Taking the Train from Darlington to Whitby

Taking the Train from Darlington to Whitby

ISBN 978-1-913893-45-3

Drawing largely on steam-era images taken from the Transport Treasury collection, this book moves from the railway epicentre of Darlington to the industrial conurbations of Stockton and Middlesbrough and its concentration of loco sheds before heading east towards Redcar and Saltburn on the North Sea coast. The traveller then follows the stunning coastal route as far as Whitby before heading inland again for the dales and vales along the Esk Valley line via Grosmont and Battersby and also taking the opportunity to visit some of the more obscure and long closed railway locations en route.

Most of the photographs were taken during times when steam was largely unchallenged on passenger and goods services throughout the area, but added to the mix are a few images of ‘first generation’ DMUs which were introduced onto the routes from 1957.

Compiled by Nick Deacon

£13.50

Taking the Train from Darlington to Whitby Compiled by Nick Deacon

Taking the Train from Darlington to Whitby

Compiled by Nick Deacon

© Images and design: Transport Treasury 2024 Text: Nick Deacon ISBN 978-1-913893-45-3 First published in 2024 by Transport Treasury Publishing Limited. 16 Highworth Close, High Wycombe, HP13 7PJ. Totem Publishing an imprint of Transport Treasury Publishing.

The copyright holders hereby give notice that all rights to this work are reserved.

Aside from brief passages for the purpose of review, no part of this work may be reproduced, copied by electronic or other means, or otherwise stored in any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the Publisher. This includes the illustrations herein which shall remain the copyright of the copyright holder. www.ttpublishing.co.uk Printed in Tarxien, Malta by Gutenberg Press Ltd. ‘Taking the Train from Darlington to Whitby’ is one of many books on specialist transport subjects published in strictly limited numbers and produced under the Totem Publishing imprint using material only available at The Transport Treasury.

All images are provided by Neville Stead unless otherwise mentioned.

Front Cover: On Sunday, 31 August 1958 an unusually grimy Stratford-based Britannia Pacific No. 70041 Sir John Moore waits to leave Bank Top’s Platform 15 with the 10.40am Newcastle – Kings Cross express. Sightings of the class were a comparative rarity at Darlington and were usually confined to the southbound Newcastle – Colchester services routed via Durham and Darlington. The loco was working south from Newcastle having been rostered for a Kings Cross – Glasgow relief service the previous day and was probably a welcome ‘cop’ to the young lad in the foreground. Allocated new from Crewe Works to Stratford in March 1953, the loco spent seven successful years working between Liverpool Street and Norwich, was reallocated to Immingham in December 1960 for three years and finally, like many of her sisters, finished on the London Midland Region at Carlisle Kingmoor where she was withdrawn during April 1967.

Frontispiece: At Bowesfield Junction on the south-eastern edge of Stockton, WD 2-8-0 No. 90409 in ex-Works condition heads west during the 1950s with a Class H service consisting of a mixture of single and bogie bolster wagons loaded with steel lengths. The junction was at the end of the Hartburn East Curve with five outlets - two from the east; the main line to Middlesbrough and the Stockton goods branch; and three to the west; to Stockton on the Hartburn curve, the Castle Eden branch, and a connection to the Darlington line north of Eaglescliffe. The magnificent NER signal bridge probably dated to 1905 when the new 130-lever Bowesfield signal box was opened (this closed in 2019). The bridge originally had 15 arms but when photographed had lost one doll. Reading from left to right the first five dolls have arms relating to the shunting lines in the Down direction and the next two (originally 3) to the Down Mineral lines. The next three dolls (including the line the WD is occupying) have arms governing the Up Mineral Line and the final three the Up Main. The little offset bracket signal on the right hand bridge support column is for the Up siding in the Down direction. In addition to the signal for the WD, the Up Main Home and Distant are also ‘off’.

Rear Cover: On 2 June 1955 the ruins of the Benedictine Whitby Abbey form another familiar but unique backdrop to the shed yard and running lines.

