Siemens-Shuckert Electric Locomotive E4, 1909

 

  E4 at Portberry Street, South Shields, 1910, photo believed to be from Tyne & Wear Museums

The fourth and final preserved Harton Coal Company Edwardian built electric locomotive to feature on this blog, this is E4, a BO-BO electric locomotive built by Siemens-Shuckert, sometimes just known as Siemens (previously, Siemens built locomotives on this blog have just been referred to as 'Siemens') in 1909, the same as E2, the four wheeled but otherwise very similar looking electric locomotive built by Siemens in the same year for the Harton Coal Company. The use of an electric industrial railway is very surprising, especially as industrial railways used steam locomotives up until I believe the very early 1980's in the UK, and certainly well into the 1970's, however the Harton Coal Company who operated several coal pits around South Shields was very keen to show itself as the most modern coal mine in the country if not the world, and the mines themselves were equipped with the latest Siemens built electric powered equipment.

 

  E4 at South Shields, around 1909. Photo believed to be from Tyne & Wear Museums

E4 was one of nine Siemens built locomotives for the Harton railway, three of which survive today, and was in use for an astonishing 73 years, until 1982. The electric locomotives were used for hauling coal wagons up to the docks on the River Tyne. As can be seen from the cab roof pantograph of the surviving Harton electrics, they collected their current for the electric motors from overhead wires, E4 being equipped with four 35 kiloWatt motors. E4 is now on display at the Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields, near Newcastle, across the river from where it originally worked. E4 has, surprisingly, been restored to working condition, which I believe makes it the only electric locomotive in UK Preservation that originally took its power from overhead wires that is still operational. The museum does not have overhead wires, but instead takes it power from batteries in a coal wagon which can be coupled up to the locomotive with a discrete pipe between the two to supply power to the locomotive. Unfortunately I haven't seen it in action but am very keen to, and opens up the possibility to restore to working order other preserved electric vehicles. The other surviving Harton electrics are all located in the north east, and have been featured on the blog here;

http://electric-edwardians.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/siemens-electric-locomotive-e2-1909.html

http://electric-edwardians.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/siemens-electric-locomotive-1913.html 

http://electric-edwardians.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/aeg-electric-locomotive-1913.html

Siemens Electric Locomotive E2, 1909

Those who are frequent visitors to the blog may think this locomotive looks very similar to another Edwardian electric locomotive that has featured before - that's because it's very similar to Siemens E10 of 1913, featured here - http://electric-edwardians.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/siemens-electric-locomotive-1913.html . Both were supplied to the Harton Coal Company who operated electric locomotives from the Edwardian era up until the 1980's when they stopped operating. This is locomotive E2, and apart from being built in 1909 is otherwise identical or nearly identical to previously featured E10 of 1913. E2 is located at Beamish Open Air Museum and is on static display outside near the Tram depot, somewhat tucked away but being located next to a giant steam excavator makes it easy to find for those that wish to. Another Harton electric locomotive is the very different looking AEG built E9, featured here - http://electric-edwardians.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/aeg-electric-locomotive-1913.html

North Eastern Railway Electric Parcels Van, 1904

 

  1904 leaflet advertising the new services

 

 In 1902 the decision was taken by the North Eastern Railway to electrify the North Tyneside suburban passenger lines, which originated at Newcastle Central and spread out in a large loop towards the North Sea Coast. As well as research by the company into the benefits of electric railways including trips to the USA, the main reason behind the choosing of these lines was that the railway was rapidly losing passengers after electric Tramways had opened in the area, a faster alternative to the more sluggish steam hauled services offered by the NER. The electrification was complete and opened to the public in 1904, it was a great success and was the first electric mainline system to open to the public - the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway also had an electric passenger service open in 1904, and as to which was first often changes depending on who writes it - from an article in the North Eastern Railway Magazine in 1919, the Newcastle to Benton service opened to the public on 29th March 1904, with the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway service opening to the public a few days later. The North Eastern Railway had ran a trial as early as 27th September 1903, and the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway had a full 'dress rehearsal' on 12th March 1904 which could be where 'which was first' gets confused, however assuming these dates are correct there can be no doubt the NER was first.

