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Trainspotting at Little Benton Sidings, Newcastle.


rowanj
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Some time spent on the layout produced mixed results. An A2 "failed" when the con rod retaining pin came out, which means a trip to Works and a fairly fiddly repair. However the lads on the fence probably couldn't believe their luck when a 34E 9F came through on a rake of cattle wagons.

 

I never saw a 9F at Little Benton, though there are occasional reports in Railway Observer of visits up the ECML to Waverley, usually on Parcels. But it does no harm to run the occasional stranger. The loco is a GBL ex-Evening Star, with the tender body from a GBL 76xxx, on a Hornby loco-drive chassis. The wagons are a mix of Bachmann RTR, Parkside LNER and Coopercraft GWR, so are, therefore, pretty hopeless as far as authenticity goes. Even the LNER ones were all gone by BR days, One of these days, I'll do something about it. But from a distance, I think they look OK.

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Gateshead's Class 25/1 D5180 takes an empty rake of BP wagons into the storage sidings, clearing the way for Haymarket's "Hornets Beauty" to race through before slowing for the approaches to Central. The valve gear was easier to fix than I'd expected -thought I may have to dismantle one side, but managed to squeeze the soldering iron in. I seem to have lost a front step, however. Anyway, 64B was happy enough to roster it on an Edinburgh- Newcastle relief. The leading pair of coaches are Bachmann with Comet sides and roof altered a la mode de Tony Wright.

A good friend on RMWeb today posted some photos of signals around his layouts location, Water Orton , which is somewhere in the Midlands! in all seriousness, his thread is well worth a visit. Coincidentally, I came across a couple of photos of Little Benton which appear to show a short signal post on what I had always believed was a simple home/distant, and which I built as such. I only have 1 photo I can post which seems to show this, and I'd be interested to know what it protects, 

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This photo could just about have happened in real life, but no later than the early 50's. The ex-NER carriages have just about had it, and the breakers yard is not too far away. The Gresley all 3rd is probably a more comfortable ride, and the loco is a genuine ex-NER A8. Even the loco is time-limited, as most had the slimmer boiler by BR days, and certainly by the mid 50's. The DJH kit only offers the original fat boiler, and a short smokebox, which should be extended quite noticeably for the BR era.

 

The NER coaches are D&S kits, the Gresley is Kirk with MJT details, especially bogies, underframe and roof. the loco is modified DJH. The Gresley coach towers above the NER stock, and I was a bit concerned about this, but it actually matches the ride height of the Hornby RTR. Photos do confirm there was a difference in real life, presumably as a consequence of the loading gauge in force when the coaches were built in 1900.

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A good friend of mine is in the process of modifying the GBL LMS Ivatt  to the BR 84xxx version. I did mine some time ago, fitting it to a Bachmann chassis. Only 1 loco was in the NER, and even then in Humberside, so the spotters had no chance of seeing it on Tyneside, never mind at Little Benton. It hardly ever (never) gets a run, but as I wanted to test the running of a Kirk kit I'm busy improving with MJT parts, I dug it out. The loco runs, albeit a bit jerkily, so I may see if oiling and cleaning improves matters. Brian is fitting his own chassis, which I think is a much better option.

The coach, incidentally, is fitted with Isinglass 3D printed bogies, as an experiment, and seems to run flawlessly. They are very competitively priced, and I'm going to try the Fox version on an ex-NER Clerestory in the "to do" pile.

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The relief "Meat and Fish" which ran between Tweedmouth and Newcastle has been brought into Little Benton Sidings by a Heaton J77 (Dave Alexander kit), Depending when the next relief is needed , the stock will remain here until another train comes to Tyneside, when they will merge to go back North, or else will probably be sent home with a mixed goods. All the wagons are Parkside kits.

The BP wagons are Bachmann and Mainline o various vintages and have been re-painted and lettered with Modelmaster transfers,

The non-corridor stock is my pair of D&S ex-NER coaches, with 2 renovated Kirk Gresley's, which look and run much better with the MJT parts. on one, the all-1st, I used Isinglass 3D printed Gresley bogies, and they are excellent.

