Tyneside Society - Stephenson Trials

This trials event was the tenth that had been hosted by the Carlisle club in the Association’s sixty two year history. Their first event was the 21^st trials held in 1976 and was won by the Carlisle club GNR Atlantic driven by the late Chris Bleazard, retaining the trophy he had won for the first time at Tyneside the previous year.

For the record the weather wasn’t the best we have had, being rather changeable with the odd shower, but not too cold, and given the hospitality of the Carlisle members with plenty of tea and sustenance for the inner man and woman on offer, we were treated to an entertaining day that no-one could reasonable have any complaints about.

This was the first trials to be hosted at Carlisle since the track had been relayed, and I can report that the alignment is much improved and with steel rail for all gauges, adhesion was no longer the problem that had beset some competitors in the past, although the stiff climb approaching the station remains to catch out the unwary.

We were in the unusual position at the beginning of the day to have seven confirmed entries, some of which had actually be sent to me by post – very much a novelty. By midday we were struggling to stable all the locomotives and I was beginning to wonder if we could actually run all the fourteen entries we had, since we had had a failure of an engine on shed to delay the start of the event over and above our usual half hour lost on the advertised first run.

First to raise steam was Andy Lowes from South Durham with the 3 ½” gauge Black 5 that took the Vest Shield last year. Unfortunately one of the feed water pipes from the tender had developed a leak, so Andy declared the locomotive a failure and the next competitor was asked to raise steam.

Joe Gibbons of TSMEE with the 3½“ gauge Great Northern atlantic soon had a fire going and backed down on to his train which was loaded to a little over 600lbs. Joe made an excellent start and began to work his loco really hard, accelerating quickly to a good steady speed. The effort required a good deal of shovelling and after the twenty minute run the loco had consumed 20 ¾ ounces of coal whilst covering almost 21 laps of the railway. With a score of 110354 points this run was eventually placed eleventh and being the best of the 3 ½” locos Joe was awarded the Vest Shield.

South Durham member Wilf McHugh had brought his 2-6-2T to the Martin Evans William design to the competition and elected to run with a load of 490lbs. I think this might be the first time one of these locos had ventured into the trials, so it was interesting to see if it performed well. Unfortunately the run was not to be as smooth as Wilf would have liked and early in the run the train failed to make the climb to the station. After standing a little time to raise steam and fill the boiler, Wilf attempted to restart but found it necessary to set back to take a run at the climb. This was not successful and a second attempt was needed, and after setting back almost the full length of the back straight sufficient impetus was achieved to complete the climb. This used a great deal of running time and limited the total distance travelled to just over a 1000 yards at the end of the allotted time. Burning just 8 ½ ounces of fuel and giving a score of 62500 points. Whilst placed last, it is clear that on another day this loco could achieve a respectable result.

Andy Lowes had by this time repaired the Black 5 and was able to light up and do his run with a load of just under 450lbs. Andy’s run was not nearly as consistent as last year’s on his home track, and he only managed to cover 2050 yards. Despite this, with a coal consumption of just 8 ¾ ounces the result of the run was not too far behind the Atlantic and Andy ended the day in 12^th place.

Our new runner from last year Don Scarrot of West Cumbria was back again with Duke Pit, his 0-6-0T locomotive. The run with a similar load to the previous entry was not continuous and Don needed stops to recover steam and water, but managed just over 9 laps of the track in the time allowed. With a coal consumption of almost 12 ounces Don’s score put him in 13^th position.

It was now time for the first 5” gauge entry to step up, and my Adams Tank representing Tyneside was filling that role, defending the best 5” trophy from last year. Loaded to almost 1100lbs, a little more than last year, the engine set off in good form and was soon lapping a bit faster than was comfortable. The track near the turntable must have collected a film of oil because the loco lost its feet each time as it passed. Eventually it had to be eased as the rate of progress was actually exceeding the boiler’s ability to generate steam, something I haven’t often experienced with model locos. It then became a battle to recover the water level and get the steam back to a reasonable pressure and in hindsight it might have been better if I’d made a short stop to recover. Things did come back to rights eventually but this had lost me some distance, achieving not quite twenty laps, and a lot of coal at 21 ¾ ounces and my final position was seventh at the close of play.

The first of three new competitors, Mike Hill-Tout of Carlisle was next to run with his brass finished Simplex. Only one Simplex has ever won the Stephenson trophy despite there having been at least one in almost every event. With just over 1000lbs on the drawbar this loco made a very steady run with an almost identical lap count to the previous entry. Having burnt a little over 24 ½ ounces of the excellent coal, Mike finished in a respectable 8^th place.

Another newcomer MartinSams now brought his Simplex to the line. Clearly there was some rivalry between the two Carlisle Simplexs (or should this be Simplexi) and Martin took a similar load. I suspect things didn’t go quite to plan as Martin managed just less than twelve laps, although his shovel didn’t work quite as much and only fed 18 ¼ ounces of coal through the firehole door. The score was 120398 points and gave this entry 10^th position.

