Trainspotting at Little Benton Sidings, Newcastle.

[46256 2,125]

Hello John apologies for posting on your thread. If you can believe it I thought I was adding it to mine. No matter the building of this loco was influenced  greatly by you. I have followed your North Eastern locomotive and carriage builds for some time. The enthusiasm and information you, and like minded North Eastern modellers have,  I admire greatly. The other reason, our joint love of using parts from ...alternative sources, to create locos not readily available. This can only be done though, with a wealth of photographs and drawings. Isinglass provided the latter, you very kindly sent me your treasured copy of Yeadons volume 17 for the photos. In addition the GBL J39 that provided the cab, part of the boiler and smokebox.A second GBL J39 provided more of the boiler insert. A old Hornby b12 provided the running plate with curves....the J39 the front buffer and running plate. The chassis is a Hornby b12 with markits 23 mm drivers on their 9/64 axles to match the old Hornby bearings. The cylinders are Comet, as is part of the motion...a D49. The eccentric rods and expansion link had to be adapted from spares being too short. Lastly markits washout plugs smokebox door dart and snifter valve. The tender is a GC GBL butler Henderson with the rear plate changed with scratch water tanks and the flared NE coal rails brass strip soldered onto plate. The chimney is a spare..

 

lastly you are correct I have no whistle yet to finish her off

Edited January 19 by 46256

[rowanj 4,373]

I never saw a 9F at Little Benton, and even at Newcastle they were rare beasts. The Tyne Dock locos were very occasionally seen an freight turns, and towards the end, York and Doncaster based locos got to Newcastle. 92178 is from 34E, so is a real treat for the spotters.

 

Anyway, I have a couple on the roster, and one has been put on a fitted freight to Berwick. The body is a GBL Evening Star, the chassis from Bachmann from the days when they could be "won" at a reasonable price, and the tender is GBL from their 76xxx model.

I'm in the process of building an LRM N9, and was testing it on the layout, so have included a snap of its' current condition. 

[rowanj 4,373]

I gave the other 9F's a spin, and the young lad on the fence was thrilled....he would not have expected this in his wildest dreams.

 

92239 is one of the locos which ended up at York, and heads to Tyneside on a rake of mineral wagons. It is another GBL body, on an original Hornby tender- drive chassis.

 

92063, in the siding, is another GBL body on a Railroad chassis, with a Silver Fox tender body. It is a Tyne Dock loco, so is fitted with the Dave Alexander conversion kit, now sadly unavailable. I was glad I decided to give it a run, as the tender derailed on the points, so it is in Works to sort it out. The large cabside numbers  were added by Darlington Works when they were doing the last lot of General Repairs, and presumably were just using whatever stocks of transfers were available, I used a photo of the loco on Darlington Shed as the source, but admit it does look odd.

Edited February 1 by rowanj

[rowanj 4,373]

My latest loco is an LRM N9, and here it is on its' debut. The cab roof is removable, as I spent a bit of time adding cab detail, but I see it has slipped forward a touch. The build is illustrated in the Kitbuilding List.

 

The LRM kit also allows the building of the N8 version - one I made earlier- and for amusement, I ran them alongside one another, together with my other LRM kit- a J25. All classic ex-NER motive power, albeit almost at the end of their working lives,

[rowanj 4,373]

A bit more "pure ex_NER"  at Little Benton, though the timeline is a bit off. The DJH D20 was built, late emblem and all, as one of the last in service, so pulling a rake of ex-NER stock which wouldnt have got past 1951 is a bit unrealistic. The first 3 are D&S kits, and the last is Worsley Works.

The Little Engines T1 is one of my favourite locos and is caught running light back to Tyne Dock. What it was doing north of the Tyne is a good question. Loaned to cover shunting duties at North Blyth, perhaps, during construction of Cambois Power Station?

Edited February 5 by rowanj

[rowanj 4,373]

I very rarely buy RTR locos these days , but couldn't resist the A2/2. 60501 is one of only a few locos I really recall seeing when I was a spotter, as it stood just behind us at Gateshead East Station for a good 20 minutes waiting to go on shed. It had come off at Central, presumably from York, and headed across the High Level bridge, where it was held waiting a path into 52A. I thought it was superb, as a 13 y.o knowing nothing about Gresley/Thompson wars. 

 

After a run-in, 501 has a Parcels to Edinburgh, where Haymarket was so thrilled to see it again, it promptly sent it back as soon as possible on a semi -fast to Newcastle.

 

There are plenty of reviews and comments around, so I'll only add that, on mine, a tender door and a cab seat were loose in the box, and are fiddly to refit with the tender connected. Running is superb.