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As the chassis of an ancient NuCast G5 kit, building of which during lockdown seemed a good idea at the time, is continuing to give me grief, I thought I'd run a few trains for therapy.

LRM 's N8 wheels another LOCO Coal to who knows where.,,.Blyth perhaps. I must get another of these and build it as an N9.

64B's sole A2/3, Honeyway is a DJH kit, and it seems right at home on a Blue Spot Fast Fish from Aberdeen. This was the first Pacific I (successfully) built, so is run more often than most.

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Though I love to build and run the D20's, G5's and A8's of this world, this, to be honest, is more like how I remember Little Benton. The Class 40 has just arrived at Gateshead, and has a fitted freight from Edinburgh, whilst the Derby Lightweight is on a local to Morpeth.

The V2 is on a York- Edinburgh Special, so it must be a Summer Saturday. As the band on the firebox has been lined, it must have been to Darlington Works fairly recently.

But as I'm in lockdown, I have more time to build stuff which has lain around, in some cases for a few years. The NuCast G5 is a case in point, and it has now got to the stage where I have it running, and It's now at the detailing stage.

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It's obviously a Summer Saturday, as York has provided a D49, "Berkshire" for a Rowntrees Staff Excursion to Berwick and the Borders. These were quite common, and York was often stretched to find stock, and so has resorted to an LMS rake.

The loco is a modified Hornby Hunt, with an ex-GC tender body from the GBL D11. If I remember correctly, I used an article Tony Wright did for BRM.

In the meantime, normal life goes on, and an ancient Mainline J72, modified to represent a vacuum fitted version and with added detail, brings in a short rake of empty wagons from Heaton to be stored in the sidings.

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The Summer Saturday continues, as the SO Craigendoran-Leicester passes behind 60002. Usually, this would be a 64B turn, but an opportunity has been taken to get a 52A loco and crew back to Tyneside, Well...that's my excuse.

 

Discovering the existence of this train is really just an excuse to run my LMS rake, which is really a bit of a hotch-potch of stock. All are Comet sides on Airfix donors- the coach in the picture a CK, but I cant remember the diagram.

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Starting to look a little care-worn, J27 65813 takes a load of coal from the Backworth Complex to Stella North Power Station. the loco is a Dave Alexander kit, and the signal box scratch-built ( and looks it in this photo). The signal shows, as usual, only the Home pulled off for this train. Seeing the Distant pulled almost always meant an Express passenger and therefore a source of great excitement amongst we kids.

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This is a NuCast G5 which I have been fighting with over the last few weeks, now on its' first service run. The rake is, in order, a Kirk Gresley all-third, a Kirk Gresley all 1st, an ex-Ner composite (downgraded to 3rd, and ex-NER 4 compartment Brake., both from D&S kits. The Kirks have been upgraded using MJT parts.

The time machine must have whipped us back to the early 1950's, and has caught an early-morning Newbiggin or Blyth train heading for Central via the ECML rather than the more usual route to Manors North. The ex-NER coaches had almost all gone by 1951, and this was their final stamping ground,

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Classic ex-NER in BR days at Little Benton North. The G5 is now in service, (though the temporarily fitted cab roof seems to have become askew). I would need some persuasion to go through another NuCast G5 build again. It heads North , probably on a Morpeth stopper. The A8 has, highly improbably, been rostered on a train from Alnwick, while the modified Bachmann J72 shunts the sidings, including the D&S Birdcage Brake.

For all the faults and dodgy modelling, this is the sort of sight I always had in mind when re-creating the scene of my childhood spotting.

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During Lockdown, I decided to try one of the Isinglass 3D coach kits, and enjoyed the rather different challenge. The construction is described on my build thread. The Dia 246 is the lead coach, behind the V3, on an otherwise rake of Hornby Gresley's.  The train is a special, conveying students to Tyne Commission Quay for a Fred Olsen Oslo Ferry, 

 

Meanwhile 60023 has a fully-fitted freight. Gateshead tended to use A1's on its' top-link turns, so an A4 is not such an unusual occurrence. Indeed, turns ostensibly rostered for an A4 very often saw an A1 instead. Quite why the apathy is not readily understood.

