Today it is a different kind of
grim Robd, not one related to "
dark satanic mills". However, when I look out across my garden the view is not very grim at all, even some sunshine. However, to evoke a grim statistic from days of yore "
oop north". During the mid-19th century, in a Gateshead ward which was beside the Tyne and and the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railways' Greenesfield depot, there was only one flushing W.C. in the ward, population 4,500.
L.N.E.R. Worsdell J26 at Derwenthaugh mid-1920s.
I have been re-reading Grafton's biography of Sir Vincent Raven, C.M.E. of the N.E.R. from 1910 through 1922. Raven had Gateshead driver Tom Blades bring the first N.E.R. 4.6.2 Class Pacific, number 2400 north when outshopped in November 1922. On arrival at Gateshead, Raven asked Blades what he thought of number 2400. He was not pleased when Blades told him "
Ye will ha' trouble wi' the 'inside bearants on the pony truck'" (translation "You will have trouble with the inside bearings on the pony truck"). When Raven asked "Why so?", Blades replied "
Why man, for wan thing thems te neor the fayer!" (tranlation: "Why fellow, for one thing they are too near the fire (in the firebox)"). The class did indeed have those troubles, with Cartazzi sliding axle boxes replacing the originals on the pony truck.