[Sandhole 776]

5 minutes ago, rowanj said:

I very rarely buy RTR locos these days , but couldn't resist the A2/2. 60501 is one of only a few locos I really recall seeing when I was a spotter, as it stood just behind us at Gateshead East Station for a good 20 minutes waiting to go on shed. It had come off at Central, presumably from York, and headed across the High Level bridge, where it was held waiting a path into 52A. I thought it was superb, as a 13 y.o knowing nothing about Gresley/Thompson wars. 

 

After a run-in, 501 has a Parcels to Edinburgh, where Haymarket was so thrilled to see it again, it promptly sent it back as soon as possible on a semi -fast to Newcastle.

 

There are plenty of reviews and comments around, so I'll only add that, on mine, a tender door and a cab seat were loose in the box, and are fiddly to refit with the tender connected. Running is superb.

There is a story in a Richard Hardy book about one of his drivers who got one of these locos on a fast fitted train.
This was a 9f duty. Hardy persuaded him to take it and said he could fail it if it wasn't up to the task.
The driver rang Hardy up to tell him this was a perfect fast fitted loco and had it all week.

[rowanj 4,373]

What is this doing here? Although I have a photo of a Scottish K2 at Little Benton, but I doubt there was ever a K4 there between them being built at Darlington and "The Great Marquess" being preserved. This is a model I cobbled together a few years ago from a GBL K3 and a Hornby B17 boiler, with a cur-down tender from GBL parts.  I also had a few  of the original Dave Alexander K4 chassis etches, bought for the princely sum of £1 each when he upgraded them.  So , just for fun, I had a go to see if I could get something like a K4 to go. Whether it was fun or not depends on your point of view ... it was a bit of a fight.

Anyway, here it is on test on the layout. It still needs some added weight, but otherwise seems OK as a classic "Layout " loco- in other words, don't look too closely. I assume it came South on something from Glasgow when Edinburgh had nothing better on Shed, or, looking at the condition, to get some mileage on it before a General. Heaton took the opportunity to get it, and its' crew home as soon as possible on an-all stations to Waverley.

Edited February 19 by rowanj

[rowanj 4,373]

Thanks to Clive M, I now have a 2-Car Class 104- or at least a half of one, as I need to do the conversion to the Driving Car. It takes the ECML from Tynemouth to Central on a Workmans early morning SO, passing a 4-car set in the loop. This will follow the 2-car into Newcastle, where they will join to form a 6-car on the 10-25 SO to Alnwick.

 

Heading North, Saltburn's A5/1 has a Berwick Stopper. This train originated at Darlington, and the A5 has been left on the train, for some unknown reason. This is the sort of train, of course, that the 104 would shortly consign to history. The leading coach is a Kirk kit, built many moons ago but modified during lockdown with ABS bogies and various MJT and Comet parts, and repainted.

[rowanj 4,373]

I well remember trainspotting at Little Benton in 1960, and being disappointed when the distant signals were pulled off and, when this normally meant an express or fast goods rather than a local freight, all we got was a DMU.  I'm afraid we took no notice of them, other than enjoying the view if we were lucky enough to get a seat at the front or the back.

So the groans from the lads by the fence can be heard as the 6-car Class 104 heads for Alnwick, little knowing that the days of steam-hauled locals in the North-east were almost over.

[46256 2,125]

Hello John travelling in the first generation dmus sitting behind the driver...really changed how we saw the railway. I was travelling in one watching the road ahead when suddenly the drivers compartment filled with feathers...literally. A bird had smashed into the front indicator box at sixty odd miles an hour...the result was dramatic to say the least. 

[rowanj 4,373]

A busy few minutes on a Summer Saturday sees Prince Palatine heading for Newcastle with a Parcels from Edinburgh.  Heaton's sole J94 is shunting the sidings, probably to pick up the rake of Gresley's to form an extra to York. Heaton also had an Ivatt 2MT and it has an CIU Special to Chathill, where buses will take the passengers on to visit Seahouses, Bamburgh and Beadnell.

The A3 is a bit of a pet, as I spent a lot of time on the original GBL Scotsman body and Hornby tender-drive tender, cutting back the latter and adding handrails and wiggly pipes to the loco. The J94 is just a repainted.renumbered Airfix, but is a superb runner. The 2MT is re-numbered Bachmann. The short rake consists of a couple of Kirks and a Hachette Mk1, which I "converted" from an SK to an SO, and have emerged from their box to see how they run, and to decide whether its' worth doing anything to upgrade them.