As well as the electric multiple units of carriages which were used for passenger services, single 'vans' like this one, Number 3267, also known as a Motor Luggage Van (MLV) built in 1904 at York, were built for goods services which would run as fast as the electric passenger trains and would be used for express parcels and fish which could not wait for the slower steam hauled goods trains. They were powerful enough to pull other vans and carriages so they could be used as part of longer trains. The carriage of fish is shown by the ventilated compartment - although the insides of the vehicle have been removed from its use post-1937 when this and the other electric parcels vans were used to spray antifreeze onto the tanks, the louvred sides of the compartment can still be seen. The fish would be picked up at Cullercoats and Tynemouth stations. This fascinating vehicle with a wooden body is the only survivor of the original North Eastern Railway Tyneside electrics.

 

North Eastern Railway Electric Locomotive No 1, 1904 - Part 2

The earliest main line electric locomotive to run in the UK, North Eastern Railway bo-bo Electric No 1, built for use on the Newcastle Quayside branch where it and identical No 2 served for almost sixty years, is now in preservation as part of the National Collection owing to it's importance in railway history. It has been covered before on the blog here;

http://electric-edwardians.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/north-eastern-railway-electric.html

However I was able to take these photographs inside the locomotive, with thanks to to Anthony Coulls at the National Railway Museum. The end with the control panel of switches running down the centre of the cab windows is 'A' end. If anyone would like larger copies of any of these please let me know and i'll e-mail them over. It struck me how similar the controls are to that of a Tram of the period.

From what i've read, the location of the controls changed since it was first built - I have no definite date for this but presume it was when the ES1s were changed from the large bow pick-up mounted on a wooden beam half way across one of the bonnets to the roof mounted pantograph before they entered service in 1905.

A end is the front, which is also the unobstructed front of the locomotive as viewed in the museum, this is the left hand side looking forwards

B end

A end

The electrical resistances in one of the noses - the interior of the other nose is identical. The two vertical cylinders at the end are the sandboxes, filled from the two noticeable circular lids on each nose

B end controls

 

Control panel on A end - for example in this position, the pantograph or 'trolley' is lowered, so the locomotive is not getting it's power (current) from overhead wires, and is being powered from the third electrified rail from the shoes mounted on the locomotive's wheeled bogies, which it would do during the tunnel linking Trafalgar Yard near Manors Station and the Newcastle Quayside. It would also use the third rail to transit back to it's shed

  

Inside the box for B end on the control panel

The handle for the pantograph - this is in the 'down' position

Interior of the box between the cab windows at B end

Parts of Edwardian electric locomotive found in pub garden

Firstly, apologies for the lack of updates recently, work and real life have got in the way but hope to get back up to speed soon - i've certainly got plenty of material!

Image - BBC

This post was sparked by a news article yesterday of the interesting discovery of cab sides from a 1904 electric locomotive found in a pub garden in Choppington, in north east England. The locomotive was North Eastern Railway number 2, an ES1 (Electric Shunting 1) BO-BO class electric locomotive built in 1904 for use on the Newcastle Quayside branch between Trafalgar Yard and the Quayside itself. Number 1 was preserved and has been covered on the blog here, with photos here;

http://electric-edwardians.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/north-eastern-railway-electric.html

The identical No 2 was the subject of an attempted preservation after they were withdrawn in 1964 but unfortunately this failed, and was scrapped at the aptly named Choppington. The discovery of these panels is an amazing find, and there are photos here;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-21742168

Hopefully they will go to a good home, and nice to know that a bit of No 2 lives on. According to a post on the LNER Forum, the other cab side with NER crest was at a model railway club, but i'm unsure of it's present location

Siemens Electric Locomotive, 1913

One of at least two identical four wheeled Siemens electric locomotives supplied to the Harton Colliery Railway for hauling coal trains, this is Harton Electric Locomotive number E10, built in 1913 by Siemens. Weighing in at 14.5 tons, the little locomotive is 100hp and served up until the 1980's where it entered preservation. It is now restored to static condition at the Tanfield Railway and can be seen on some days in their five road engine shed. Harton E10 makes a very interesting comparison with another electric locomotive supplied to the same railway in 1913 - AEG built E9, a larger (but a lot lower!) BO-BO locomotive - http://electric-edwardians.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/aeg-electric-locomotive-1913.html which is also preserved on the Tanfield Railway

 

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Electric Locomotive Number 2, 1917

 

 Compared to the rather ungainly No 1, which proved to be a failure, the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway's second electric locomotive, No 2, had a defined purpose. No 2 was an 0-4-0, with all four wheels powered, and did not require any external infrastructure such as overhead wires or a third rail, being powered by internal batteries. No 2 emerged from Horwich works in July 1917, having been under construction slowly for over a year, and was designed to shunt coal wagons at Clifton Junction power station, which in turn produced electricity for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway's electrified Manchester & Bury line.

