Sunderland Central Railway Station

[54A Sunderland]

Hello all. I am a Sunderland ex-pat living in Banbury in Oxfordshire for some 24-years. I am a railway modeller and am in the process of researching Sunderland Central Railway Station in the mid/late 1950s with a view to building an exhibition standard railway model of it (I used to sit on the embankment behind Burdon House with my mum when I was 4-years old and onwards watching the trains). I have some pics from a friend who works for Notwork Rail as it is now (it is really Network Rail but the railway fraternity call it Notwork Rail because it does NOT work ) and of course have gleened more useful Norman Kirtlan pics from this website . However; if any members are able to provide more I would be grateful. I have also approached Tyne & Wear Museums and they tell me they have Architects drawings of the station at various snapshots in time but they want 'big bucks' for these without telling me what is on the drawings. So I may effectively expend lots of dosh for lots of scrap paper. A bit unreasonable I thought . If any members happen to have anything that may be useful to me I would be eternally grateful. (54A is the 1950s British Railways Shed Code of Sunderland South Dock if anyone is wondering ).

[Dave Angus]

Hello, I have just rec'd an email from Bob Williams who suggests you should contact...
NORTH EASTERN EXPRESS,
Editor, John G Teasdale
42 Ridgeway LEEDS LS8 4DF,
or E-Mail editor@ner.org.uk
He thinks these people should be able to help with photographs of the station.
Dave

[BOW]

Hello 54A,
Oddly enough, i was trawling the internet for any pictures i could find of the minature steam railway at Seaburn. I have been for a while now, with not much luck, reason being my uncle used to drive the trains. Anyway, i came across this bloke on flickr called pinzac55. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/sunderlandstation/ He has a couple of photos took from where you probably sat. He also has signal box diagrams of the station circa 1901 and 1963, and if you browse his uploads he has diagrams of a lot of the Sunderland network. This may be some help to you. Also, coincidentally, one of his flickr contacts is called 53A!!!!

[Dave Angus]

Hello Bow, sorry to take this thread off at a tangent but how does this grab you?
If nothing else it might pay you back for me forgetting all about your storm info.
Why didn't you ask?
Dave

[michael]

Originally Posted by 54A Sunderland

Hello all. I am a Sunderland ex-pat living in Banbury in Oxfordshire for some 24-years. I am a railway modeller and am in the process of researching Sunderland Central Railway Station in the mid/late 1950s with a view to building an exhibition standard railway model of it (I used to sit on the embankment behind Burdon House with my mum when I was 4-years old and onwards watching the trains). I have some pics from a friend who works for Notwork Rail as it is now (it is really Network Rail but the railway fraternity call it Notwork Rail because it does NOT work ) and of course have gleened more useful Norman Kirtlan pics from this website . However; if any members are able to provide more I would be grateful. I have also approached Tyne & Wear Museums and they tell me they have Architects drawings of the station at various snapshots in time but they want 'big bucks' for these without telling me what is on the drawings. So I may effectively expend lots of dosh for lots of scrap paper. A bit unreasonable I thought . If any members happen to have anything that may be useful to me I would be eternally grateful. (54A is the 1950s British Railways Shed Code of Sunderland South Dock if anyone is wondering ).

Hello 54A,

I came across this site, which I'm now registered on, after Googling for some information on Sunderland Central Station myself as I'm an ex-spotter and current modeller myself and my interest is North East Steam and very early Diesel around late 1950s and early 60's. I used to go to the Central Station to spot and can just remember the push and pull A8s working suburban trains to Newcastle, Shields, Durham etc, before they were replaced by Diesel Muliple Units. I would also spot at Pallion Station which was very near to where I live, as well as Millfiled Station. The climax of the day was to go to Millfield on summer's mid-week evenings at around 7.00pm and wait for an important freight we called the "7.10", because that's when it approximately arrived, coming I think from Newcastle and eventually working its way to York or even London. Sometimes it was pulled by V2s, sometimes by by 9F's, sometimes by A1s BUT, if you were very lucky, it was even pulled by an A4 or 'streak' as we called them and towards the end of steam passenger workings A4 'Golden Eagle' often worked this train. My mates and I also visted Sunderland shed (54A!!) but looked down on this because it had mainly unglamorous mineral pulling locos, A8s, J27s, G5s etc. I realise in retrospect this was very snobbish as these engines were full of character. The real treat, of course, was a trip to Newcastle Central and Gateshead shed (trespassing!!) and a Sunday bike trip to the Leamside line near Chester le Street for Sunday workings and passenger express diversions from the ECML.

I'm currently modelling a railway in my loft and am also using (modest) elements of Newcastle and Sunderland stations in my own layout. I have a book called "Railways of Sunderland" (text by Neil Sinclair) by Tyne and Wear Museums Service that has some good pictures in it of Sunderland Central and loads of great pictures of railways around Sunderland at various times in the past. It was in print in 1986!! and therefore may not be available now but it may have been reprinted and the museums service will tell you. If not I could ask my daughter how to photocopy and pass on some of the Central Station photos to you, if I'm not breaking any copyright laws that is.

From Mick - a Sunderland ex-pat living in Warrington