© 2017 Cleveland Model Railway Club.
The North Sunderland Railway was built in the 1890s from a connection with the NER at Chathill, 5 miles to its terminus and headquarters at Seahouses with one intermediate station at North Sunderland. The line was built on the cheap with corrugated iron being used for the buildings.
The NSR’s Manning Wardle engine Bamburgh had a history of failing and so locomotives were hired from the big railways, including classes Y1, Y3, Y7, J79, J71 and even an ex Lancashire and Yorkshire ‘Pug’. The NSR was a pioneer in diesel traction, borrowing a demonstration loco in 1933 from Armstrong Whitworth’s and later purchasing ‘The Lady Armstrong’ from the same company.
From Day 1 the line was beset with financial problems and despite escaping nationalisation, it finally closed in 1951. The site is now a car park.
‘Seahouses’ was conceived and built in 1983 and the layout was seen on the exhibition circuit until retired after Darlington in 1997. About 2011, I decided to see if it would still work. After cleaning the track I put one of the trusty Y7s on the track and to our amazement it worked and it was decided to give Seahouses a makeover. New buildings were made and the layout rewired. Improvements included back-scenes which the layout had never possessed, and the layout has progressed using the latest methods. Judge for yourself whether we have captured the atmosphere of the original by comparing the model with the photographs of the original.
The NSR’s Manning Wardle engine Bamburgh had a history of failing and so locomotives were hired from the big railways, including classes Y1, Y3, Y7, J79, J71 and even an ex Lancashire and Yorkshire ‘Pug’. The NSR was a pioneer in diesel traction, borrowing a demonstration loco in 1933 from Armstrong Whitworth’s and later purchasing ‘The Lady Armstrong’ from the same company.
From Day 1 the line was beset with financial problems and despite escaping nationalisation, it finally closed in 1951. The site is now a car park.
‘Seahouses’ was conceived and built in 1983 and the layout was seen on the exhibition circuit until retired after Darlington in 1997. About 2011, I decided to see if it would still work. After cleaning the track I put one of the trusty Y7s on the track and to our amazement it worked and it was decided to give Seahouses a makeover. New buildings were made and the layout rewired. Improvements included back-scenes which the layout had never possessed, and the layout has progressed using the latest methods. Judge for yourself whether we have captured the atmosphere of the original by comparing the model with the photographs of the original.