The LNER Encyclopedia

A short while ago I posted a thread in the "Classifieds" section for information on track plans for Newcastle Central Station. Well, I have been having difficulty finding anything, but I had an idea.
There have been a few accidents at the central, and, accident = accident report. Accident report = track and signalling diagram, and so I went to:

http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/

And Lo, they had three accident reports on PDF file: 1951, 1960, and 1977 which contained diagrams. With these, and a plethora of photographs, I set to work making my own.

Man, it was sooooo difficult and I was beginning to go cross-eyed, but I have attached my first draft. It is very rough, and the first attempt, so please excuse the quality. It represents an amalgam of the station from about 1927 to 1960 and I suspect there may be a few errors, but for the nitpickers out there:
1. The track layout at Newcastle changed many times (3 while I worked there).
2. It's only meant to be an outline for my proposed exhibit in Japan and I very much doubt if there are any Japanese who are LNER experts.
3. It's drawn by hand.
4. It's not to scale.

However, if anybody has any constructive comments or corrections they think could be made, I would welcome them all.

Malcolm

Two pictures of Newcastle signal box taken just after closure in 1991, the old and the new!

Well done Malcolm, but hats off to the bloke who runs the Railways Archive website, all for free and done as a hobby. A treasure trove, and still expanding.....

I agree. A treasure trove of stuff.

Malcolm

Evening everyone,

Well I think I've done it. Finished a track plan of Newcastle Central station (not to scale), and also a map of railways around the Tyneside and Wearside areas (to scale). Both of them have taken me about 50 hours of work using research, old maps and a lot of other material. The jobs were both more difficult than I originally anticipated, but well worth the effort. I've attached pictures of them, but sorry for the quality. The Tyneside map is B1 size, and the Newcastle plan is B2 size, both of which are way to big to scan in at home.

Malcolm

Sorry. Forgot to add that the Japanese translations are there because these are planned to be part of an exhibit I'm putting together for display over here.
And I would also like to say a big thank you to all those who helped.

Malcolm

Well done, Malcolm - they look most impressive. Is there much interest in old British railways in Japan, normally?

The Tyneside map is very interesting, a comparison with a modern map shows how much has been lost. It is difficult to imagine a time when there were lines running literally everywhere.

Thank you.
Yes, the Tyneside map surprised even me when I had finished it. I was born and brought up in the area in the 50s and 60s and already knew there were a lot of rails around, but I have never seen a complete ,and in one piece, map of the area. Old ordinance survey maps show the railways, but also the roads, the contours and all the little details so it is difficult to get an overall picture of how the railways looked. I decided to take out everything but the railways in order to get a clearer picture, and I think it's the first time I've seen it like this. Shocked me too.
As for rail lovers in Japan, there is an immensely large group of railfans in Japan, and Japanese, in general, have a deep affection for railways. As a measure of this, the new JR East railway museum in Omiya, Tokyo only opened last October and they were expecting it would take between six months and one year to get 1 million visitors. In fact, the one millionth visitor went through the doors after 2 months and twenty days (impressive).

Internet sites that were a great help to me:

http://www.geocities.com/waggonways/his ... rland.html

http://railways-of-britain.com/Harton.html

http://www.northumbrian-railways.co.uk/

http://www.geocities.com/waggonways/rai ... urham.html

http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/


Malcolm

Malcolm, British Railways Illustrated magazine for December 1996 has a 9 page article on the Newcastle 1959 signalling with a 2 x A4 plan taken from the BR resignalling booklet. Westinghouse also produced an illustrated booklet for the project and copies sometimes turn up at auctions - the NRM will almost certainly have one.
Most importantly if you go into Newcastle Library they will have a stock of 50 inch to the mile OS maps of Newcastle - these have very accurate track layouts.

Pinza,

Thanks, but I already have a track plan of Newcastle Central 1922 from the NRM archives.

The other information will be very useful, however. Many thanks.

Malcolm