Tynemouth Station

[PinzaC55]

Just found this great shot on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/10651736@N ... -mattya7x/ It really gives you an impression of how spacious the station was.

[Percy Main]

Did we ever answer Percy Main's question (of five years ago), regarding the numbering of the eight platforms at Tynemouth? I appreciate that the two Metro platforms are numbered 1 and 2.Was there ever a scheme for numbering the platforms in BR, LNER or NER days? I have looked at the photographs I have to hand, and I can't see any obvious signs.

I think there was a similar question somewhere about South Shields station. I have never seen any pre-Metro photo of any of the stations on the Tyneside lines which show platform numbers (except for the Central and Manors). It's probable, of course, that they were numbered on plans and diagrams for signalling and other 'internal purposes.

I think the platforms at Heaton might have carried numbers in BR days.

[PinzaC55]

Did we ever answer Percy Main's question (of five years ago), regarding the numbering of the eight platforms at Tynemouth? I appreciate that the two Metro platforms are numbered 1 and 2.Was there ever a scheme for numbering the platforms in BR, LNER or NER days? I have looked at the photographs I have to hand, and I can't see any obvious signs.

I think there was a similar question somewhere about South Shields station. I have never seen any pre-Metro photo of any of the stations on the Tyneside lines which show platform numbers (except for the Central and Manors). It's probable, of course, that they were numbered on plans and diagrams for signalling and other 'internal purposes.

I think the platforms at Heaton might have carried numbers in BR days.

Yes they did http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertcwp/ ... 6750/show/

[Percy Main]

What a splendid collection of pictures of Heaton!

Forgive me for posting a more direct link to the platform numbers:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertcwp/ ... 5325576750

[Constructor]

As A "Local" interested in the station Let me say the following:
The terminus at Oxford Street had a coal depot next to it but I have no recollection of any deliveries by rail.
The Hotel before demolition was used for building canoes The sign reads "Coltman Canoes".

Now the important bit
With regard to the T&B line
The tynemouth 1st site was the coal depot now Hazeldene Court (housing)
BUT
Just west of Tanners bank bridge on the SOUTH side of Tynemoth Road there was a coal drop.
The family owned it as part of a Builders Merchants (TOM SWAN) and I converted into a store. was it a siding off the current line and if so why was it built?
There is no evidence of a bridge over Tynemoth Road

[Percy Main]

Just west of Tanners bank bridge on the SOUTH side of Tynemoth Road there was a coal drop.
The family owned it as part of a Builders Merchants (TOM SWAN) and I converted into a store. was it a siding off the current line and if so why was it built?
There is no evidence of a bridge over Tynemoth Road

It came off the NBR (current Metro) line. There was never a bridge over Tynemouth Road. The NBR and BTR were not linked until the NER connexion of 1882.

[PinzaC55]

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/t/ty ... ndex.shtml

[52D]

Dont forget the & in N&BR i was wondering what the North British were doing on Tyneside.

[PinzaC55]

Re the N&BR terminus my memory is obviously a bit vague after all these years but I have a feeling the coal wagons were out of sight on the right in my 1978 shot http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/3 ... 3387439295 As far I remember a Class 31 would haul them from Newcastle onto the remaining centre road and run round them - the NER shunt signals and Tynemouth North box were retained solely for this purpose http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/3 ... 3387439295 then it would run forward to Tynemouth South junction and set back into the terminus.

[Percy Main]

I have a memory that some time in the early 60s BR wanted to close a lot of local coal depots and concentrate deliveries on a large depot at the former N&BR station. This didn't go ahead because of local opposition. I think this was around the same time that they did something similar for local parcels traffic and put up that big wall around the north bays at the NER station to create a new 'depot'.

[52D]

Would the scheme above be the House Coal Concentration scheme as advertised on some hopper waggons.

[Rlangham]

Tynemouth Station has been shortlisted in the English Heritage Angel Awards - bit of an online popularity contest, but you can vote for Station Developments' restoration of Tynemouth Station - you can see the full list and how to vote here - http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/cari ... /vote2012/

[(Percy Main)]

It is more than a decade since I first pondered here the purpose and use of the north bay platforms at Tynemouth (1882) station. I do so again having recently seen a May 1886 timetable. This gives some insight into how the station operated close to its opening, and long before electrification.

Although it was now a large through station the majority of trains started or finished their journeys at Tynemouth, and at its south end.

The weekday timetable shows 35 departures to Newcastle of which only 12 were through trains arriving from the north.

There was roughly an hourly through train but with long gaps. For example if you missed the 1115 towards Cullercoats your next train was not until 1340.

The service to Newcastle via North Shields was roughly 3 per hour - a few of which were expresses or Riverside trains.

No trains coming from the north terminated at Tynemouth (with a single Sunday exception) and so would only have used the through platforms.

At the south end the number of trains suggests at least one bay was seeing intensive use. This raises the question of how those trains were turned. In electric days the south bays had no run rounds, and if this was also so in 1886 a second locomotive must have been used. Apparent turnaround times of only 5 minutes would seem to support this.

My theory (as a decade ago) is that the NER conceived their station at Tynemouth as a (double) terminus with through platforms, rather than as a through station with bays for occasional short workings. The south bays (as it were) represented the former Newcastle and Berwick station and the north bays represented the former Blyth and Tyne station (both of which the 1882 station had replaced). Indeed even the ‘through’ platforms might have been primarily planned to handle the holiday crowds from terminating trains.

This seems to have been how it was operating in 1886, i.e. as the terminus of an intensive commuter service (the first in the world?) along the Newcastle and North Shields route supplemented by a small number of ‘Blyth and Tyne’ trains running through.

Incidentally the timetable was not issued by the NER but by ‘Havelock’s Records’ and it treats the two services into Tynemouth as separate routes with all trains terminating there (without mentioning that some were through trains).

The NER had probably envisaged the north bays as the terminus for the Blyth and Tyne route from Newcastle and also for a restored service from Morpeth via the Avenue branch. The latter hardly materialised and so I doubt the north bays ever saw much passenger traffic.