Used to look over Wearmouth Bridge andsee way below the coal staithes ,the colliers t asking coal south ,loco shed and a whole infrastructure in itself Wonderful days .
This is just great, with the actual sound not dubbed sound especially, which I think is unique for historic IoW railway steam footage! Fantastic. Many thanks for sharing.
Hello, Thank you for your kind comments. As a young train spotter I started out taking photos with a little Brownie camera but found that this did not really capture what steam locomotives were all about. So when I left school in 1964 and started work I bought a portable reel to reel recorder and began to record sound. Then a friend of mine obtained a second hand cine camera and I was so impressed with his films that I decided to save up and buy one myself which I did in December 1965. Sound was still important to me and I continued to record alongside filming. Modern technology for film transfer and editing allowed me to marry the two back together onto DVDs. It has been very satisfying to receive positive comments such as yours and it makes the time and effort involved so worthwhile. Peter.
@@PeterHutchinson-jc6wv I was born on the Isle of Wight many years after the end of steam. 1984. I have been fascinated by the days of steam on the Isle of Wight all my life and own many dvds and books, but the dubbed sound or lack altogether of sound on the dvds and videos was a barrier to really experiencing what it was like. Not so with this film of yours. Thanks for getting me closer than I thought possible. Tim
To think of all the time,effort and engineering skill to build such lines as these,and we in the modern century come along and rip it all up with scarcely a thought of the future. Progress-my arse!
At 5.00 minutes in is Billingham Staion, now demolished, with its tall signal box. I used to stand on the crossing gates at night, as a boy, and not run away as the thundering dragons of Q6's left ICI. There was a bad joint, and I could count the axles going over it from my bed a mile away. Thank you for this.
Hello Tom, Glad you enjoyed my film. I also remember Billingham old station and the coal workings to ICI . Access to the works was from the Haverton Hill branch which had a south facing connection to the main line. Coal trains came from the north hauled by engines from West Hartlepool and Sunderland and ran through the station and into a long goods loop on the up side which stretched as for as Norton signal box. The engine would then run round through the station and back onto the opposite end of it's train. When there was a clear path the train would run "wrong line" through the station then onto the branch. The same arrangement was repeated for the empties returning north and because of the potential delays this could cause to other traffic and adverse gradients the engines worked very hard through the station. This made for spectacular sights and sounds. Happy memories. Peter.
Could hear Q6's taking coal into ICI Billingham when I was a boy. Used to count axles going over a bad joint at the level crossing by the station. About 44 as I recall.
Fantastic quality colour footage ! Reminds me of my 1950/60's train spotting days, and skiving off school for a day at Clapham Junction ! And us kids shed bashing at Nine Elms, Feltham and Guildford MPD's. Thanks for uploading because they were great days in my life.
First class footage, visited Brechin 2 years ago, sadly only a shadow of its former self. Our appetite for all things steam is catered for by such as yourself, many thanks mate.
Live in Pelton Fell and regularly ride the length of the old lines around the county. Stunning scenery, it was a moment in time but its fate was was always sealed once everything had to be shipped in and out.
excellent cine. I also took cine in the area in 66 and 67, but this is miles better than mine and I had no sound but I used a Bolex so the quality is great
This brought back some memories. I did a tour of the steam sheds in the area in 1966, and Sunderland/West Hartlepool MPD's still had plenty of steam. Those old Q6's WD's and J27's were robust powerful locomotives and would still be running today. So glad Q6 63395 survived. Great footage thanks for uploading.
Yes Peter - we must indeed maintain contact. In addition to "taping", I also undertook some filming/video-ing (this however not viewed in decades), but have long returned to sound, and have now obtained most of the 'Argo' records by Peter Handford. For a few years (2015-18) I was also Track Engineer of The West Somerset Railway and accordingly managed several cab-rides (and long walks! I have an interesting story regarding "Flying Scotsman"). However, the fortnightly trek from Kelvedon to Bishops Lydeard/ Stogumber proved onerous and latterly expensive (cabs from here to/from Reading; I do not drive) and this concluded in 2018. Changed my name to "Chris"/ "Kris" but that's another story dating right back to 1972!!!
Great little film! Seeing an engine working tender-first seems so implausible, particularly when you consider all the footage and photos showing otherwise. Obviously it's impossible to do otherwise on so many, or most, of the branches
Wonderfully edited! The wind aided the effects of smoke and steam. For me, a great time to be eighteen. Must go through my neglected slides from that time.
In the last days of Sunderland steam I left Manchester in the early hours on my Lambretta 150 to have a day photographing the mainly coal trains at several locations. I got home tired but not tired enough to miss a wonderful of jazz at the Sports Guild.
4m28s Branch End Cottages, where mu Aunt Ally (Alice) lived for some years after my Uncle Jakey Field, was killed by a lump of coal at Alnmouth Station. And another view at 10m14. To get to the cottages you walked off the end of the platform, round the back of the signal box and along the cinder path beside the up siding to a foot crossing going over the siding and main line and into the gardens of the cottages.
