The LNER Encyclopedia

June 09 The tiled map is still in place at Hartlepool Station. It is in good condition and I am suprised it has lasted so long. I think it is only a matter of time before it is vandalised.

Following information from Pinzac55 i have updated the tiled map list on page 3 to include Thornaby. We are now up to about 27 maps confirmed. Please take time to read through the thread and post any updates or Maps that have not been included.

I recently saw a photo of Alnmouth which had the map in the background, and it appears that it was in the entrance hallway, opposite the ticket windows, and not on the platfrom as stated earlier.
I will try and persuade the owner of the picture to let me copy it.

I'd like to know if my home station, Sunderland, had a tile map? Looking at Ken Hoole's book "Railway Stations Of The North East" Sunderland was second only in ticket sales to Newcastle and sold more tickets than York. I think if I'd been the Sunderland stationmaster I would have been demanding one of those maps!
Incidentally I can't remember the Malton map? I wonder where it was - it seems unlikely that even BR would have simply destroyed it.

Incidentally I have photos of tile maps here -

Tynemouth 1978 http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3330/327 ... 5559_b.jpg

Saltburn 1978 http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/331 ... ded2_o.jpg

Scarborough 2010 http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/503 ... 8423_o.jpg

I have a photo by somebody else of the Saltburn map in the 60's with an NER seat and "SALTBURN" cast iron seatback sign on it. I'll have a look and if it is not credited, post it here.

The choice of stations to get maps seems to be a bit haphazard to say the least, two stations at the North Eastern and North Western extremities of the NER didnt appear to get a map, Carlisle and Tweedmouth. Yet Normanton to the very South of the NER did get one.
As for Sunderland wasnt the original station bombed, The map if any could have been lost then.

Although Sunderland was bombed this only really affected the overall roof but the clock in the clocktower never worked again! I have a couple of (other peoples) photos of the interior of the north entrance and I'll check them although sadly I've no photos at all of the north entrance looking towards the ticket barrier. The south entrance was largely wood and I doubt whether, if there had been a tile map, it would have been there.

I took this photo of the Tile Map at Tynemouth in November 1978. As far as I know it is still there.

question,( I wrongly posted on Sammy the shunter) are all maps the same ? is the place name the station the map is on, in bold or with a arrow (like you are here) ?

mr B

There is no difference in the size of the print and certainly no arrow. Features such as that would require special tiles for each map location.

I’ve just found the Tile Map thread in the Darlington Stockton Branch thread on the Forum. This is intriguing stuff. It’s the first that I’ve heard of maps at either Stockton or Thornaby, but since Malcolm’s discovery of the Marylebone map photo, anything’s possible. I know that there was discussion about a second tile map having been in storage in the Queen Street railway museum, and that may have been this one, but I didn’t think that it came from Thornaby, though.
Interestingly, the Marylebone map seemed to have been in a wooden frame, so was it perhaps not built into the station wall? If so, and this would make sense with a map at another company’s station, could there have been more of these – perhaps temporary – maps? This would also explain why one or two maps were removed intact, when it’s so difficult to get a ceramic tile off a brick or masonry wall in one piece.
The Malton map was just to the right of the entrance door as you left the platform. It was destroyed when the doorway was moved to the position where the map had been, but ironically, the entrance has since been moved back to its original site. I have a photo, but it may be copyright. I’ll see if I can perhaps get permission to post it, though.
The NRM map is believed to be from King’s Cross, but it was also believed to be the first to be erected. It now seems that the York station map was, quite logically, the first to be installed (Whitby Gazette 27/9/1990). Certainly, both the York and NRM maps have similar details that would appear to make them roughly contemporary, because details were changed on later tile map firings.
And why did some unexpected stations have them, yet some of the obvious ones didn’t? I can only assume that the NER would fit them to most of their main passenger stations first, which they seem to have done, and then fitted them at the busy holiday resorts, and then installed them as and when the more important junction stations were being rebuilt. Fitting them was, after all, a major task, because they were slightly recessed into the supporting wall. It would have been far easier to build the wall to fit the map than vice versa. As no NER tile maps were fired made after 1910, this possibly explains why several stations were missed out. For information, my list of known NER maps is:
Marylebone (possibly temporarily)
Alnmouth
Bridlington
Darlington
Durham
Goole
Hexham
Hull Paragon
Leeds City South
Malton
Newcastle Central
Normanton
Selby
Tyne Dock
South Shields
Beverley
Hartlepool
Middlesbrough
Morpeth
Saltburn
Scarborough
Tynemouth
York
Whitby
One in an NER director’s house
and Kings Cross (possibly temporarily).

A total of 26.
The last 12 still exist, but not all in situ.
I hope this helps.
Eden.

Ooops, the Whitby Gazette date should have been 27/9/1900, of course.
Eden

Check on page three of this thread for known fates of maps and speculation about the others.

Eden Blyth wrote: One in an NER director’s house
A total of 26.
The last 12 still exist, but not all in situ.
I hope this helps.
Eden.

So who was the director and where is the map now?

The director was Walter Cunliffe, who became the first Govenor of the Bank of England, and his house is now a military establishment. The map's in excellent condition, and is another with a wooden surround. Oddly enough, it's in the south of England. Sorry to be a vaguely evasive, but the people in command there were very helpful when I was researching it, but with the security situation being what it is, they don't want people asking to get in to look at it!
Eden.