expoEM Autumn - Wakefield

South Pelaw is going to expoEM at Kettlethorpe High School, 

Standridge Lane, Sandal, Wakefield, WF2 7EL.

On Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th September. 

Come along and see the layout in operation.

For more details of layouts and traders see https://www.emgs.org/events/exhibitions

Here are a few photos of South Pelaw, taken by Tony Lambert.

When the new facilities at Tyne Dock and the hoppers for taking iron ore to Consett were first introduced and before the O1s and 9Fs arrived, the ore traffic was handled by ex NER Q7s, 5 of which were fitted with air pumps for operating the hopper doors.

Fairly soon, the Q7s were supplemented by five LNER O1s - Thompsons rebuilds of  ex ROD O4s

 Eventually ten 9Fs took the ore traffic and here a full train, with a 9F front and back, is passed by an empty train returning to Tyne Dock.

 The empty train gallops off to Tyne Dock and the end of the shift for the crew.

 Here we have a train load of coal leaving Stella Gill Yard with a load of pit props coming in.

Eventually the 9Fs on the ore trains were replaced by what would later be called class 24s.

Of coarse - it has all gone now. Few people realise what used to happen here. Come and see the model to revive a few memories.

We're In The Model Railway Journal

MRJ no 271 has South Pelaw as the lead article. We are honoured and delighted to be able to tell the story behind our project. There are far more details in the article than we could put on this blog so we recommend getting a copy.

Tony Lambert of the A19 Model Railway Club, took over a hundred photos for the article. Here are a few that were not used. 

A Q6 arrives with a coal train. It will have to split the rake into three lots of seven wagons to tackle the climb to Consett.

The banker is about to come on to a loaded iron ore train. Then the slog begins.

The scene at the approaches to Stella Gill yard.

Coal from the South Pelaw colliery is gingerly lowered down the gradient behind the signal cabin..

An oil train with fuel from the Jarrow terminal has taken the main line via Gateshead and Ouston Junction. The train already has a banker, another Q6, ready for the climb. The oil is for the new plate mill.

We've now been to three exhibitions and our next outing is to ExpoEM Autumn at a new venue in Wakefield on 7th and 8th September.

Iron ore for the other Ironopolis

South Pelaw, with it's iron ore traffic going to Consett, will be on show in Middlesbrough, where, not that many years ago, a few tons of iron were produced.

Middlesbrough Model Railway Club Exhibition will take place in the Newport Settlement Community Hub, Union Street, TS1 4EE, on Saturday and Sunday 18th & 19th May. And South Pelaw will be there.

We have been taking photos for a proposed magazine article so whilst the real photographer was doing his stuff, I sneaked a few phone snaps of my own.

The train of empty oil tankers returns to Jarrow having delivered fuel for the plate mill at Consett.

There's a certain irony (sorry for the pun), about a coal fired Q6 pulling an oil train.

And now a Q7 bringing down some of the steel products. In these days portrayed, Consett produced plate for ship building and intermediate products such as billets and blooms to go to other finishing mills. The company had its own facilities in Jarrow but a lot of these materials went to places like Sheffield - probably via the different route through Lanchester.

These two view are of our condensed interpretation of the massive Stella Gill yard, at that time still handling coal and coke. The coke works also produced some benzol by products, hence the tankers. The model of the shed is only half its real length and was used by the NCB. It is one of the very few structures still standing but in a much more delapidated condition than portrayed here. The tragedy here is that the hours and hours spent faithfully modelling the intricate detail of the windows is lost as gaping black holes in these pictures. Come and see the detail in a few weeks time.

And to finish, one of the iconic 9F locos on it's way back to Tyne dock with the empty iron ore hoppers.

So if these few shots have tempted you, come and see the layout in operation at the Middlesbrough show. We won't be on show in the North East for some considerable time after this. Wakefield and then Glasgow next.

An Update - (Somewhat overdue).

We have now been to two exhibitions with the layout, Railex NE 2018 in July and the Newcastle &District MRS in November. We were well received at both shows and managed to stir a few memories for folks who had remembered the location.

Here are a few photos, some taken at one or other of these shows but others in our temporary home. Please make allowances for the lack of Photoshopping of the background of some shots.

This is a bridge we have used as a scenic break. The bridge actually existed but not quite in this location. The bridge was close to Ouston Junction carrying the Beamish Wagonway. The left hand track depicted here actually went under the same arch which carried the wagonway. 

The right hand arch crossed the ECML just south of Ouston junction. The track that we have going through that arch is our representation of the line to Washington and Tyne dock. This line actually crossed the ECML by a different bridge, if you can imagine, behind the photographer.

 We thought it would make a tidy scenic break. The photo was taken before we completed the ballasting and scenic work.

Here we show a Q7 (devoid of lamps!) hauling the legendary iron ore train towards the signal cabin. The train is obviously going to have to wait because there is no banker in the siding to the right.

Another ore train. As you can see it is 3/4 mile from Ouston junction, but it hadn't come from there. By now the Q7s had been replaced by the 9Fs. on the ore trains.

The Q7s lasted for a few years but on the less glamorous turns. This one, still with air pumps (which would actually have gone when the 9Fs turned up) takes a rake of empty bolster waggons up to Consett.

Another ore train crosses from branch to main, ready to take on the banker. The waggons in the foreground are for the colliery (not on our model, unfortunately.

The 9Fs were kept busy on other duties when there wasn't an ore carrier alongside at Tyne Dock. On this occasion one of the ten such locos is taking coke up to the steel works.

The K1s that were shedded at Consett didn't arrive until 1962. This is a visitor from Darlington.

The weather forecast is grim so the ploughs are given a test run.  The main line here wasn't really this close to the back of the NCB storage shed but we have had to put it closer to keep the model to manageable proportions. This shed is one of the very few features still in existence - though it is in a very sorry state.

The layout is due to be exhibited at the Middlesbrough show on 18th & 19th May and hopefully at Expo EM Autumn in Wakefield 7th & 8th September. Come along and see it 'live'.