Hirst Sidings - BR/NCB 1980's

[7mmin7foot]

Wow, bl**dy wow...

 

So much superb modelling here, so much inspiration for me.

Track, ground cover, locos, all of it... quite superb!

 

Steve

[North Eastern]

10 hours ago, 7mmin7foot said:

Wow, bl**dy wow...

 

So much superb modelling here, so much inspiration for me.

Track, ground cover, locos, all of it... quite superb!

 

Steve

Thank you, much appreciated.

 

[North Eastern]

Thanks to a recent NEBOSH course and exam, activity on Hirst Sidings has had to take a back seat.

Though a recent reorder of the garage has allowed me to access to my stock boxes so we will see more variety of locos & rolling stock through Hirst Sidings.

It has also allowed me to create some space so I can put up the two fiddle yards. Hopefully this weekend will see the fiddle yard representing Hirst Colliery in position, and we'll be able to run trains to the colliery.

An added bonus of the recent tidy up in the garage has meant I've found the box containing the 16v transformer and wires for the points resulting in all but three of the points working, further investigation will be needed for those points.

Recent activity sees 47363 Billingham Enterprise on Gateshead's Breakdown Train arrive in the sidings enroute to the bitumen plant down the branch to re-rail 37015 and its train of bitumen tanks that have come off the road.

08886 is still on hire to the colliery and is waiting in the exchange sidings head shunt for the next train load of empty wagons to arrive.

The repair sidings are looking busy so there's plenty of work for the lads in the wagon repair gang.

Thanks for reading my ramblings

[GWR57xx]

Nice crane! Is that from a kit?

[7mmin7foot]

Cracking photo's those are... I am envious of the track lengths & space you have .

The track work is superb..

 

Steve

[North Eastern]

3 hours ago, GWR57xx said:

Nice crane! Is that from a kit?

It was scratchbuilt by Danny Little and the coaches built from Easybuild kits.

 

[North Eastern]

47363 Billingham Enterprise has departed with Gateshead's breakdown crane after re-railing the errant 37015 & four bitumen tanks.

 

31322 brings into the yard the four re-railed bitumen tanks and shunts them into the wagon repair sidings ready for the wagon repair gang to check them over.

 

08512 is now on hire to the colliery after 08886 has returned to Cambois Depot. 08512 is seen shunting a rake of empty HEA's & HBA's down the branch to the colliery. Its later seen taking a break between shunting duties in the exchange sidings whilst 31322 waits to leave the sidings after dropping off the bitumen tanks.

 

37008 also waits to leave the sidings with 37015 to take it to Cambois Depot for examination after coming off the road in the bitumen plant.

Happy Hump day everyone😁

 

[muddys-blues]

Oh wow 😃 nice to an @Andrew P classic layout still knocking about 😍.

 

Nice traction as well Chris.

 

Craig 

Edited April 18 by muddys-blues
Put the correct AndrewP in

[Andrew P]

57 minutes ago, muddys-blues said:

Oh wow 😃 nice to an @andyp classic layout still knocking about 😍.

 

Nice traction as well Chris.

 

Craig 

Hi Craig, Thanks, but I think you'll find there IS an = AndyP on here, hence I had to go under the @Andrew P guise.

[North Eastern]

As the saying goes - 'It's the Weekend😀' & we see a couple of surprise visitors in the sidings - 25236 & 25239 from KD (Kingmoor TMD).

How they ended up at Hirst Sidings started with a conversation on Friday between Sid the Cambois Depot Manager & Geordie the Gateshead Depot Manager. Sid asked Geordie if he could spare a couple of locos for Monday's roster and to send something different if he could. Expecting possibly a Class 20 or 31 from Thornaby, the last thing he expected was two Class 25's.

The next conversation between Sid & Geordie went like this -

Sid - Bloody ell Man what am I supposed to do with those two knackers, they'll never manage to pull the skin off a rice pudding never mind a coal train!!!

Geordie - Lots of raucous laughter🤣🤣🤣

That was the last Sid heard before Geordie slammed the phone down.

Not wanting to incur the wrath of the drivers on Monday morning Sid shunted them off to Hirst Sidings sidings with 37008 to return them to Gateshead Depot on Monday morning.

Other locos stabled for the weekend include 08575, 08886, 08888, 56119 & 56124.

Also in the sidings is the remnants of an engineers train from a PW re-ballasting job on the branch on Friday night.

There is still plenty of work for the wagon repair gang when they return on Monday morning with some new variety of wagons in the sidings.

[North Eastern]

Its the May Day Bank Holiday and the PW Gang are in full swing with two maintenance trains stabled in the Sidings. Thornaby's 31276 & 31277 have been drafted in to be in charge of the PW trains whilst the PW Gang have also brought in the Tamper Unit to ensure the track is in tip top condition after the repairs.

08886, 08888 & 37008 are also stabled in the sidings waiting to go back to Cambois Depot after the Bank Holiday.

08575 which is on hire to Hirst Colliery is putting in some overtime moving some crippled NCB hoppers to the repair sidings in preparation for the repair gang returning on Tuesday.

Also lurking in the sidings is one of Gateshead Depot replacement snow ploughs fresh from an overhaul at Doncaster Works. Quite why its at the Sidings is anyone's guess and Sid the Sidings Foreman will be on the blower to Geordie at Gateshead to find out

The Colliery fiddle yard board is now up and in place, how long it will stay up is dependent on the Management