 

No 2 replaced five electric capstans which instead winched the coal wagons, and No 2 could haul three fully laden 20 ton wagons at a time, and it's batteries had enough charge for 25,000 miles between overhauls. A 1/76 (OO Gauge) kit of No 2 is available to purchase - http://chrisgibbon.com/webftp/Pages/lyrbatterypage.htm

 My thanks go to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society for the very generous permission and sending of these images which I believe are unseen on the internet before. Please visit their website to see a lot more interesting Edwardian railway images.

 

North Eastern Railway Electric Locomotive No 1, 1904

Electric Locomotive No 1 in 2009 - the bufferbeam is the original one which had cracked, and has since been replaced as seen in the other photographs taken in 2012

In 1902, the North Eastern Railway took the decision to electrify the Tyneside suburban passenger lines in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne area to compete with the new electric tramways in the area which were having an effect on passenger numbers. At the same time, it was decided to electrify the Newcastle Quayside Branchline, a freight line which ran from the Trafalgar Yard at Manors station down to the sidings on the Newcastle Quayside, a short but very important line. The line included a steep curved tunnel down to the Quayside, which was difficult to work with steam locomotives as the steam and smoke had a major impact on visibility for the engine crews, and as well as that the sparks were easily setting alight to the straw used as packing in the wagons. As part of the electrification of the line, which had overhead wires at Trafalgar Yard and in the Newcastle Quayside Sidings and a third rail system like the Tyneside line for work in the tunnels where clearance was restricted, two BO-BO (meaning the wheel configuration was of a pair of bogies which had a central pivot to allow it to navigate tight corners, with each bogie having four wheels) electric locomotives were ordered on 15th December 1902 from British Thomson-Houston, with the frames and bodies built by Brush at Loughborough, Leicestershire to the 'steeplecab' design (meaning the cab is in the centre of the locomotive), similar to other electric locomotives built at the same time. British Thomson-Houston built the electrical components at their site at Rugby, Warwickshire.

 

The locomotives, built in 1904 and entering service in July 1905, picked up their power from shoes on the bogies which took the electrical current from contact with the third rail both in the tunnels and over the Tyneside suburban lines to the sheds at South Gosforth where the locomotives and the Tyneside electric stock were kept when not in use.

Originally the two locomotives were fitted with a large bow collector which was mounted on a wooden beam halfway across one of the sloping bonnets at either end of the locomotive which changed angle with the direction the locomotive travelled in, but in 1905, following tests at Trafalgar South Yard where they were to operate, this was changed to a pantograph on the cab roof  before they entered service in June of that year. The pantographs were extended when in use to make contact with overhead lines or pulled down to a flattened position when not in use when the locomotive was picking up electric current from the 'third rail' - this was especially important when travelling through the tunnels, where it would be damaged against the tunnel mouth if not pulled down in time! The locomotives went into LNER service when the North Eastern Railway was grouped together with other railway lines in the north eastern and eastern areas in 1923 and became known as the ES1 class (Electric Shunting 1), which they are best known as now. Both locomotives gave good service and were kept in use until 29th February 1964 when they were withdrawn, nearly sixty years after entering service. They were replaced by diesel locomotives but the line itself was closed in 1969 and is now virtually unrecogniseable. No 1 Locomotive was preserved as part of the National Collection, and is now on display at the National Railway Museum's outpost at Shildon, Durham, known as 'Locomotion', which interestingly is where the North Eastern Railway's freight line originated on it's way to Middlesbrough, opening in 1915. Electric Locomotive No 2 was apparently also planned to be preserved but this plan fell through, and it was scrapped in 1966. Locomotive No 1 is now in it's original North Eastern Railway colour scheme, representing not it's strictly original condition, but from 1905 onwards (just before entering NER service) with the pantograph on the cab roof