the lot to William Russell of Brancepeth. Included in the deal was the nearby North Pit and permission to use the old wagonway to Penshaw and the staithes there. Londonderry received rent and royalties and also had a share in the new North Hetton Coal Company that was established. When the Rainton to Seaham line was constructed in 1831 he made sure that the last four named pits were roped into his rail network."
Changes in County Durham during the 1820s meant that towards the end of the decade Londonderry was facing a fight for survival and needed to get his harbour at Seaham built. He finally managed to raise the finance and a means to deliver coal to the port through a deal for a 3rd. party to build a railway and he would pay them a fee to transport the coal. Londonderry later bought them out in 1840.
"On July 25 1831 the first coals ran down the new railway line from the Rainton pits to be loaded onto the new brig the ‘Lord Seaham’. The Rainton & Seaham railway was initially 5 miles long, from Seaham Harbour to Rainton Meadows pit but later additions created a network of over 18 miles of railway track. Fixed steam engines hauled the coal from the Rainton collieries to the top of the Copt Hill. At a point just opposite to the public house the new line passed under the Seaham to Houghton road in a short tunnel. The Hetton Colliery Railway at this point crossed the road by means of an overhead bridge. Thereafter the going to Seaham was comparatively easy and more fixed engines and an inclined plane took over to bring the load across the fields of Warden Law and Slingley, skirting to the south of Seaton village. From Seaton Bank Top another inclined plane and then a final fixed engine brought the coal to the top of the Mill Inn Bank, where one day Seaham Colliery would be sited. The last leg from there to the new harbour was downhill and also utilized a self-acting incline system. According to Tom McNee from 1831, on Saturdays only, a specially constructed coach brought people from the Raintons to Seaham Harbour to shop. The journey must have been a tortuous one, involving up to four changes of haulage machinery, but doubtless it beat walking."
What a start: "In 1813 Sir Henry Vane Tempest of Wynyard, MP for County Durham, died from an apopleptic fit at the age of 42 and left his considerable fortune and his mines at Penshaw and Rainton to his only legitimate child, 13 year old Frances Anne. At a stroke, as it were, she became the second largest exporter of coal from the River Wear with an income of £60,000 per year, a tidy sum now, a fortune then."
If I recall correctly from the likes of the Brontes if an eligible bachelor was worth "Ten thousand a year" he was considered as quite "the catch", so you can imagine what Frances Anne became at age 13 with an income of sixty thousand a year. Officially her businesses were under the control of agents appointed by the court of chancery but I expect her Guardians were relentlessly assailed by callers. Only to be sociable of course.
"In 1819 Frances Anne, as old as the century, married a man old enough to be her father – 41 year old Lord Charles Stewart. He stood to eventually inherit a marquessate, money and land from his father and childless elder half-brother Robert Stewart. That same half-brother, better known as Viscount Castlereagh, was Foreign Secretary, Leader of the House of Commons and Prime Minister in all but name, able to exert immense influence on behalf of his friends and relatives."
What went before could be the script of a period drama, but there is more to follow.
"Sir Ralph Milbanke’s plan for a harbour at Seaham (‘Port Milbanke’) now came to Lord Charles Stewart’s knowledge and he determined to buy the estates of Seaham and Dalden when he heard that they were to be sold at a public auction. This took place on October 13 1821 and his bid of £63,000 was successful. He raised part of the money by charging it on his brother’s Irish property. Lord Charles simply wanted to avoid middlemen on the Wear and be independent of the port of Sunderland. As yet there was no thought that coal might lie under Seaham itself, but such ideas could not be far away. The chosen spot for the proposed harbour was the limestone promontory called Dalden (or Dawdon) Ness on his new estates. Frances Anne was rich but her money was controlled by trustees who had no confidence in the venture and for the next seven years Charles Stewart failed to find financial backing despite obtaining the favourable views of leading engineers of the day such as Rennie, Telford and Logan."
