Brid Lines Summer 2020 No 7 North Eastern Memoirs by Allen Ferguson Living in Bridlington a few hundred yards from the railway station, it was inevitable I would be interested in steam locos from an early age… and many of these were of North Eastern Railway origin. Aged 8 in June 1954 I would record loco numbers in my school exercise book diary, much to the exasperation of my teacher who had a class of over 40 to contend with. I noted locos from NER class A8, B16, D20, G5, and N8 and so began my lifelong love of North Eastern engines especially B16s which the other spotters derided as they were so numerous in Bridlington in the 1950s…as many as 18 on a summer Saturday. In the following years I made many trips to Durham and Northumberland to see other NE classes and one Saturday 18th June 1966 was special….I had the morning off from Barclays Bank in Bridlington and, with my late friend Robert Johnson, we left in his car at 9.00am and our route was Scarborough, Whitby and then a brief stop at Port Mulgrave to photograph the former iron ore tunnel to the Grinkle mines. We followed the coast through Redcar and Middlesbrough to West Hartlepool shed. Despite steam in the NE only having 14 months left, there was plenty of interest. Steam Locos on shed were:- * straight shed K1 in steam 62045, 62001*, 62004 and in roundhouse 62048 (repair) 62041 passed with a down freight WD in steam 90445, 90014, 90230* others 90459 and 90593(both repair) 90011 withdrawn June 1966 behind coal stage Q6 in steam and at coal stage 63397, 63394, in roundhouse 63407 Straight shed 63412, 63440 , and stored outside 63368 Withdrawn in June 1966 and behind coal stage 63349, 63410, 63446, 63454 Ditto and tenderless in roundhouse 63421, 63435 4MT in steam 43056*, 43100* others 43057 43015 Mainline diesels D5170, D5169 At the time it was difficult to distinguish between withdrawn, stored and cannibalised locomotives— some I noted as under repair were being used as a provider of spare parts. We then moved on to Sunderland shed In the roundhouse were 7 class J27 :- In steam 65833, 65885, 65865 others 65853, 65835, 65817, 65872 1 I noted 65873 as under repair in the straight shed but 7 months later it was on York shed in transit to Hull for scrapping. Q6 ….in steam 63458, 63346, 63405, 63395 Under repair in the straight shed 63445, 63437 and in steam 63395 and 63436 though the latter was marked not to be moved. K1 on shed 62021(in steam ), 62007, 62008, 62026. Our final shed was Tyne Dock :- Q6 63413 in steam, 63453, 63360, 63379, 63366 and under repair 63381, 63459, 63455 9F 92060/61/62/63/65 92097/98 -latter in steam So in total we had noted J27….8 Q6 27 WD 6 K1 9 9F 7 4MT 4 We enjoyed pie and chips at Newcastle station and then returned home via the A1, Sutton Bank and Malton at 9.30pm. Another grand day out! West Hartlepool 63394 West Hartlepool 62004 West Hartlepool 63440 Sunderland 65833 2 Sunderland 65885 Tyne Dock 63360 All photographs by Allen Don’t you just Love it Don’t you just love it when exhibiting a layout and someone points out an anomaly on the layout such as the gravestones in the church yard are not orientated East to West or the cows on your 1930’s layout were not introduced in to this country until the 1950’s. Heaven forbid if you build a wall in the Yorkshire Dales in the style of the Cotswolds but this one in my estimation beats them all. A layout featured in the July edition of Railway Modeller depicted a WW2 scene on the Isle of Wight. The back scene featured HMS Hood sailing by. A reader pointed out that as the layout had cameos with US troops this was a scenario that could not have happened because HMS Hood sunk in May 1941 and the USA did not enter the war until December 1941. Don’t you just love it! Serial Supplies I mentioned in the last issue that getting materials and track for the new layout project was proving difficult and I was having to search the lesser known traders to in order to obtain the goods. I have managed to pick up a point here and there and things like point motors from certain suppliers. Some traders have been very good and dispatched my order upon reciept. One supplier seemed to be delaying rather too long. I know times are strange and because of work restrictions etc things will be delayed. Anyway as my orders started to drift in I couldn’t make progress because I needed some things that hadn’t arrived. I decided to email the the trader in question and was told to be patient and my order would be sent as soon as it was ready. Next day I received an email to say my order was ready to be