Arpster

What about one of the lovely houses on 'Blast Row' or Pattinson Town in the midst of Washington Chemical Works (Tyne Dock to Consett line visible in the background)? https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW016386 Arp

Here's a still from the local news with me demonstrating the control panel on Blackgill. This is why us poor operators sometimes make mistakes...

Thanks for your kind comments, chaps. The signals are operated by fishing line attached to relays beneath the baseboard. The little pulleys on the gantries actually serve a purpose! Arp

Thanks, chaps. It's been a blast! Let's do it again in my dad's loft with a few beers some day soon.

Well, that was the Railex NE that was! Blackgill was its usual temperamental self but generally allowed us to have fun and go out on a high. Thanks to everyone who came up to say hello and who's posted comments over the years. Blackgill will now return to its home in the loft and its ageing electrical components and operators can have a well-earned rest! Here are some photos from the weekend. Nice to speak to those of you who said hello! Arp A G5 runs out of the tunnel from Beamish and into Blackgill station with the stopper from Newcastle. [badly-Photoshopped image!] Q7 63473 passes through Blackgill with a load of steel from Consett works. Blackgill signal box. N10 69105 waits for its next duty in the colliery exchange sidings.

Blackgill is all set up and ready to go tomorrow. For those of you who ever wondered how it all went together, he's a little video letting daylight in on magic. Arp (Watch in full screen if you can!)

This weekend sees what might be Blackgill's last outing on the exhibition circuit (if the only man sticks to his guns). We'll be at Railex NE 2018 on Saturday and Sunday at John Spence Community High School in North Shields. Come along and say hello. Arp

Fantastic video of the trans-Pennine routes, Colin. The Woodhead footage, WITH SOUND, is amazing. It's great to see, and hear, the Class 76s in action, hear a Class 123/4 pulling away, and see a Class 13 doing what it was designed to do. Thanks for taking the time and effort to allow us to watch these online. Add my name to the list for a DVD of the HD stuff! Arp

And to drag us back off topic again (sorry Vanders!): GDP is a terrible way of measuring the success of a country and the health and happiness of its residents. A major disaster like an earthquake or hurricane can actually improve a country's GDP, as all of the reconstruction costs contribute to economic output regardless of loss of life or suffering. We really need our political leaders to think more widely about things that are currently considered 'economic externalities' such as social or environmental factors. The Danish green party 'The Alternative' put these ideas across really nicely in their report on the 'Triple Bottom Line' as a replacement for GDP: https://alternativet.dk/ To put us back on topic again, including such externalities in the appraisal framework for transport investment would skew the balance back in favour of rail (which has positive social and environmental benefits) over road. Arp

Some nice photos from the Armstrong Railway Photographic Trust in the Newcastle Chronicle: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/history/gallery/10-old-photographs-newcastle-tynesides-13914741 (If you haven't got Adblock installed, it might be worth doing so before visiting the Chron's website!) Arp

Couldn't agree more, Edwin. Use of HS rail is clearly preferable to flying or driving, and has all of the benefits that you list there (this holistic view of all the environmental factors that are usually treated as 'externalities' is important). The problem is that it is difficult to switch all of the current demand for travel from car and air to rail whilst electricity demand is also rising in other sectors, and whilst trying to stay without our carbon budget to meet the Paris Agreement. To do that were really do have to reduce demand for travel, which means more local services and activities, more walking and cycling where viable, and making better use of the public transport we have available (e.g. flattening out the 'peaks' of demand during the day by thinking about different working or school hours). It's not easy, but it is certainly feasible. What is needed is political will! One thing for sure though, rail travel is definitely part of the solution to the problems we face. Arp

All very good points and an important discussion to be had. The imperative to act on climate change, and the fact that every one of the world's governments signed up to the Paris Agreement, means that such difficult decisions are now looming large. Agreeing to keep global warming below 2 degrees and "pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees" means a complete rethink of how we do things, in terms of energy generation, transport provision, planning policy, and our way of life. We essentially have less than 20 years to completely remove carbon dioxide from our economy in order to stick to that budget. All of the forms of electricity generation available to us have their drawbacks (which is kind of the point some environmental campaigners are trying to make) meaning that removal of CO2 is particularly difficult if you take into account other problems. To that end, and given that there'll be a huge increase in electricity demand from transport due to the elimination of the internal combustion engine in coming years, what is vital is demand reduction. This is the only real way to address the problem, to keep the lights on, and avoid all of the nasty side effects of massive generation requirements. Demand reduction in the electricity sector has been happening for years (unplug your phone charger, only boil enough water as you need, insulate your home) but we now need the same from the transport sector. The problem with solutions like HS2 or HS3 is that they don't address this demand problem at all, instead carrying on the old 'predict and provide' model that's been used for 50 years with ever expanding CO2 emissions. We need to turn it all on its head and say "what does a transport system in keeping with the Paris Agreement look like?" We are still looking for tiny savings in time at great economic and environmental cost, still trying to provide increasing mobility instead of looking to demand reduction. The idea of "transport demand management" has been around for a long time and, alongside energy demand management, is vital to ensure we can meet our climate change obligations and ensure we don't run out of energy for all the other things we need to do! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_demand_management Arp

So the Venture 5 went from Consett to Newcastle, and the Northern General 5 went from Consett to Sunderland? Good job we've got all these bus spotters around to keep us right... Arp