When Castlereagh committed suicide in 1822 his half-brother Charles became the 3rd. Marquess of Londonderry. Marquesse Frances Anne Stewart leased the coal rights from the Dean and Chapter of Durham and already had six shallow pits in the Rainton district, with export being through the port of Sunderland on the River Wear. In 1820 Marquess Londonderry (who I will now call "Londonderry") began to sink a seventh, the Adventure, followed by an eighth, the Alexandrina (or Letch) in 1824. Londonderry was not finished though.
"A completely new colliery complex was sunk at Pittington (consisting of the Londonderry, Adolphus and Buddle pits) from 1826 to 1828 on land leased from others. Londonderry had also previously leased land at Hetton in 1820 from the estate of the Earl of Strathmore. Here the future North Hetton Colliery (later called Moorsley) would appear in 1838. In 1825 Londonderry combined this tract of land with an adjacent part of the Rainton Royalty, which he leased from the Dean and Chapter and where two more pits (Dun Well and Hazard) were planned, and sub-leased the lot to William Russell of Brancepeth. Included in the deal was the nearby North Pit and permission to use the old wagonway to Penshaw and the staithes there. Londonderry received rent and royalties and also had a share in the new North Hetton Coal Company that was established. When the Rainton to Seaham line was constructed in 1831 he made sure that the last four named pits were roped into his rail network."
Changes in County Durham during the 1820s meant that towards the end of the decade Londonderry was facing a fight for survival and needed to get his harbour at Seaham built. He finally managed to raise the finance and a means to deliver coal to the port through a deal for a 3rd. party to build a railway and he would pay them a fee to transport the coal. Londonderry later bought them out in 1840.
"On July 25 1831 the first coals ran down the new railway line from the Rainton pits to be loaded onto the new brig the ‘Lord Seaham’. The Rainton & Seaham railway was initially 5 miles long, from Seaham Harbour to Rainton Meadows pit but later additions created a network of over 18 miles of railway track. Fixed steam engines hauled the coal from the Rainton collieries to the top of the Copt Hill. At a point just opposite to the public house the new line passed under the Seaham to Houghton road in a short tunnel. The Hetton Colliery Railway at this point crossed the road by means of an overhead bridge. Thereafter the going to Seaham was comparatively easy and more fixed engines and an inclined plane took over to bring the load across the fields of Warden Law and Slingley, skirting to the south of Seaton village. From Seaton Bank Top another inclined plane and then a final fixed engine brought the coal to the top of the Mill Inn Bank, where one day Seaham Colliery would be sited. The last leg from there to the new harbour was downhill and also utilized a self-acting incline system. According to Tom McNee from 1831, on Saturdays only, a specially constructed coach brought people from the Raintons to Seaham Harbour to shop. The journey must have been a tortuous one, involving up to four changes of haulage machinery, but doubtless it beat walking."
Seaton Bank Top in the early 1900s as a Worsdell 2-cylinder T Class 0-8-0 brings empty coal hoppers up the bank past the signal box.
The Rainton and Seham Railway is still in place at this time but would be gone by 1914.
Times were about to also change for the NER line through Seaton Bank Top.
For decades it had been the main line between Sunderland and West Hartlepool, but in the near future the NER would open its Durham Coast line from Ryhope through Seaham to Cemetary Junction near Hartlepool.
The funny thing is that when I was tidying Seaton Bank up for my earlier photo I found that I had got the place utterly wrong as when I did it I didn't have the NLS website to help so I may just have to grimace and change it all. I did once find a splendid photo of a train double headed with a Class 40 and a Deltic on the front.
borderreiver
Well-known member
I know the feeling Lewisner.
Using TransDEM I have DEMS from York to Berwick based on 2m LIDAR.
They are split into "North Yorkshire", "County Durham" and "Northumberland" but are each of a considerable size.
Once track is laid I can trim them somewhat, but for me a route is also about the railway's place in the landscape, so I tend to be rather conservative in just how much gets culled.
However, laying track in County Durham is a CONSIDERABLE job, especially as practicalities mean that the route must also incorporate the railways along the northern bank of the Tyne between Wylam and Tynemouth.
borderreiver
Well-known member
The Rainton and Seaham Railway traffic was falling from the mid-1860s and the early to middle 1890s saw a precipitous drop as the collieries around Rainton were closed.