dispatched. The following day I received another email saying they could not supply the full number of point motors as they were waiting for a delivery. They asked if Iwould like the order sending as it stood or would I like to wait until they had sufficient point motors in stock. Don’t these people realise that serial layout builders need their fix! I asked them to send the order straight away and cancel the outstanding point motors. I managed to track down some point motors from yet another supplier. Ironically they arrived before my original order. There needs to be more understanding of the needs of serial layout builders. If they are not busy building layouts people like wifes find them things to do! 3 The Footballers The current football season has climaxed with teams celebrating and other commiserating and what a strange atmosphere in which to watch games. I thought it would be interesting to look at the footballer locomotives and the clubs that they were named after. The LNER B17’s was known as the Sandringham class or footballers. They were a 4-6-0 engines designed by Nigel Gresley for hauling passenger services in East Anglia on the former GER mainlines. By 1926 the former GER B12 locomotives were no longer able to cope with the heavier passenger train services between London and Norwich and other routes from London to places like Ipswich and Cambridge. The locomotives were built between 1928 and 1937. A total of 73 were built. Many of them were named after country houses and estates but 25 of them were named after football clubs covering the LNER region. All the locomotives had been withdrawn by 1960 and none of them survived into preservation. Some of the clubs were presented with the nameplates after the locomotives had been cut up. There were some changes during the lifetime of the locomotives. Locomotive 61670 was originally named Manchester City but became Tottenham Hotspur and later City of London. 61571 was subsequently renamed Tottenham Hotspur. The original Norwich City and the original Tottenham Hotspur were both streamlined in the manner of the A4’s. (Mainly for effect rather than performance) Norwich City was renamed the East Anglian and Tottenham Hotspur became City of London. Rendlesham Hall then became Norwich City and Thoresby Park became Tottenham Hotspur. Here is the full list of footballers in the order that they were originally built. All of them constructed 1936-37. Arsenal, Sheffield United, Grimsby Town, Derby County, Darlington, Huddersfield Town, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Leeds United, Doncaster Rovers, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Hull City, Sheffield 4 Wednesday, Manchester United, Everton, Liverpool, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest, Bradford City, Bradford (Park Avenue) Barnsley, Manchester City, West Ham United. It is interesting to compare the stature of the clubs now to their positions in the year their namesake Locomotive was built. Here is a list of the divisions the clubs were in when the locomotives were named followed by in brackets where they finished the season. Remember Div 1 = Premier league Div 2 = Championship Div 3 South or Div 3 North = League 1 or League 2 Arsenal 1 (P), Sheffield United 2 (P), Grimsby Town 1 (L2), Derby County 1 (C), Darlington Div 3 North ( NL North) -After folding and being reformed. Huddersfield Town 1 (C), Sunderland L1 (1) 1936 Champions. Middlesbrough 1 (1), Leeds United 1 (C), Doncaster Rovers 2(L1), Newcastle United 2 (P), Norwich City 2 (P), Hull City 2 (C) Hull finished bottom that year too. Sheffield Wednesday 1 (C), Manchester United 1 (P), Everton 1 (P), Liverpool 1 (P), Leicester City 2 (P), Nottingham Forest 2 (C), Bradford City 2 (L2), Bradford (PA) 2 (NL North ), Barnsley 2 (C), Manchester City 1 (P), West Ham United 2 (P). It would be interesting to know how the clubs were chosen. All of them were in Division 1 or Division 2 except Darlington. I read one account as to how lowly Darlington, came to be so honoured. The story goes that employees at the Darlington works where some of the locomotives were built saw the locomotives with the names or more prominent clubs being out shopped and took it upon themselves to outshop a locomotive and name it after their own team It just steamed out of the shop and nobody noticed! Some of the named locomotives had very tenuous links to the LNER. Nottingham Forest, Leicester City and Derby County only qualified by virtue of being on the former Great Central Line which was allocated to the LNER at the grouping.