Arpster

Evening, all. With less than two weeks to go until Railex in Aylesbury, Blackgill was up and running today to make sure everything is in working order. A few broken wires were discovered, a few points out of gauge, the level crossing gates were misbehaving, but generally it worked reasonably well given that it's been in pieces since Scaleforum last September! I took the opportunity to take a few photos this evening when I paid my dad a visit to see how he was getting on. Hope you enjoy them! The colliery pilot from the nearby pit waits at the end of the branch for a train of empties to be brought into the reception sidings.. ...and moves on to take some water in the meantime. The ancient side of Consett circle passenger trains; a V3 on a Blackhill to Newcastle stopper (via Stanley) pulls into the station, its coaches still in LNER livery (as they would be until they were scrapped on the cessation of passenger services). The brake coach has seen better days. Luckily, in the fictitious world of Blackgill we can help our passengers out a little. The modern take on Consett trains is seen in the form of a brand new 2-car Derby Lightweight DMU. What comfort! And now for something completely different; when Blackgill was built it was wired for darkness. Buildings, yardlamps, even signal are all equipped for night-time operation, but they've never worked properly...until now. So here's a few experimental darkness photos for you to cast your eye over. I've not perfected the photography just yet, but it's a first attempt at least. Visitors to Railex may be treated to a little peek of this 'new feature' during the exhibition if they're lucky! Blackgill station at night, its warm and inviting waiting room a godsend on a cold County Durham night. Blackgill box in the darkness, the bobby still hard at work keeping those round-the-clock ore trains on the move up to Consett. The evening DMU service to Consett disappear up the hill past the engine shed. The coaling stage (someone needs to put that chain back on its pulley!). The main entrance to the station (I couldn't get my camera in a better position to take a photo from any further back up in the loft!). The level crossing at night. Watch out for those gates! A glimpse inside the shed (which is almost impossible to do in the loft!) to show the lamps that dimly illuminate the fitters as they work. That's all for now, folks. Hope you like. If anyone has any questions then feel free to ask and I'll pass them on to my dad for an answer. Or maybe you can ask us in person at Railex (assuming we're not falling out with each other over malfunctioning trackwork or wilfully-ignored timetables!). All the best, Arp

As far as I can see I'm the only one actually smiling! The rest seem to be grimaces. The awards are actually the York Trophy for best layout (a source of great pride and currently displayed on the mantlepiece in my dad's house despite being a bit of a brute!) and a rather unexpected award for 'Best Scratchbuilt Structure' for the engine shed. Preparations are still in full swing for Aylesbury in May, with another passenger rake in progress, a V3 currently being lined, a couple of diesels (gasp!) in the works, along with their associated brake tender, and a nice little NCB saddletank just about finished. I'll have to go over and get some photos of these when they're completed. Thanks for looking in, Arp

Sorry to hear about your heart attack, Ron. It must have come as a real shock. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Arp

There's an old electrification wagon in an abandoned siding near Heaton depot in Newcastle. It must have been there since at least the completion of the wiring of the ECML in 1991 or thereabouts. It's some kind of very short wheelbase single bolster wagon with a couple of A-frames mounted on it (which I presume held cable drums). All of the other departmental wagons that were left in Heaton engineers yard (including a very early MK1 corridor coach) were cut up on site about ten years ago. https://goo.gl/maps/Arvm1 Arp

I certainly didn't sign any such document but I'm not sure what my dad did. I'll have a word when he's back from his Floridian recovery period! In the meantime, here's the photos they didn't use... First up some construction photos from back in the mists of time. This is the plywood skeleton of the baseboard at the Tyne Dock end of the layout (where the tunnel is) before the addition of scenery. This was as-built, before the remodelling of the trackwork to remove the point in the tunnel (which sadly didn't seem to have a lot of effect on reducing derailments at Scaleforum this year!). This is the same baseboard viewed from underneath showing the method of construction using plywood. The right-hand endplate is fitted with the metal 'tongues' which allow the scenic boards to be fitted together (they're only on one end as it's the first board). The support trestles fit on dowels into the two holes in each end plate. A glimpse of one of the old GPO relays that are used to operate points and signals. The relay is fitted with an arm which holds a small adjustable brass tube. This is then attached to the fishing wire which actually operates the arm of the signal (seen disappearing through the hole in the baseboard). The baseboard set up on its tressle (the low one for the loft!) showing the end profile: And finally a close-up of the arrangement of point tie-bars from above the scenics: Now for a scenic interlude... The crew of the shed pilot have a rest between jobs in the depot yard: Another view of Blackgill motive power depot: And close-up in black and white: A view of the shed from the outside. It has seen better days: The yard office in the sunset. They're still not doing any work...: A view back up the hill to Consett from the guards van of an empty iron ore train on its way back to Tyne Dock: The station buildings in the twighlight of passenger service: The sun sets on Blackgill's goods shed: The signal box: We're taking a chance to run over the crossing after the bobby has closed the gates to road traffic. Thankfully the signals are still at danger and we can hear the sound of a Consett-bound freight battling up the hill on the other side of the tunnel: The Bank Tavern: A look into the tunnel mouth. That old Kodak film really does yellow with age...: After five minutes of gradually-increasing noise, a 9F finally appears from the tunnel at the head of a loaded ore train. And finally, here's the motley Blackgill crew at Scaleforum displaying their ill-gotten gains. Hope you enjoyed the photos. Arp

