Tyneside Electrics
Graeme Pickering looks back on more than a century of suburban electric trains on Tyneside.
Graeme Pickering charts the on-off history of electric traction on Tyneside.
The story of Tyneside’s suburban electric trains spans well over 100 years. It’s one that was shaped by early optimism, a mid-20th century change of heart and, ultimately, a reinvention as part of a self-contained light rail system.
The original ‘Tyneside Electrics’ were the North Eastern Railway’s (NER) response to growing competition from the new electric tramways on North Tyneside. By 1903, and in the space of just two years, the number of passengers carried on the routes between Newcastle and the coast had plummeted from 9.8m to 5.9m. Anxious to address the situation, the NER consulted electrical engineers Charles Merz and William McLellan, who recommended electrification and a more frequent service.
Third rail electrification had already been successfully adopted by the City & South London Railway and on Merseyside (by the Liverpool Overhead Railway and the Mersey Railway) and the decision was made to proceed with such a scheme on Tyneside, energised at 600v DC. The electricity was generated by the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company’s Carville power station.
Early trains
The first electric trains for Tyneside were rudimentary in design and perhaps unsurprisingly bore similarities to other early electric stock. A total of 88 passenger-carrying vehicles were built at the NER’s carriage works in York. They had large windows and clerestory roofs and their sides were made of vertical matchboard.
There were several variations in layout. Motor cars and trailers built to the first three diagrams had metal gates rather than doors and a combination of longitudinal and reversible transverse seats. Later stock was built with doors rather than gates and the earlier designs were subsequently modified. British Thomson-Houston supplied the electrical equipment. Motors delivering 125hp were fitted to the earlier trains, whereas those built after 1909 had 150hp versions. Two motor parcels vans, with driving cabs at each end, were built to handle parcels and fish traffic. Unlike the passenger cars, which were without buffers and had cowhead couplings, the parcels vans were designed to haul other rolling stock and had buffers and screw couplings at both ends. Their duties included hauling a rake of carriages (initially ten sixwheeled coaches, later replaced with bogie compartment stock) to take workers to and from local shipyards. Another parcels van with a larger compartment for fish was added to the fleet in 1908.
The first trial run of an electric train on the Tyneside suburban system took place between Carville and Percy Main on September 27, 1903, just nine months after electrification had been approved. Public services began on March 29 the following year between New Bridge Street station in Newcastle and Benton. During the course of 1904, electric services were gradually expanded to cover Benton-Monkseaton via Tynemouth and Newcastle CentralTynemouth via Wallsend, along with the Riverside branch. A section of the East Coast Main Line was also electrified, allowing access to the New Bridge StreetMonkseaton route at Benton Quarry. On January 1, 1909 a new link was created allowing through running from Newcastle to Jesmond via Manors North, which replaced New Bridge Street station.
The gradual growth in passenger numbers once again, following the introduction of electric services, led to 35 additional cars being built over the next six years. However, a fire on August 11, 1918 at Heaton Car Sheds had a devastating impact and saw steam services return temporarily to augment the surviving electric trains. Thirty-four cars were destroyed and replacements for all were built once again at York. Although similar to the originals, these had elliptical rather than clerestory roofs. An additional motor parcels van was built in 1921.
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