Also in this shot taken from Esk Terrace are three other familiar shapes which were commonplace at this place and time. A8 4-6-2T No. 69876 from Middlesbrough shed deals with empty stock on the running line while classmate and long term Whitby resident No. 69864 percolates in the yard in company with another resident, G5 0-4-4T No. 67240. The G5 is of particular interest as it was the very first of the class to enter service during May 1894 as NER No. 1096 and was based at Whitby from July 1953 until December 1955 when it was moved to Malton shed where, after a career just one month short of 62 years, it was withdrawn during the following April. No. 69864 dated from February 1914 and lasted at Whitby until withdrawn during October 1958, but No. 69876, dating from June 1920 and despite being younger, was the unluckier of the two, being withdrawn from Middlesbrough during October 1957.

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Introduction

he area south of the River Tees mainly comprising north-east Yorkshire and a small part of south-east Durham, despite its ‘industrial’ tag, is also one containing a wide range of scenic diversity. After moving from the Darlington area and then the dense Teesside industrial sprawl, a traveller would soon find wild and remote stretches of high moorland and dales, farms and villages snugly sheltered by wooded river valleys plus the rugged grandeur of a coastline boasting a rich Cretaceous and Jurassic geology which has it dubbed as the ‘Dinosaur Coast’.

Further developments of iron ore extraction during the 1850s and 1860s were promoted by the Pease family of S&DR fame with the Middlesbrough & Guisborough Railway (M&GR) opened in 1853 from Middlesbrough to mines in the Guisborough area and by the Derwent Iron Co. with a connecting line (the Redcar & Saltburn Railway) opened from their mine near Saltburn to meet the S&DR at Redcar in 1861. The line was operated by the S&DR and as a result Saltburn became its eastern terminus.

As early as 1855 there were over 20 blast furnaces working From the earliest days of British railways much of the area in the Middlesbrough, Cargo Fleet, South Bank and Eston was the setting of numerous and competing railway area with this number set to grow exponentially by the end companies all eager for the profits to be realised from large of the century when the population was over 90,000 - this scale extraction of iron ore from seams existing in the from a population which at the turn of the 19th Century had Cleveland Hills and extending further south into the North been recorded as just 25!

Yorkshire Moors. Many contemporary recordists compared Another railway company, the Cleveland Railway, had it to an industrial ‘feeding frenzy’. entered the lists in 1861 with the opening of their mineral Earliest on the scene from its opening in 1825 was of line in stages from Guisborough to Boosbeck in 1862, an course the crucible of the British railway system, the extension from there to Brotton and Skinningrove in 1865 Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR), and from December with numerous ironstone mines served en route. From 1830 the opening of its extension from Stockton to the new July 1872 Brotton was connected to Saltburn and further port and town of Middlesbrough on the south bank of the extensions opened in 1875 saw Skinningrove and Loftus connected with a passenger service with the latter River Tees. becoming a terminus of the line from Saltburn.

In 1846 a branch from the S&DR along the southern bank of the Tees to Redcar was opened by the Middlesbrough & Further south the as yet untapped area east of the Yarm Redcar Railway (M&RR) enabling Bolckow & Vaughan, a Northallerton line of the Leeds Northern Railway was Bishop Auckland foundry company, to open a line to their opened up by the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway mine at Eston in 1851. The line was leased and run by the with their line from Picton, on the Yarm line, through to Grosmont on the Whitby - Pickering line. This was S&DR until absorbed by the latter in 1858.

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completed as far as Battersby in 1858 with a branch opened through to moorland mines in the Rosedale area following in 1861 and 1865. The line to Grosmont opened in stages between 1861 and 1865 and in 1864 a link from Battersby to Nunthorpe on the M&GR was opened by the North Eastern Railway (NER) which had been formed by a series of amalgamations in 1854.

moorland vistas, this bounty came at an exorbitant price of around £42,000 per mile given the numerous severe gradients, tunnels and viaducts that were required. Inland deviations of the original route, forced by safety concerns posed by the line’s original proximity to cliff edges, plus the NER needing to make good sub-standard workmanship, also added considerably to the final bill.

All the independent railway companies mentioned in this introduction became part of the NER at various dates with the S&DR becoming part of an enlarged NER from July 1863. However, due to a clause in the Amalgamation Act, the company was managed as the independent ‘Darlington Section’ until 1876, when its lines became the NER’s Central Division. Whitby had seen its first railway in May 1836 with the opening of the horse-powered Whitby and Pickering Railway which was rebuilt as a double track conventional steam-worked railway during 1846/7.