Whilst John Harkness of West Cumbria is a regular attendee at the trials, he has never run a loco to my knowledge. This time he had brought his LNER B1 No 61264 and set off with 1107lbs on the drawbar. I have to say that I did not witness the whole of John’s run as I had somehow managed to get involved with recording and calculating the results, so I’m not sure why the lap count was so low at just over 9. Perhaps John was a little shy with the shovel as this relatively large engine only managed to burn 7 3/8^th ounces of coal thus achieving a well deserved 5^th place in the competition. With this bit of experience under his belt, perhaps the B1 will be the engine to beat next year on its home ground.

Peter Raybould of South Durham has supported the trials for many years and brought his Simplex this time. With a slightly lighter load than the two previous Simplex locos at 991 lbs, Peter settled in to a steady pace and completed close to twenty laps before the time expired. Having burnt 19 ¼ ounces of coal, the score was 186185 points, good enough to beat the other similar engines and placing Peter sixth in the final order, which I’m sure he was very pleased with.

Had I been a betting man I would have put money on Tom Jones’ BR Class 2 to take the 5” gauge trophy this year. It was a close run last year when I just managed to beat him to that result, but this time Tom really had the job sorted and showed the rest of us how to do it. Tom set a cracking pace for his run with a heavier load than last year at close to 1300lbs. Averaging 7.81mph the train completed 25 faultless laps and Tom fed 19 ¼ ounces of fuel to do it. Unsurprisingly this effort was awarded not only the Rocket Trophy for the best 5” gauge loco but the Stephenson Cup for the best result in the competition.

The Carlisle club engine, a GNR Atlantic, with a very good record in the trials over the years with a number of drivers, was next to the line with our Chairman Arthur Cook in charge. Arthur had elected to take a moderate load of just over 800lbs on this occasion and somehow didn’t seem to get into his stride with a run of just 2850 yards and a relatively high coal consumption for this loco of 17 5/8^th ounces. Final placing was 9^th

Our last 5” entry was an American Atlantic. Built by the late Bill Oliver, our President for many years and brought to the event by granddaughter Nichola and dad Lynsey, this loco had not run in the competition for many years, Bill having preferred his 0-4-0T ‘Emmet’ for trials duty. It is also many years since a member of the fair sex has driven in the trials, so this run was something of an event in itself. Nichola, running for Carlisle, in her first trials, had loaded the train to a little under a ton, a huge load for a 5” gauge engine, but the loco set off in fine style and was soon lapping steadily at near 8 mph, turning in the fastest run of the day at just short of 4600 yards for the twenty minutes. With its huge firebox it wasn’t surprising that the coal consumption of just short of 34 ounces was also the highest of the 5” locos. Nevertheless this turned out to be an excellent run which in the final analysis put Nicola into a well deserved 3^rd place. Next years trials should prove interesting with Tom Jones, John Harkness and Nicola all trying to better this years performances.

President Allan Bones of TSMEE and his Holmside have performed regularly in this event and we have come to expect rip-roaring runs from them. Loaded as usual with everything available (4156lbs), and having checked there were no bits of timber to get stuck under the wheels as happened the last time at this venue, Allan set off without any problem and soon was running at a good pace, but not quite as quickly as we have come to expect. It was soon obvious the all was not well as it appeared the loco was not steaming, and Allan had to ease off to try to recover. The run continued under these conditions for the twenty minutes and the final distance was only 2433 yards, rather less than we usually get, and with a fuel usage of 38 ¾ ounces, put Allan a place behind Nichola Oliver, 4^th in the end. When the loco was examined back in the workshop, it was found that the feed water heater in the smokebox had developed a leak which was obviously the cause of the ‘poor’ performance.

Our fourteenth and final competitor was Alan Bowron, another of our stalwart performers who had left his usual steed, another Holmside, and brought his two truck Shay to the trial. The Shay is a logging locomotive and has a three cylinder vertical engine mounted on one side of the main frame driving the four bogie mounted axles through bevel gears and carden shafts. Not normally expected to travel at high speed, this one with all the load available had no trouble at all achieving an average of 6.36 mph, which seemed a lot faster when coupled with the roaring exhaust and the noise of the gearing. Alan appeared to be firing all the way and managed to get 53 ½ ounces through the fire hole door in the 3733 yards distance run. This was enough to give him 288543 points, 2^nd place and the 7 ¼” gauge trophy and the TSMEE trophy for the runner up.

Well done to our three trophy winners and to all the competitors, without whom there would be no trials, and a big thank you to all those who helped to make this such a grand day out, the timers, the counters, the loaders, and the weighers, the calculators and those who cleaned the track and checked and examined the rolling stock so that the day went off without a hitch. And it wouldn’t be a trials report without a thank you to the people who did the catering and kept us all fed and watered. Last but not least thanks to those who came to watch, support, encourage and photograph and a suggestion to those that have locomotives that they could be taking part next year. Remember it’s not the winning that counts, it’s the taking part.

Next year the venue is Curwen Park at Workington. Our hosts are the West Cumbria Guild of Model Engineers and I’m sure they would be pleased if we can at least equal the entry for this year. So don’t forget the date, a week earlier than usual on Sunday 2^nd of September 2012. Please make a note in your club calendar and keep it free.