Hello, Thanks for the information about those cottages. Given the location and access route I would think that these were built by the railway company for it's employees. I have not been back to Alnmouth station since the film was shot in 1966. I imagine that the cottages are no longer there. Peter.
Working in the cab of a tender-first J27 hauling coal in md-winter on a windswept Northumberland moorland makes me shudder even more than I am right now at 900 meters up towards the Andes in early July..
Ive lived very near the line most of my life (Stanley area) and have heard many times that the steepest section was the half mile stretch at Oxhill/New Kyo which is about halfway between Stanley and Annfield Plain. In later years after this video was filmed the iron ore trains were always double headed with class 24 diesel locos
Will definitely have to dig-out my tape recordings from those days... One shot above was definitely at Bowesfield Junction - very close to where I worked in what I still regard as my "misguided youth" on B.R. - the Area Civil Engineer's Office on Thornaby station. (Incredibly, some years ago I met this engineer near Colchester.) Anyway, every inward working to Tees Yard had to come out again - right past the door of the office. The Q6s of course made the biggest racket!
Hello Chris, If you have not seen it I have a shot of a Q6 at Thornaby on my West Hartlepool workings video. I also made sound recordings before I began filming and Thornaby was as good location as locomotives from Darlington, West Hartlepool, and Sunderland South Dock sheds worked through there. Happy days Peter.
Hi Peter, Well I'd guess that we both made a fair few sound recordings on our portable reel-to-reel machines... Some trips we made together, instance Normanton? Incidentally I changed my name to Chris/Kris some decades ago, soon after gaining promotion to Colchester as 'Area Technical Officer' in 1971 (a really fantastic job involving track levelling and supervising 'Traxcavators' on Saturday night relaying work "under the wire"... Do you still have your old tapes??? Best,
Hello Chris, Well, I had a feeling it might be someone that I knew back then but your first name did not register with me. Yes I remember Normanton very well particularly the occasion when a signalman invited us into the signal box one afternoon. I recall that there were a variety of engines still to be seen at this time including 4Fs on freights, Jubilees, Black fives and B1s on passenger trains and 2-6-4 tank engines on parcels trains. My portable reel to reel recorder suffered a mishap and was replaced by a more modern cassette recorder in 1967 Many years ago I was lucky to find a working second hand Sony tape deck with 1 7/8 inch per sec speed and using this transferred all of my reel to reel tapes to dvds. Also with the aid of a 12 channel graphic equaliser I was able to suppress some of the unwanted noise which was evident on these old tapes. Having done this I had no further need of the original tapes which were then disposed of. Thus my library of sound recordings became available to dub onto my Cine films which are all now on my RU-vid channel. Hope these bring back happy memories. Peter.
Wonderful to see those sights of 60 years ago. we know where most of the engines went, but what changes have occurred to our landscape! Superb in every department, thank you.
Excellent, shows the railway scene long gone. Superb quality, so good I would have guessed that it was 16mm. The sound is excellent, as is the photography at the locations and there is none of that mind-numbing zooming that many people do when videoing nowadays.
Hello Nigel, Many thanks for your kind comments. I shot all my footage on a standard 8 Bolex clockwork driven camera which actually had a zoom lens but I used this mainly for framing the shot . Also the camera was usually set up on a tripod to minimise unwanted movement. Peter.
Hello, In response to your question the J27 65833 hauling a coal train was filmed at Bowesfield Junction Stockton. It is coming round the curve from Hartburn and heading towards Thornaby and Tees Yard. The lines in the foreground lead to Eaglescliffe. Peter.
I see the two NER preserved locos in their latter days of BR ownership doing what they always did: hauling coal! They are now better cared for but mainly haul passengers. It was so good to see the real thing again. Thanks for the memories of Silksworth in particular. Some lovely shots that bring back to mind all the emotions felt at the time when watching the trains hauling coal and coal empties to and from the pits. In a couple of months the last coal fired power station will close down for ever. The very thing that caused the birth of Railways here in the North East will be gone and an Era ended. So even more important that films like this are there to remind us of the past glories of our Railways for the enlightenment of future generations. Even Newcastle Broon Ale is not what it was! Or so it seems to me.....
Spent so many hours at the junction from Sunderland down to the docks between 1964 to 1967,J27 ,Q6 ,K1,WD and even the odd Pacific running light from Gateshead to take out lengthy Mail order parcels trains :happy days ,
Hello Philip In answer to your question the WD is leaving the short branch from Vane Tempest colliery north of Seaham at Hall Dene level crossing and heading off along the coastal line towards Sunderland. Peter.
A beautiful film! You’ve caught so much of the atmosphere of coal workings and everyday happenings! Light engine, engine and brake van, tender first, assistance by diesel, pinning down brakes, level crossing gates closing after train has passed…..wonderful!
