Railway Bylines: Special 'Industrial Railways in Colour' -North East- (IR726)

Product No.: IR726
Title: Railway Bylines: Special 'Industrial Railways in Colour' -North East-
Author(s): Anderson, Paul
Illustrator(s): N/A
Publisher: Irwell Press
ISBN: 1903266726
Condition: New
Binding: Laminated Pictorial Boards
Dust Jacket: None
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Year: 2006

Features: 64 Pages with Colour Photos.

This portrait of industrial railways in North East England is very much a personal view of the scene during the first half of 1968 and is certainly not comprehensive. For example, one of the places I did not visit was the well known and extensive National Coal Board system at Ashington, probably because the engines were relatively modern and the photographic possibilities not particularly outstanding.

At the beginning of the year over sixty NCB and private industrial sites in Northumberland and Durham had steam engines, although in some cases they were stored out of use. Almost a third of these locations are featured here. Overall, the North East's industrial railways presented a wonderful array of machines in very varied settings. Engines ranged in age from the 1863 Lewin 0-4-0ST at Seaham Harbour to a 1957 Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn 0-6-0ST at Burradon.

They also came in various sizes, from a diminutive vertical-boiler Head Wrightson 0-4-0 at Stockton to the magnificent 0-6-2T locos at Philadelphia. There were also unusual specimens, such as the 'long-boiler' at Derwenthaugh, the well-tank at Wallsend Slipway and crane tanks at Doxford's shipyard in Sunderland. In marked contrast to BR's then corporate blue and grey livery, the engines were variously adorned in green, red, blue, black and yellow.