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I think the Bachmann WD is amongst the best RTR, and I have a couple of re-numbered examples. The locos were often seen on rakes of hoppers in the North east, though largely south of the Tyne, so the spotters probably has a "cop" here, as a load heads north, probably from one of the Stella Power Stations, Really, the rake should be empties, if it is heading north, i.e back into the Northumberland Coalfield.

 

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Bachmman wd totally agree John ,  couldn't believe at the time we were going to get a RTR example. I do recall though it topped a modellers poll a number of years running.

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It must be early 1950's. as a rake of vintage Ex-NER coaches have been pressed into service on either a relief workmans train, or a Race Special from Killingworth. The train has been put into the sidings to allow an Express to pass, and now heads to Central.

The coaches are all kit-built, the Clerestory brake from Worsley Works, and the last pair from D&S. They are all in a form of LNER Brown (not teak) and are intended to reflect various shades according to when last painted. They are all far too clean, and at some stage will be weathered, when I pluck up the courage- it's not something I am very good at.

The loco is my DJH A8.

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J39/1 64701 heads empty cattle wagons north. They will be dropped off either singly or in pairs (or as required) at various points , probably as far as Berwick, before being added to freights heading for Tyneside from the various Marts in Northumberland. They will then be aggregated for the return north, as in this trip.

The loco is Bachmann with a scratch - built 3500 GS tender- so the loco is the only one of  this sub- group based at Heaton.

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My rather heavily modified DJH D20 has been give non-corridor stock for a SO Alnwick - Newcastle extra. We never called this place "Little Benton"- it was always The Powder Monkey, named after a spoil heap from a closed colliery. The photos have been taken from the top.

The last coach is an Isinglass 3D Print Gresley 6-compartment Brake 3rd, which sits reasonably well with the Hornby stock. Hopefully his range will continue to expand. The service was excellent, and the coach built up pretty well. Extra parts were from Dart Castings/MJT. though I used the Isinglass 3D bogies as an experiment, They worked fine too, though in an ideal world I prefer the additional weight of cast bogies.

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Dave Alexander Q7 has a train of mineral wagons, heading south but destination unknown. Not the staithes on the Tyne - that would be carried in 21T hoppers. Possibly Stella South, or Tyne Dock to be then shipped up to Consett?

 

 

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Wanting to do something simple, I matched a spare DJH D20 tender with a Bachmann J39 to produce a J39/3. The tenders on this sub-class were a real mixture of types, but Yeadon has turned up an appropriate loco. Here it stands in the sidings as an express passes heading south. The odd-looking coach is an SEF kit of a Cravens FO. The stock is a real mix of Gresley, Thompson and MK1's so must be a relief. 

I didn't do much to the tender, other than opening up the rear coal rails. The frame cutouts are wrong for a D20, but are OK for this loco, as far as I can tell. Some of the last builds, strangely enough, in 1940, got tenders stored at Darlington from withdrawn C7's. I had assumed the ex-NER tenders went to the first builds, but not so - they got either 3500 gallons and were 39/1 or 4200 gallon standard tenders and were 39/2. I live and learn

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I came across the prototype photo when doing research while building my Birdcage Brake 3rd, and thought I'd give my NuCast K2 one of its' occasional runs on the rake of ex-NER stock.

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In all my visits to Little Benton. I never saw a train held at signals, yet here we have 2 trains. Presumably something odd has happened between here and Heaton.

The J39/3 has the short "meat n'fish" - I have a couple of Parkside kits to add to the rake-, while A2/3 "Ocean Swell" has been relegated to a Berwick-Newcastle "all-stations". This is an ex-GBL A2 with Graeme King resin castings, running on an altered SEF A2 chassis.

 

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It's obviously a Summer Saturday, and possibly the weekend of the Bedlington Miners Picnic. Extra trains have been drafted in, and the J77 has been despatched to Heaton Yard to collect the ex-NER set, which will be used as a shuttle between Morpeth and Newsham . The splitting distant shows the train will leave the ECML at Benton Quarry Junction, take the electrified North Tyneside loop to Backworth and then head up the Blyth and Tyne Mainline. With any luck, passengers will be able to do the same thing in 2022.

Incidentally, the Bedlington Picnic was where I had my first date with the current Mrs. Rowanj in 1968.

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