rowanj

Thanks for the offer, David, However I already have a Shire, so it's the Hunt I want, They were actually more usual visitors to Tyneside, though not exactly common as muck. Last time I asked PDK, they were still out of stock.

Armed with all the help from RMWebbers, and a great contact with a member of the Blyth and District MRC, an order has gone to Isinglass for a Dia 320 ,I'll post the main elements of the build , just for completeness, though I don't imagine it will be any different from any other Isinglass coach construction. It's a while since I built a new loco kit, though I'm after a J21 and D49 Hunt, after which my roster will be (over) complete. Like many solo modellers, my locos don't get out much, so here are several builds being dragged past Little Bentom en-route to the scrapyard at North Road , Darlington. Many of the builds were described here, though the photos are long lost.

This is a sad sight as Gateshead's 24/1 hauls a line of redundant tank locos south, probably destined for the scrapyard at North Road, Darlington. I saw someting similar, as 5 Clans passed Little Benton one evening as we spotted after school. Luckily, this isnt actually happening on the layout. Though the diesel is nothing more than re-numbered, the other locos are all either kit-built or modified RTR. I'll let the spotters identify them, but they include a J71 and short-bunker J72 (Bachmann bodies on Mainly Trans chassis), SEF N5 (Sunderland had a couple), LRM N8 and N9, N10' s (Alexander and ArthurK) and a J73 (ArthurK), Some were built a good while ago and havent been run for ages , so they have been dug out to check them over and see if they would benefit for any TLC, There are a few other kits in similar circumstances, so these may be the subject of the next few posts. At least it will be something different,

To be fair, he isn't trying to be a male Vera. His character moved up from the Met after his wife was murdered.

If you get a chance , could you please check the catalogue and let me know what DS174 is? John

I believe this is the D320, and it seems pretty clear that there is no window ahead of the drivers door. This suggests strongly that there was only one extra window fitted on conversion, on the drivers side, Does this make sense - the original reference I saw was to "only 1 side window on the LH side".

I remember you posting these, Mike, and then following your thread, which has inspired me in my own efforts over the susequent years. Many a tip from you has been borrowed/stolen, and we have had a couple of great chats. John

Seeing Heaton locos and assuming that meant a Heaton turn isnt the same thing, Gilbert. Gateshead "borrowed" Heaton's locos fairly indiscriminately, and I have never, despite many attempts, managed to sort out the 52A/B relationship to my satisfaction.

That's interesting, Gilbert. I had always believed Heaton'only turn beyond York or Leeds was the Sunderland train in your picture , but only as far as Grantham. The return trip was The Northumbrian, and Coster's A2 book has a photo of 60639 standing on Grantham shed, The loco was a Heaton "pet". The dates are 1961, so things must have been different on your PN timetable. Every day is a schoolday. Best wishes.

Sorry to return to this. I'm talking to Andy at Isinglass about a Dia 320 Can anyone repost the photo of the coach taken at Blyth in 1958 which was lost in the web crash a couple of years ago? I am trying to understand the comments about only 1 sidewindow, and pipework, and to clarify what the front window shape was on this particular coach. Was the odd 320 designation simply due the odd fitting of the Fox bogies? Sometimes the research is harder than the actual modelling.

A couple of early-morning trains pass Little Benton South, and are viewed from more or less where we stood in days of yore. The B1 has the first passenger train from Edinburgh to Newcastle. This was a "businessmans" service with limited stops and carried catering facilities, A B1 is unusual motive power, though not unhead of. The Bachmann loco has been weathered and renumbered, but is otherwise "out of the box". It runs on the much-maligned split chassis. The J39/3 is probably covering for a Class 101 on a Morpeth turn, The ex-NER tender would suggest this is an early-built member of the class, but actually not. These tenders were given to locos built as late as 1940, coming from a range of withdrawn stock, including, if I remember correctly, Raven A2's. This tender was cobbled together largely from the one DJH supply with the D20 kit.The loco is a modified GBL body on a Bachmann split-chassis. The stock is my Kirk rake which one day will becpme a push=pull set, As can be seen, I lowered the bogies, and have modified the solebars with Evergreen strip on the Composite, so it now goes round corners. I did get a comment suggesting these coaches were sometimes to be seen on the Blyth push-pulls, but I have no photos proving this. Finally, a real engine, taken last week at Pickering.