Yes, I'm not sure how the copyright works, to be honest. I did take them all originally but I don't want to get in trouble with the legal police! But I have other ones I can post on here for sure (and will do so later today if I get time). All the best, Arp

Those of you who have bought Model Railway Journal No. 226 will have seen that it contains the second part of the article on Blackgill. Hopefully this will give those of you who are interested some more details on construction of the layout, electrics, buildings, signals and operation. There are also a few new photos in there! I'll have a look through the photos that were sent in to accompany the article and post any that weren't used there on RMWeb. I'm certainly very pleased with the article and I'm sure my dad will be too when he gets back from Florida to see it. Thanks very much to Pauls Willis and Karau for bringing this to press! All the best, Arp

Many thanks to Blackanddeckerboy for the brilliant video - I'm suprised you managed to capture as much footage as that of trains running without derails or stopping dead due to operator ineptitude! And Porcy - that shot in the shed looks fantastic. We should have tried to get a similar one when it was full of locos. Yes, it should be a bit more filthy than it is though! All the best, Arp

Well, that was the Scaleforum that was! Thank you to all that came to see it and chat to us. I hope you enjoyed seeing Blackgill in the flesh. The layout survived the 250-mile journey reasonably well, thankfully. The scenic section worked pretty seamlessly (barring a bit of a dropped rail joint on one of the board transitions, but as many of you watching will have noticed, we really struggled with derailments at one fiddle yard exit and a bizarre electrical problem at the other that meant we had to haul trains unceremoniously off the scenic section by hand some of the time! These kinds of problems are typical though, as we'd spent months ironing out all of the niggles in the safety of the loft only to find that in a strange environment and a different climate, things didn't behave as planned. I hope we had enough success in keeping things running that people were entertained and enjoyed their time at the layout. The schedule was admittedly a little bit slower than hoped at times. I had a lot of fun shunting though, which seemed to work reasonably seamlessly! It was the first time that some of the operators had really run it in anger, so there was a bit of a steep learning curve and a bit of swearing and self-flagellation required at times! I hope we managed to chat to everyone who wanted to chat in between keeping the show on the road. I'm sorry I wasn't able to answer your tractor question at the time, Vonkey, but I am sure that Jonathan is correct. I can double check though. It originally came from Reivers Road, the layout that Doug Carr, one of the operators this weekend, built ten years or so ago. As for the MRJ article, I did send a track plan to the editor and there is a lot of text about construction of the layout, operation, buildings, points and signals etc that wasn't used in the first part, so hopefully there'll be a Part 2 appearing soon! There are some great photos of the weekend over on the Scaleforum 2013 thread in the Exhibitions section (including some really excellent ones of Blackgill) if anyone would like to have a look at them. All the best, Arp

Well, Blackgill made it to Aylesbury in one piece and so did its operators. After a night exploring the local cultural highlights we're now all looking forward to a restorative full English and then we'll be off to spend the day playing trains. If you're attending Scaleforum this weekend, please come and say hello! I'll post some photos this evening. Arp

Hello all, Glad you enjoyed the MRJ article! As mentioned somewhere in there, the station on Blackgill is based on Shield Row (or West Stanley, as it was also called) on the Annfield Plain Deviation. But most of the stations on the line were of a similar design. All the best, Arp p.s. I think the little wooden waiting shelter was based on the one at Hessle.

Those of you who are Scalefour Society members will have received the exhibition guide for Scaleforum 2013 through the post over the weekend. Blackgill has the honour of having been given pride of place on the front cover and they've done a really good job with it! I'm told that a PDF version of the guide will be available on the Scalefour Society website soon too. The excitement (and trepidation) is building now! Arp

I couldn't agree more, Rod. But try telling that to my old man! "I just need another 12 hoppers so I can run the schedule properly..." - need, not want! Arp

Precisely! I was over there last weekend to check up on things (since my assistance is usually limited to heavy-lifting and taking photos!) and it was a hive of activity. My dad is busy upgrading many of the 21-ton hoppers (both wooden and steel varieties) to ensure safer shunting (a bit of springing, sprung buffers, extra weight in the form of cast whitemetal bottoms/doors), building a V3 for the stopping passenger. finishing up and Ivatt 4MT, beefing up the diesel fleet with a couple of Type 2s for the ore trains, a EE Type 3, a brake tender and a Derby Lightweight DMU (not strictly prototypical for the line, but fun nevertheless!). Things are gradually getting there on the run up to the big weekend. I plan to visit a few more times in the next few weeks to help out with the general tidying-up, fixing of little odds and ends and then the grand dismantling! Sorry that I don't have any exciting photos to post this time round, but hopefully some of you will get to see Blackgill in the flesh in a month or so. All the best, Arp