The Clayton is a hand loco for testing things out, and a pretty reliable performer. I'll have to try to capture some more of Blackgill's diesel fleet next time I have the camera out. The last exhibition is the Railex North East 50th Anniversary show on the 28th and 29th of July next year, so you still have a chance, Mark! Phil: there was a chap at Hartlepool who used to catch the Northern number 5 from Consett to Sunderland, but then someone else who was complaining that it should have been a Venture bus... http://www.thebusgallery.co.uk/venture Arp

A first batch of photos from Hartlepool show for those that are interested. More to follow when I get some time to upload them! A nice rake of wagons on the coal drops at Blackgill, most of these (if not all?!) built by Axlebox. NCB D54 moves a rake of empty coal hoppers back up the colliery branch for loading whilst the shed pilot moves some ash wagons ready for collection by the pick-up goods. Another view of the two tank engines together. A view across Blackgill station in between trains. The back of the signal box. T1 69917 waits beside the goods shed for its next banking duty on coal trains up the hill towards Consett. A view of Blackgill during Hartlepool exhibition showing the viewing side (I don't often get round here!). Hopefully this gives an idea of the size of the layout. There's a J71 up on the coal stage after dropping off some wagons. A rare aerial view of Blackgill. This shows the fiddle yard arrangement at this end of the layout, and why it has to be 'on in, one out' with the trains! The multimeter is out, so there must be another electrical problem... Another slightly blurry aerial view of the scenic section. A quiet moment in the shed as the fitters take a break in between keeping T1 69917 in service. 63755 is disposed on shed after a day at work. Those two spotters are still waiting at the end of the platform. The shed fills up with engines at the end of the day. More next time! Arp

Sorry for the confusion: Blackgill isn't homeless - it's just being confined to its home in the future! It lives in my dad's loft most of the time, so will be residing there more permanently after next year. Arp

They're rare beasts, those 9F-hauled ore trains. Although more frequent now that there are two rakes in the schedule. Blackgill essentially operates on a 'one in, one out' system, where there are matching moves on either end of the layout. This is because there are so many trains to be run and space is limited in Blackgill's home in the loft meaning fiddle-yard tracks are at a premium. There are six iron ore train movements in each run through the schedule (out of 20 movements in total) but sometimes that schedule can take two hours to get through, depending on how well the layout behaves and how brave the operators are with shunting moves! I'll post a list of all the trains on here if anyone is interested? Blackgill is getting pretty old, as are its owner and operators, and getting it in and out of the loft is quite an undertaking. Add to that the fact that the journey in the back of the van (even padded with sponge!) always shakes loose a signal or two, or knocks something out of alignment (it doesn't take much in P4!) and you can see why its time on the road is coming to an end. We've been to Scaleforum, Warley, Scalefour North, Model Rail Scotland, and most of the North East shows, so hopefully many people have had a chance to see it. If not, get planning a trip up this end of the country next summer! Arp

You can't have County Durham without a brass band! Glad the video worked, and the music drowns out the din of us all shouting instructions to each other behind the scenes. Blackgill's final exhibition outing will be at Railex North East at North Shields next year, so come and catch it there for the last time! Arp

The little cube ain't half bad, is it? An interesting perspective on the back passage and the trials and tribulations of operating Blackgill. Aye, the old ECM Ramblers (two of them!) are still going strong. As Axlebox points out, you can drive the colliery sidings happily all day long, until you need to come out onto the mainline... The same goes for the MPD/goods yard on the other side. The Ramblers are essential to stop us getting in each other's way quite as much as we might otherwise do. They were probably modern technology when construction on Blackgill first began! You read my mind, Porcy: here's an attempt at cobbling together the video I managed to get over the weekend (the Clayton features quite heavily, but that's because it was running around as a test engine!) into something vaguely watchable. Sit down with a cuppa and enjoy 12 minutes of Blackgill! https://vimeo.com/240053963 [media] .[/media] Bung it on full screen! Arp

Was it the 'Train Now Departing' episode about the West Highland Line? https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p011v806/the-train-now-departing-2-the-west-highlander Arp

If I remember correctly, wasn't the direct line via Washington closed on Sundays and the ore trains therefore sent via Gateshead instead? Arp

The loco in question is providing the motive power for the down run in those videos: it's a very smooth runner indeed and will look the part once it's dirtied-up a bit! Now that I've figured out the focal length for the tiny camera I think the next job are some run-by videos from various vantage points on Blackgill... Arp

If only I had the technical know-how to achieve such a thing. Besides, it's better to leave in the evidence...

The Blackgill team had a fun, if exhausting, weekend at the NEC operating with a skeleton crew and a new timetable. I think we all enjoyed ourselves though, and had a fun night out in Sutton Coldfield (complete with three live bands). There wasn't a lot of time to take photos of the layout but I did manage to mount my miniature camera on a Lowmac and send it up and down the layout on the front of a couple of trains. The results aren't too bad and give a new perspective on Blackgill (and a glimpse into the calibre of its exhibition operators...) https://vimeo.com/194810405 - a ride down the hill on a steel train passing a 9F-hauled iron ore on the way. https://vimeo.com/194818252 - a cab ride up the bank on a Sulzer Type 2. Enjoy! Arp

I check back on a regular basis to see if there's a newsreel from Frankland, and this one certainly didn't disappoint. Thank you ever so much for taking the time to put together such a wonderful and fun presentation, to create a compelling world in miniature, and to share it all with us. Looking forward, as always, to the next update! Arp