I wish I hadn't bothered, and I certainly won't again. The previously mentioned English Master would be appalled by my errant apostrophe, and I can hear him spinning! However, with all due respect to the chap on the Clapham bus, a collection of models of City of London are City of Londons.

My English Master would have insisted that , if you are referring to several versions of a single name/identity e.g CITY OF LONDON, the name remains in the singular and all the various examples are "CITY OF LONDON's" It was always a good idea to agree with him.

Great to hear from David/Daddyman again. I posted the query on WW hoping to catch a wider audience than my own little thread. As it happens, no such luck, but I think I have got enough information to recognise how tricky it will be to build an accurate rake. But I think I have enough to tackle my Kirk kit to build the driving trailer which went to Blyth after its' brief spell on the St Coombs Branch, It will be an interesting change, with its' Fox bogies and only a LH side window. I assume the SC would change to E on transfer, The thtead seems to think there was only one pipe on the front rather than the usual 2, and Bill bedford thought it may have been decomissioned as a driving trailer. This would account for it being "wrong way round" on the photos I have. I dont have front end view to check. Thanks again,

Thanks are overdue to Simon and Jonathan - a letter is on its: way to D&S, I think I:m reconciled to not getting a strictly accurate prototype and will have to settle for a representation.,It depends how I get on with Danny. C:est la vie. Jonathan mentioned the LNER brake facing inward. I THINK this must be the one transferred in from Arrochar which had Fox bogies and only one window on the LH side. The train loco was usually facing Blyth, therefore it would be the leading coach, so would not be used as a driving trailer. I suspect it is simply operating as a conventional Guards/Brake, I have another photo of the same consist at Monkseaton , interestingly behind the unique G5 with extended tanks. Now that would be a great project for someone with a 3D printer. I remember Mike Meggison doing a great job building one from an etched kit, but I fear his photos were lost in the Great RMWeb Meltdown.

I hope I will be forgiven for posing this here. I have posted the query on my own threads, and have received helpul but also conflicting information. I know son#me very knowledeable folk inhabit here, so here goes. I want to assemble an accurate 3 coach push-pull rake, as seen on the Blyth-Monkseaton service in BR days up to 1958, to go with the TMC G5. I attach 2 of the several photos I have - pls note these are copyrighted- and my questions are. 1, What are the diagrams/ origins of the 2 different driving trailers, and does anyone know of a suitable kit? 2. Can anyone identify the other 2 pairs of coaches? John

Thanks, Simon. There are posts on another thread which suggests a Gresley BT4, coverted originally for use in Scotland, was then transferred in 1940 for use on the Blyth trains. The photos accompanying the post were lost, otherwise I may have had an answer. I thinkyou are correct that the latter photo is a rebuilt composite,

Thanks, Jonathan, for your (always) helpful post. Studying the 2 photos, it looks as though the driving trailer based on a BT in the first photo is the same coach, or at least the same diagram, as the "back to front" one next to the loco in the second one. My track record in getting a reply from Danny is not great, but I'm happy to try again, I;m just not sure (as usual) what I would be asking him for! John

I am interested in putting together a push-pull set as seen on Blyth to Monkseaton trains in the 1950's, and have a couple of decent photos, showing different diagrams of the driving trailer. Can anyone identify them, please. Also please note the photos are copyrighted.

Hi Steve - It would be good to think that the coaches were ex-LNER. Just to add to the story, here is a photo with another combination in the rake, and in particular, a different diagram for the driving trailer, which appears to be a converted all-3rd. I would imagine D&S did produce an etched kit, but heaven knows how much one would go for on Ebay. I have seen similar ones getting near the £100 mark. John

My building projects have become very occasional, but I recently received the excellent TMC/Bachmann G5- the push-pll version- and decided to investigate the prospects of putting together a suitable 3-coach rake, using Kirk LNER stock as the starting point. Getting a prototypical push-pull set will not be easy/ almost impossible. I have a decent range of photos of these trains in BR days, up to their replacement by Class 101's, and it is clear that the stock is almost all ex-NER. Indeed, I see no definitive evidence of any ex-LNER coaches, and certainly not a driving coach. At one time, I could have probably obtained suitable D&S or Fozzard kits, but not now, so I'm unsure whether to push ahead with this project. Perhaps now there is an RTR G5, someone will produce some suitable stock. The photos show what I was referring yo. The 1956 shot shows the NER stock, including a decent view of the driving trailet. Nothing like my staring point, lit wise. If anyone could identify the diagrams, that would be great.