Buyers were eventually found for Rainton Meadows and the Adventure drift. The former was gone by 1923 but the latter somehow survived until 1978!
The remainder of the ‘Rainton Royalty’ was taken over by Lambton Collieries Ltd. and then worked from the existing collieries at Cocken and Littletown.
Coal from Meadows and Adventure could be carried by the N.E.R. so the Rainton and Seaham was redundant.
The sections west of the Copt Hill Engine were dismantled in December 1896.
The long run from the Copt Hill to Seaham Colliery remained open for a while longer to enable the Hetton Colliery Company to ship their coal at Seaham should their own line to the Wear become choked but this section too had gone "by 1920" (according to the site but we know from the OS 25 inch that the survey of 1914 showed the line as already closed and lifted around Seaton Bank Top).
It is likely that "The Long Run" was little used between 1897 and 1914 and I do not expect that Earl Vane/Marquess Londonderry bore the costs of running it for long.
Perhaps as yet unknown sources will place the line's abandonment to even a decade earlier than 1914.
"The last remaining section of the Rainton & Seaham, from Seaham Colliery to Seaham Harbour, which was a self-acting inclined plane, remained open and working until after the Miner’s Strike of 1984-85. That strike was lost and the fate of the rump Durham coalfield was sealed by Conservative victories in the General Elections of 1987 and 1992. In 1987 British Coal ‘amalgamated’ Seaham Colliery with Vane Tempest. No more coal was produced at the old mine and it was relegated to the role of a third shaft for the newer colliery. Vane Tempest coal came to the surface at Seaham Colliery and was transported to the main railway line or the docks from there. The connection from Seaham Colliery to the docks was finally severed in 1988 following an accident with a runaway locomotive. Thus was closed the last section of the Rainton and Seaham line completed 157 years earlier which had brought life to the infant town. ‘Benny’s Bank’ was probably the last working self-acting gravity line in Great Britain – a direct link back to the Industrial Revolution and the Founders of Seaham Harbour."
Buyers were eventually found for Rainton Meadows and the Adventure drift. The former was gone by 1923 but the latter somehow survived until 1978!
The remainder of the ‘Rainton Royalty’ was taken over by Lambton Collieries Ltd. and then worked from the existing collieries at Cocken and Littletown.
Coal from Meadows and Adventure could be carried by the N.E.R. so the Rainton and Seaham was redundant.
The sections west of the Copt Hill Engine were dismantled in December 1896.
The long run from the Copt Hill to Seaham Colliery remained open for a while longer to enable the Hetton Colliery Company to ship their coal at Seaham should their own line to the Wear become choked but this section too had gone "by 1920" (according to the site but we know from the OS 25 inch that the survey of 1914 showed the line as already closed and lifted around Seaton Bank Top).
It is likely that "The Long Run" was little used between 1897 and 1914 and I do not expect that Earl Vane/Marquess Londonderry bore the costs of running it for long.
Perhaps as yet unknown sources will place the line's abandonment to even a decade earlier than 1914.
"The last remaining section of the Rainton & Seaham, from Seaham Colliery to Seaham Harbour, which was a self-acting inclined plane, remained open and working until after the Miner’s Strike of 1984-85. That strike was lost and the fate of the rump Durham coalfield was sealed by Conservative victories in the General Elections of 1987 and 1992. In 1987 British Coal ‘amalgamated’ Seaham Colliery with Vane Tempest. No more coal was produced at the old mine and it was relegated to the role of a third shaft for the newer colliery. Vane Tempest coal came to the surface at Seaham Colliery and was transported to the main railway line or the docks from there. The connection from Seaham Colliery to the docks was finally severed in 1988 following an accident with a runaway locomotive. Thus was closed the last section of the Rainton and Seaham line completed 157 years earlier which had brought life to the infant town. ‘Benny’s Bank’ was probably the last working self-acting gravity line in Great Britain – a direct link back to the Industrial Revolution and the Founders of Seaham Harbour."