The LNER Encyclopedia

I am posting this in both LNER locomotives and LNER people as it refers to both!
A distant relation of mine was John Patten who, along with his sons James and Frederick, worked for the NER at Alnwick.
The 1891 census has John working as a shunter at Alnwick, but he later became a Traffic Foreman and was killed in an accident at Alnwick Station in June 1917.
Last year Fred's daughter died and this photograph was found amongst her things. It is thought that one of the figures in the picture is John, but as we have no other pictures of him, we can't identify him.
If we can identify the loco, then it will give a date for the picture, and possibly then identify John by the clothes that he is wearing, either as a shunter or a Traffic Foreman.
Can anyone tell me anything about No. 73, dates built and withdrawn, class etc. and secondly is anyone able to say from the clothes which man is likely to be a shunter or traffic foreman?

No 73 was built by R W Hawthorn for the GNER in September 1839 and rebuilt by Hawthorns in 1852 as a 2-4-0T. It was then a YN&BR loco until becoming part of the NER stock. There is a photo of 73 at Alnwick in 1870, very like the one you have posted, in NE Record volume 3. I would suspect that your photo is sometime around that date.

Thanks for that, it is a good start. If the photo is from c1870 then John must be one of the young men, possibly the one on the front spring.

As a separate comment.
Looking at the track, it appears to me that the sleeper spacing on all tracks is wider than what I would expect.
Going by the LNER standards for P Way 1923 it was the norm for sleeper spacing to be 24 sleepers per 60ft or 18 per 45ft with the majority of sleepers being at 2' 7" closer at the panel ends.

The sleepers in the photo look considerably wider than that, even allowing for the rodding runs through some bays.
Was there another P Way standard for the 1870s?

As the rodding seems only associated with the weighted hand point levers also visible, I'm wondering if, even as early as c1870, that indicates that this picture is likely to be somewhere within yard/depot sidings, in which case the sleeper spacing could have been wider on economy grounds, while still considered adequate (low speeds, no risk to passenger trains from derailment).

There is not much background to go from, but the line at Alnwick left the station throat in a cutting before the Cornhill branch diverged away to the right. This was also the site of the turntable and some sidings that served a sawmill. The height of the cutting looks about right, so I think that the photo shows the loco standing either on the sawmill sidings or at the very end of the branch near to the turntable, looking west. There are houses on the top of the cutting now, but they were built by the NER from the 1880's onwards, so this picture pre-dates them.

52A has just about nailed it. I have notes in front of me taken from the net as follows;-

2-4-0WT

73:1852
R & W Hawthorn locomotive with outside frames, 4ft 6in coupled wheels and 13 X 18 in. cylinders. fig 22(MacLean p.22) based on Thedore West diagram. Worked Alnwick branch until replaced in 1882. Suggests that similar locomotives were No.266 which worked locals in Newcastle and No.153.

The NRM has a copy of The locomotives of the North Eastern Railway 1841 - 1922 by MacLean i used it while researching Willington. I am due to go back to the NRM soon on another mission i will check things out for you. I will forward website detail later.

Interestingly it seems that contrary to normal practice the NER did not reuse the number until the LNER used it on a K3 in 1924.

I used to walk to school in the 1960s under the A1 overbridge and through the Field at the back of Alnwick fire station that is now a small Industrial estate, then down the embankment across the lines and up Auger Terrace? I think the loco is photographed at the spot where we walked down the embankment i will pull a couple of maps up and confirm it for you.

Ive changed my mind its nearer to Alnwick station on the Alnmouth rather than Cornhill line. Reffering to the Alnwick signal box diagram in Bart Rippons book i think the loco is standing on the down line about 50 yards north of the Turntable and the embankment is the one that has Ravenslaw House behind it. I would copy Barts Diagram but will have to ask him first.

Yes that about the spot I had in mind there or maybe slightly slightly nearer the station about where the ambulance station is now, below Sea View. I have a copy of Bart's book but have lent it to someone at the moment. I don't think it is on the Ravenslaw side because I think the top of house would have been visible above the top of the cutting, it was built in 1855.

Maclean is amongst my recent acquisitions. The entry for No. 73 is on Page 22:




I note that "Figure 22" shows a very similar locomotive to the photograph but the safety valve housing is different as is the style of dome (both have large domes). Both could have easily been changed during a works visit (cf. the various safety valve changes in LNER loco histories).

Richard

Although the origins of many of the early NER locos is lost in the mists of time further research has led me to this which includes No.266 mentioned above i wonder if No.73 was originally a member of this class;

2-4-0ST

Class 84: 1876
Small number of light 2-4-0Ts built for branch line work, but only one survived to be listed in 1884; former No.84 as No 1764 which had been rebuilt in 1881 and was condemned in December 1896. Illustrated at Leeds New. Others noted were No.19, withdrawn as No.1712 in1885, and No.266 replaced in 1884.

From Hoole An Illustrated History Of NER Locomotives p.36

Although the pic looks totally different to No.73 this could be a member of the same class running in a heavily rebuilt condition.