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Tyneside electrics


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Picture showing the beiginning of the riverside line

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/5158070222/in/photostream/

 

Simon

From the 1970 pic posted by Simon.

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Byker, Newcastle, September 1970 by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, on Flickr

 

So from a slightly different perspective 33 years later. The Riverside branch is no more but the Metro has appeared. The terraces have mostly disappeared to be replaced by "The Wall".

On a "bombing" run in 2003...

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Porcy

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Most of the riverside track bed is still there as it has been converted into a footpath, you can see the start on Porcys picture above, ( Hope you dont mind me adjusting)

Morrisons has now built on the old byker junction though

 

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Edited by (The) Youth
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I'm sure the old upper entrance was swept away when the Metro line was developed. However, I have been sure before and............... :superstition:

P

 

Not so much swept away as filled in. The line to the quayside passed through that psuedo tunnel under New Bridge Street (necessary because of the fairly extreme skewing of New Bridge Street)  and then immediately started to sink into a descending cut so that the actual tunnel portal was below the level of the surrounding track, then once into the tunnel it turned sharp right under what's now the Metro. This cut was infilled at the time of Metro construction, hence the fact no trace is to be seen above ground level.

Edited by Caledonian
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Nostalgia alert!  yes, the jungle is yuppie flats now, a Doctor I used to know lived in one.

 

It's only reading this thread that reminds me how complex the railways south of the river were (I'm a South Shields lad) and how complex, they , er aren't any more!

 

There was a great model of Pelaw box on our old SSMRS club layout, but I don't have any photos of it.

 

Michael, that's not Tyne Dock station that ends under the bridge by the river, it's South Shields.  Tyne Dock was two stations along, the first stop out of Shields being 'High Shields' more commonly known as Trinity, due to being next to the church of that name.  This was all on a tightly curving embankment that the NCB line to high staithes ran underneath, weaving from side to side.  All gone now, no trace left hardly.  The Metro leaves the passenger line alignment almost immediately after leaving South Shields, and traverses a very old railway that latterly was NCB owned.  It re-joins between what is now Chichester (pro, Ch eye chester, not Chich chester!) Metro and Tyne Dock station, which is on the original line.  I was born and grew up not far from the huge colliery on the seafront of South Shileds, which is now Crown Point or something housing estate.  I used to listen to the electrics shunting all night....#sigh#

 

It was slightly more complicated. The original passenger line from South Shields swung around as you say through High Shields/Trinity and joined what's now the Metro line at Tyne Dock. The original Tyne Dock Station was on the west side of the Metro Station and was demolished during Metro construction. Instead of going by High Shields the Metro then used the Harton Line alignment as far as Chichester, bodging the Harton Line a few metres to the east. North of Chichester it then swings back towards Shields over a dirty great concrete viaduct to rejoin the original alignment at Garden Lane.

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Yes, I agree, but didn't want to get TOO bogged down in details!

 

Here's a couple of shots of what is now Chichester Metro station - summer of '76, the heat buckled the track and stopped our progress on one of our many tours of the Harton system, with Freddie Bond, the railway electrical engineer.

 

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A Met-Cam crossing the viaduct over Crossgate yard on the old alignment-

 

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Harton number 9 just before it went to Tanfield - NHN house roof in background!

 

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And a rare one - the rotary converters that produced the 500v (ish!) DC supply for the railway, before the installation of ex-South Shields tramways mercury-arc rectifiers.  They were kept in usable condition as a back up for years, and used to give the coverters a run occasionally to keep the insulation dry, scary things.

 

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edit because my fingers can't spell my home town!

Edited by New Haven Neil
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Yes, I agree, but didn't want to get TOO bogged down in details!

 

Here's a couple of shots of what is now Chichester Metro station - summer of '76, the heat buckled the track and stopped our progress on one of our many tours of the Harton system, with Freddie Bond, the railway electrical engineer.

Superb Pics. I'd forgot how hot that summer was, Wonder who used to get the gob of cutting back them commutators on the convertors. Elf n safety... Pah!

 

P

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Scary old beasts, aren't they.  Would have been nice to have saved them, and the mercury arcs too. 

