by Stephen Rabone
It’s the Friday evening of 30th May 1975 and, after a day teaching my class of ten and eleven year olds, I’m heading off to Newcastle to spend the night watching trains at this busy station. Over the last few years I’ve discovered what a fascinating place big railway stations can be at night and have already spent several long chilly nights at Carlisle and York; now it’s Newcastle’s turn.
Armed with copious amounts of food and drink for the night ahead, I catch the 17:18 Whitby to Newcastle train from Middlesbrough and arrive in Newcastle at 20:18. On the way I pass West Hartlepool stabling point with its complement of Class 03s, 08s and 37s while at Sunderland there is another ‘03’ on duty for handling parcel traffic shunting and 40182 at the head of 4N26, a parcels train to Newcastle: I’ll see this again later this evening. After crossing the High Level Bridge over the River Tyne, my train terminates in one of the eight bay platforms at the east end of the station.
20:30-21:00
On arrival at Newcastle, I note that 40196 of Healey Mills depot is standing in the Central Yard part of the station with 4S23, the 16:41 York to Edinburgh parcels; it’s scheduled to stay here from 19:55 to 21:52. This evening there are no fewer than four Class 03s on duty to shunt mail and parcels vans or Motorail vehicles on and off the many passenger and parcels trains that pass through during the night; they are 03056, 03105, 03106 and 03107.
There are also plenty of diesel multiple units to be seen, with the vast majority being two car Metro-Cammells made up of a power car and driving trailer running either in two or four car formations. There are also several of the four car Derby multiple units in the 506xx series that are based in the Newcastle area. Whilst I note down their numbers I’ve seen them many times before and, for the purposes of this account, I’ll largely ignore.
Standing ready to depart on one of the three through platforms is Gateshead’s 47518 with 1A40, the 20:25 to King’s Cross; this conveys seating accommodation as well as mail traffic and Travelling Post Office (TPO) sorting vans. The train’s formation is a Gangwayed Brake (BG) van, four Post Office