Edit to the last post. Getting a prototypical push-pull set will not be easy/ almost impossible. I have a decent range of photos of these trains in BR days, up to their replacement by Class 101's, and it is clear that the stock is almost all ex-NER. Indeed, I see no definitive evidence of any ex-LNER coaches, and certainly not a driving coach. At one time, I could have probably obtained suitable D&S or Fozzard kits, but not now, so I'm unsure whether to push ahead with this project. Perhaps now there is an RTR G5, someone will produce some suitable stock.

I'm thinking of putting together a push-pull set to run behind (or ahead) of the G5. Of stuff currently available, Isinglass seems the best option, but in my Googling, I came across a couple of references by folk who felt amending the Hornby Brake or the Kirk kit would be an easy option. So, out of the drawer came 3 Kirks-Brake, 2nd and Composite- which would make a suitable rake. 3 coaches was the maximum permitted load on push-pulls on the Blyth route. The Kirks were built years ago, but were updated a few years later with Comet/ABS/MJT parts and Isinglass bogies. I had them in store, mainly because I didn't have space on the layout to run them, They don't look too bad, though the Composite seems to sit a bit too high.The mods to the brake/driving coach are largely around enlarging the windows for the driver, and cutting out 2 new ones on the side. So, having tested the running of the rake, the 2 needing work are in the workshop ready for the scalpel. Passing them, 60501, totally unmodified Hornby, has a fitted Class A freight bound for Millerhill. I have very few specific memories of individual "spottings" from my youth, but one is standing on Gateshead East Staion when 501 arrived over the High Level Bridge and waited for what seemed ages on the avoiding line waiting to get onto Gateshead Shed.. It is the only A2/2 I remember seeing, though my ABC has 502 and 503 underlined- probably from forays to York.

A bit more wading through photos revealed that G5 67261 did survive long enough at South Blyth with a late crest emblem to fit my timescale. I have dusted it down eith Humbrol powders and here she is on a Morpeth train, away from the normal runs up and down the Blyth and Tyne. For the time being, my other TMC G5, 67342 without the push-pull arrangement, will have to remain a Sunderland- based loco purloined for some reason to run through Little Benton. To be honest, I have never found evidence of a G5 running up this stretch of the ECML, so one unlikely event is as bad as another. Equally implausable, 60019 is on the Up Queen of Scots, which was a Haymarket turn, The loco is a Wills kit on a Comet chassis, and represents one of my attempts to get a Gateshed Pacific looking in a half-way state before total grime overwhelmed it. BITTERN was one of the more commonly seen Gateshead A4's surprisingly rare ib "spotting hours, ie after school and Saturdays, Their A4 turns were often entrusted to A1's, The idea that she would become a celebrity would have been laughed at by we spotters at the time. I remember waiting a long time to cop, 01, 02 and 16, by which time all the 34A and 64B A4's had been underlined in my ABC. Strange but true, I did eventually get them. Finally the latest Hornby 9F is released from the sidings to maje its way to Heaton, where a York V2 waits to take it further South.

Here are a couple of examples of my "toning down for dummies/ nervous painters", in this case using Humbol powders on the TMC G5. The basic model is excellent, but, in my view, too shiny. Toned down to represent a work-stained but reasonably well[kept loco (as those at South Blyth tended to be) produces, I think, a much more realtistic result, I need to renumber 67342 when I identify a suitable prototype which ran on the Blyth and Tyne in the 1950's, then it doo will be dusted. For folk nervous about weathering expensive RTR, using powders seems a reasonable compromise. Better painters will do a much more appropriate job.