 

The last mercury arc rectifiers here at Laxey on the MER were just taken out of service this winter, and are being preserved.  They had the sub station open to visitors last year, took a friend to show him, he was terrified of them!  6'4", ex copper, hard lad....he was backing off when the load came on!  He was stunned, all 'jeeze its like bl--dy Frankenstein...'  he he!

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There's a photo in that set of pictures of the Point Pleasant viaduct over Willington Dene, further downstream from the taller viaduct which currently carries the Metro. I've never seen a photo of that viaduct from "the ground" as it were and now really struggle to work out where it was (despite photographing Point Pleasant and Willington Quay stations for the Disused Stations website). Has anyone ever seen a picture of it?

 

Arp

Dunno if you found anything yet but a quick giggle turned up these.

 

Should have known Stafford Linsley would have something in his collection…

A very young Blackgill operator may just have been with him when he took this pic…

 

http://sine.ncl.ac.uk/view_image.asp?digital_doc_id=4536

 

Just catch a glimpse of its West end here: Ninth picture down::

 

http://wallsendhistory.btck.co.uk/Gallery/Wallsend%20Images

 

and finally from the Turners Collection in Tyne & Wear Archives.

So much to see in this phot. Howden Gasworks, the Ballast hills, to Shell/BP tankers being loaded. (probably for Consett plate Mill.  (Via Blackgill).

 

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Turners Aerial Photography - Jarrow and Wallsend by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, on Flickr

 

Porcy

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So from a slightly different perspective 33 years later. The Riverside branch is no more but the Metro has appeared. The terraces have mostly disappeared to be replaced by "The Wall".

On a "bombing" run in 2003...

attachicon.gifSRB636copy.jpg

 

Porcy

 

I've got to ask, what aircraft was that taken from? Looks like a twin radial with two bladed prop, i'd say Beech 18 (I used to restore one) but I don't know of any with black cowlings operating in the UK, or that were in 2003. Other than that i'm stumped!

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I've got to ask, what aircraft was that taken from? Looks like a twin radial with two bladed prop, i'd say Beech 18 (I used to restore one) but I don't know of any with black cowlings operating in the UK, or that were in 2003. Other than that i'm stumped!

 

The wing section in view should give the game away...

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I've got to ask, what aircraft was that taken from? Looks like a twin radial with two bladed prop, i'd say Beech 18 (I used to restore one) but I don't know of any with black cowlings operating in the UK, or that were in 2003. Other than that i'm stumped!

“Twin Beech” I wish!

It was Lufthansa’s Ju 52/3m, “Iron Annie” on one of it’s PR tours before appearing at Duxford the following weekend.

I thought it might have been obvious from my “Bombing run” clue, the reflection on the engine nacelle, and the bit of Krupps best corrugated iron down in the RH corner of the pic. :)

Sadly it now runs with triple props fitted to its triple P&W wasp engines. That’s what probably made it one of the smoothest piston engine aircraft I’ve flown in. (Along with the skill of the Lufthansa. pilots). Its crew are all Lufthansa volunteers btw.

 

Porcy

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You beat me to the draw by about 4 seconds old bean...   (But then you did have insider info)

 

Tally ho!

 

P

 

...yes I was standing on the ground watching you fly overhead...

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Was he wearing a Pickelhaube and doing an impersonation of Gert Frobe?

 

Mike

 

...from memory...he had talked the pilot into doing a bombing run over the HMRC headquarters at Longbenton...

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Thanks, the reflection and wing section did confuse me! Regarding the Quayside electrics, here's more photos of the surviving ES1 taken yesterday, saw the 1904 parcels van today at the Stephenson Railway Museum so will post those up next

 

 

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The door on the ES1 had been left ajar so got some more snaps from cab floor level
 
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You can see the BR Logo underneath the preservation era paint
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IMGP1297_zpsa70d3692.jpg

 

Tyneside Electric Motor Luggage Van 3267, built at York in 1904 by the North Eastern Railway, was used for parcels etc and were powerful enough to haul other vans. A ventilated compartment at one end (you can see the louvred doors) was used to carry fish from Cullercoats and Tynemouth. This one was retired in 1937 then converted into a de-icing vehicle, with the motors removed, and antifreeze mixture sprayed onto the third rail. I'm not sure if the bogies show the original electric pick up shoe or the equipment for spraying

 

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