Easter, Christmas and the summer months brought many extra trains, but the real crescendo seemed to be in the Glasgow holiday fortnight when many trains had a relief. This, incidentally, was about the only time you were ever likely to see a double-header on this line, as locomotives (often a Haymarket ‘B1’ 4-6-0) with an unbalanced working piloted the train engine (usually a ‘Pacific’).
So it Was a diet of ‘A4s’, single chimney ‘A3s’, ‘A1s’ galore and occasional ‘A2s’ and ‘V2s’ on the passenger workings. ‘B1s’ on the Berwick, and NER ‘D20’ 4-4-0s on the Alnwick stopping trains.
On freight, lined black ‘V2’ 2-6-2s, ‘K3’ 2-6-0s, and occasional ‘B16’ 4-6-0s took on the most important duties. ‘J39’ and ‘J27’ 0-6-0s handled the pick-up freights, and ‘Q6’ 0-8-0s the heavy coal trains from Killingworth concentration sidings to the Tyneside power stations.
The Blyth and Tyne freight was virtually exclusively in the hands of ‘J27s’. There was a lot of it, however, and it was not unusual to see three trains (one on the down, two on the up) standing on the east-south curve waiting for a path through the main line traffic or the North Tyneside electric traffic. The Newbiggin stoppers were hauled by Gresley ‘ V1/3’ 2-6-2Ts usually at a pace more associated with ‘A4s’