With the opening of the Whitby - Loftus section the map of the passenger carrying lines was completed and largely left undisturbed until the 1950s when closures started to bite even before the dreaded ‘Beeching Reshaping’ exercise of 1963.

The purpose of this book is to take a traveller along the sampled lines with images taken largely from the BR ‘steam’ period but also with a sprinkling of pre-1948 shots plus a few from the early ‘modern image’ era for added flavour. Hopefully the choice of images covering Teesside, Bridging the 16½ mile gap between Whitby and Loftus was seaside, vale, and dale will reflect the rich and diverse the aim of the independent Whitby, Redcar, and trackside sights which the area had to offer before being Middlesbrough Union Railway (WR&MUR) which had swept away by closures and the dead hand of latter-day received an Act to build the line in 1866. However, once ‘modernisation’. Not covered by the book is the tangled construction was started, the company soon found itself in skein of numerous private industrial and goods only lines financial difficulties due to the considerable topological which were scattered throughout the area. These easily challenges posed by the route and was obliged to approach deserve the attention of a separate illustrative work. the NER for assistance. This it agreed to offer in 1875 (at a price!) but it was not until December 1883 that the single With thanks to members of the North Eastern Railway line was opened for traffic.

Association (NERA) and in particular Nick Fleetwood for On completion, although the route was arguably the most signalling information. scenic in the north-east of England with its succession of spectacular views of the sea, deep coastal ravines and 2

Sources consulted: BRDatabase website.

Forgotten Railways: North-East England. Ken Hoole. Ian Allan. 1984.

North Eastern Locomotive Sheds. Ken Hoole. David & Charles. 1972.

The Railway & Canal Historical Society.

RCTS Locomotives of the LNER. Various editions.

The King’s England. Yorkshire North Riding. Arthur Mee. Hodder & Stoughton. 1943.

The North Eastern Railway. Cecil J. Allen. Ian Allan. 1964.

Various archive periodicals e.g. British Railways Illustrated, Steam Days, etc.

The 6 Bells Junction website.

Disused Stations website.

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Darlington Up express headed by A3 Pacific No. 60083 Sir Hugo of Heaton shed has just passed Parkgate Junction and approaches Darlington Bank Top station with an express from the north in 1959. Seen from the footbridge connecting Albert Street to Park Lane the train is leaving the Up Fast line, crossing the Down Fast Independent line and about to pull into Platform No.1. In the middle distance is the 150-lever Darlington North Signal Box which sits opposite the loco depot hidden in the murk on the right. Over to the left J72 0-6-0T No. 69021 is occupied with station pilot duties while dominating the scene are the hyperboloid reinforced concrete cooling towers of the power station which were erected in 1940 and continued in use until the plant closed in October 1976. Demolition of the towers took place on 28 January 1979. The A3 was withdrawn from Gateshead shed during May 1964 and the J72, which had arrived brand new to Darlington shed in April 1951, remained until moved to West Hartlepool shed in August 1961 where it was condemned at the end of September 1963.

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The forty-five NER Raven 3-cylinder Class H1 4-4-4T’s dating from 1913-22 were the basis for their subsequent rebuilding by the LNER as 4-6-2T Class A8 locos between 1933 – 36 thus becoming in the process hugely popular and widely used steeds on the more heavily graded lines of North Yorkshire. No. 69859, seen on pilot duties at the south end of Bank Top station in 1954 when based at either Middlesbrough or Saltburn sheds, was delivered new to Saltburn in December 1913 and was rebuilt as an A8 during March 1936. Before withdrawal in February 1960 from Sunderland shed she had gravitated between Hull Botanic Gardens, Middlesbrough, Stockton and Saltburn sheds before losing ground in the mid-1950’s to the tide of DMU’s. To the right is Bank Top goods yard.