My dad still has his Marina (which is also a V-reg job) at the back of the garage. It comes out in the summer for a few months when there's no salt on the roads, such is its tendency to rust! It's bright orange (or vermilion, as they call it) with black interior which I can confirm gets incredibly hot in the sunshine. I don't think there was much development work on the components over the lifetime of the Marina, so by the early-Eighties it really was a very dated machine. I'm sure they even had leaf springs on the rear axle! The Ital wasn't much better, with the same chassis and engine but with a bit of re-styling on the bodywork to eke it out for another few years. It is certainly a terrifying car to travel in: the acceleration is really impressive but the road-holding virtually non-existent! Arp

These are looking good, Mozzer. Do you have any plans to recreate the reddish iron ore dust that used to cover them in service? My dad has a rake of nine of these beasts on Blackgill (he originally planned to build 18, so have a full and an empty rake, but I think doing nine was more than plenty for him!). I can confirm that they certainly require a lot of grunt to get them moving. A well-weighted 9F or O1 can just about manage them but there's a EE Type 4 banker in the Blackgill works at the moment to ensure they don't stall on the way up the bank in the future! Arp

Hello, My dad made the roads simply painting the road bed (which was hardboard, if I remember correctly) with black paint (or even blackboard paint) and then, whilst it was still wet, sprinkling powdered chalk onto it so that it stuck. The chalk had been crushed and then put through a fine sieve. A variety of shades of grey were used to give variation. After the paint has dried, the excess was vacuumed off and, if necessary, another layer could be added. Hope this helps, Arp

I shall look forward to your presentation next year, Bill. Will these presentations be turned into a book at some point (or have they already)? You certainly have unearthed a treasure trove of information on the 'TEA' and its history. On the Ponteland talk, will you be touching on the Darras Hall extension and the line to Belsay Colliery? That is a line that's always fascinated me. All the best, Arp

A few photos from Blackgill which I'd like to submit here if I may. Some of you may have seen them before. A view of Blackgill signal box from outside of the station: The local coal merchants collect their stock from the coal drops: A visual inspection: All the best, Arp

I'm not sure if someone has pointed you to this photo before, but this to me shows just how good your modelling is! http://www.flickr.com/photos/91595553@N06/8599403881/in/photostream/lightbox/ Arp

Have we had this photo before? Must have been a powerful beast! http://andygibbs.zenfolio.com/p150240017/h33CF46E7#h33cf46e7 Arp

Great photos, Neil. They're not poor quality at all; what they capture is fascinating and never to be seen again. The tight curve you mention features on the Railscene video I mentioned earlier and the speed with which the little electrics barrel around it is hair-raising (not to mention the deafening squeals). The video is now available on DVD here and the Westoe segment is about 5-10 minutes long if I remember correctly: http://railwayrecollections.com/products-page/railway-recollections-railscene-magazine-collection-dvds/railscene-no-16-dvd-autumn-1988-2/ Is the diesel shunter in the shed the one that would have been used to travel along the coast to the quarry at Whitburn? There are few photos of it on this page here: http://forum.southshields-sanddancers.co.uk/boards/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21278 Oh, and the octagonal thing is almost certainly the cap for the pit shaft. The NCB seemed to have a penchant for those (there's a few at Marley Hill too!). Arp

Thanks for the suggestion, Brian. The photos are safe; they're all in digital form stored on a server. It is just that there's no funding for doing anything further with them and the web interface is rather clunky at the best of times. I've always thought it would be great to develop some kind of 'virtual tour' with them, so people could use their smartphones to explore these lost industrial relics, but I wouldn't know where to start with funding. Back to the Tyneside electrics, one of the most fascinating stations on the system was, for me, the huge Manors complex. I'm sure it was a bit of an anachronism to have two stations so large and so close together on the same line as Newcastle Central and Manors (with its nine platforms and terminating services). It must have been an amazing place during electrified years; a huge, cavernous Gormenghast-like empire of multiple waiting rooms, trains every fifteen minutes, steam-hauled services to Northumerland terminating in its northern bays, holidaymakers heading for The Coast and shipyard workers coming home. The photos on Disused Stations give an idea of its size and majesty: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/m/manors_north/index.shtml If only I were old enough to remember it before its life as an unstaffed halt with a bus shelter on its single island platform...

Aha! Excellent discoveries! I didn't realise that it was a tubular-legged steel affair like that. Probably why it was so hastily removed. We currently have the server full of the SINE image collection sitting in our office but nobody really knows what to do with them all any more. Any ideas? That's a cracking aerial photo. The gasworks next to Willington Quay station really was a beast, wasn't it? And is it any wonder that the Riverside Branch was closed to passengers, given how closely it paralleled the old Newcastle and North Shields route for a lot of its length? Arp

If I remember correctly, the bridge to the west end of Blackgill (behind the depot) was based loosely on the one at South Pelaw too. I distinctly remember cycling up there with my dad when I was about 15 to stand beside it with a tape measure for scale! Looking forward to seeing more of that layout as it develops. And I'm looking forward to being back at Railex NE again next year! Arp