tyneside electrics

[third-rail]

has any person seen any pictures of the north tyne electric unit that was burnt out at monkseaton by german incenderies during ww2

[Malcolm]

Would that be this incident?

Wednesday, 9th/Thursday, 10th April 1941
Heavy attacks on docks, dockyard and industrial installations downstream from Newcastle to Tynemouth and South Shields, between 23.20 and 04.26. One hundred and sixteen enemy aircraft dropped 152 tonnes of HE and thousands of IBs. The attack was scattered, bombing reported from Newcastle, Tynemouth, North Shields, Wallsend, Whitley Bay, South Shields, Felling, Gateshead, Hebburn, Jarrow, Boldon, Sunderland, Willington Quay, Ryhope, Consett, Prudhoe, South Moor, Hull.
01.00.. Northumberland.. Wallsend.. IBs on Neptune Shipyard, fire in canteen put out by 02.30. Civil Defence premises were among the buildings damaged at Wallsend.
Northumberland.. Tynemouth Borough.. Among the buildings hit was the Lifeboat Station near the Fish Quay and Preston Institute where the X-ray Department was demolished, and two patients and three male attendants were killed. A police box was destroyed, a first aid and wardens' post damaged, two members of the police reserve, a female ambulance driver and a naval rating lost their lives. An ambulance received a direct hit proceeding from Whitley Bay and trains in sidings at Monkseaton were set on fire. The death roll, thirty-three, included five children of under sixteen years of age. Fifteen people suffered serious injuries and eighty-six were slightly injured.
From
http://www.ne-diary.bpears.org.uk/

I have some photos of bomb damage on Tyneside, but I've never seen a picture of this.

Malcolm

[third-rail]

malcom have seen picture of of the one bombed at s shields,by the way that picture taken at gosforth east junction the bridge over killingworth road has one original parapet and one timber replacement the former was lost during the general strike when a loco was derailed at the crossover before the bridge and falling into the road below killing the crew ,also that signal had the same again on the top level

[52A]

The South Gosforth accident was 18th December 1923, the general strike was 1926.

[billdonald]

The Metro-Cammell twin that was destroyed at Monkseaton was very quickly removed to South Gosforth Car Sheds. There were only a limited number of electrified sidings at Monkseaton and these were needed for traffic. Once at South Gosforth the unit was stripped for anything re-usable and the remains scrapped in situ. It is unlikely that a photo exists of the unit since it would be extremely difficult to identify to an untrained eye.

The 1923 accident at South Gosforth East occured two months after the opening of South Gosforth Car Sheds. The cause was the driver of the steam locomotive mis-reading the signals meant for an electric set on the adjacent Down B&T line. The electric set was signalled to cross from the Down to the Up line, and when cleared for this movement, both trains started. The greater acceleration of the electric made it reach the Up line before the arrival of the J27-hauled freight. The resulting converging collision derailed the J27 and the momentum of the locomotive carried it into the bridge side and off into the roadway below. The driver of the J27 paid for his error with his life.

I have a transcript of the BoT accident report and will be happy to post it if anyone is interested.

Bill Donald
Dublin, Ireland

[Malcolm]

Bill,

Nice to see you on the forum again.

I would love to see a transcript of the BoT accident report for the 1923 incident if possible.

Malcolm

[third-rail]

Bill,

Nice to see you on the forum again.

I would love to see a transcript of the BoT accident report for the 1923 incident if possible.

Malcolm

i also would like to see the report as i lived overlooking the bridge at gosforth east junction.also have you any info on the large signal gantry that was there,and within a stones throw i believe of malcom. that was my photo of the bridge and gantry,posted on a guess where in this site.

[billdonald]

MoT Accident Report for South Gosforth East 1923 attached as a PDF. Unfortunately no diagram, but the track layout was quite simple anyway. I have signalling diagrams for South Gosforth East and I'm happy to post them up too. Sadly my Occurrence Book collection from this box doesn't cover the year 1923

Bill Donald
Dublin. Ireland

[billdonald]

Regarding the accident at South Gosforth East in December 1923, the MoT had not gotten around to inspecting the location since the commissioning of the new lines into South Gosforth Car Sheds in October 1923. The accident thus gave the MoT a jolt and the formal inspection took place in February 1924. I've attached a PDF copy of this since it does add some further information on the accident itself.

Bill Donald
Dublin, Ireland

[Trestrol]

This is the picture of Gosforth east junc ans mentioned by Third-rail. The bridge can be seen in the middle.