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Seen after arrival on 19 April 1955 at Bank Top’s Platform 3 with a local passenger working, L1 2-6-4T No. 67750 was one of three delivered new to Darlington shed from the North British Works, Glasgow in late 1948, the other two being No’s 67742/59. Along with other examples of the class, No. 67750 was used regularly on local services to Richmond and Saltburn during the 1950’s. Displaced by DMU’s, it was moved on very briefly to Low Moor shed and then to Gorton during December 1961 where it was condemned at the end of the month after a tragically short innings of 13 years. On display above the buffer stops to the right is Stephenson’s 0-4-0 Locomotion No. 1 which hauled the very first S&DR train on 27 September 1825 and to the left Hackworth’s 0-6-0 Derwent dating from 1845. Locomotion No. 1 ran until 1850 and on 4 June 1846 had the distinction of hauling the first train on the Middlesbrough and Redcar Railway. Derwent ran until 1868 when it was sold on to Pease & Partners for use on their colliery lines near Crook.

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In an unusual and possibly unique shot of the north end of Bank Top station taken on 2 August 1957, the photographer has walked from Darlington loco shed to the bridge over Parkgate and captured Darlington’s J21 0-6-0 No. 65064 ambling past carrying Class K lamps for a pick-up or short haul duty. The loco was a veteran from October 1895 and one of an outstanding Worsdell class totalling 201 built between 1886 – 1895. It had arrived from Northallerton shed in March 1955 and remained on the Darlington books for local trip and shunting work until withdrawn in September 1958. Towards the end of its life the loco was known to have worked the Derwent Valley Light Railway. Prominent in this view is the footbridge spanning the full width of the tracks and offering generations of loco spotters a grandstand view of events unfolding below. Behind the footbridge are the three semi-circular spans of the overall station roof dating to 1885-6 with each having a 60ft width and a 1,015ft length plus the 80ft clock tower erected at the same time over the station main entrance in Victoria Road. The station was the third on the site; its predecessors dating back to 1841 and 1860. Rounthwaite

In BR days Darlington Bank Top shed headed up ‘District 51’ which comprised ten parent and four sub-sheds located throughout South Durham and North Yorkshire. The original shed building dating back to the 1850s was replaced during 1939/40 by a 7-road double-ended structure and the 60ft turntable replaced with a vacuum-operated 70ft version capable of turning Pacifics. An 18-stall roundhouse built in 1865 was refitted with a 45ft manual turntable at the same time as the 1939 reconstruction work and, despite its continued ramshackle condition, continued to accommodate shunting locos until the shed closed on 27 March 1966. On 29 June 1947 at the south end of the shed B2 4-6-0 No. 1607 Blickling from the Great Eastern section is a rare sight and is buffered up to Heaton’s A3 Pacific No. 69 Sceptre.

Both carry their 1946 numbers and would shortly become BR Nos. 61607 and 60069 respectively. Interestingly, the B2 had been reclassified from B17/1 as a result of its previous month’s rebuild at Darlington to a 2-cylinder loco with a higher boiler pressure of 225lbs.

The continued presence of the loco is explained by the likelihood that it was still running-in prior to being returned home. In the event this proved not to be Stratford, as painted on the buffer beam, but Colchester shed. The loco was named after the Norfolk Jacobean hall and estate of the Marquess of Lothian.

In the shed yard looking north during May 1961, a freshly outshopped trio consisting of Wakefield’s WD 2-8-0 No. 90112 (proving that the type could look very impressive prior to donning their customary workaday grime), York’s V2 2-6-2 No. 60941 and an unknown Q6 0-8-0 await running-in and repatriation to their home sheds. Looming over the line up is the distinctive coaling plant which had been erected as part of the extensive 1939/40 rebuilding project. The structure remained a unique feature until the design was repeated with the new shed establishment at Thornaby. The method used to drop the coal into loco tenders employed a fillable cradle supported by a travelling crane operated from the wooden hut at the top of the contraption.

Release of the coal from the cradle-filled bunkers and thence to the loco tenders beneath followed a controlled and gentler descent of the soft North East loco coal thus reducing the level of breakages and crumbled dust en route. Barry Richardson

Light and shade atmospherics within the 7-road straight shed interior in August 1962 with immaculate ex-NER Raven Q6 0-8-0 No. 63409 providing the loco interest. The Q6, a Darlington-built 1919 example of a class of 120 which appeared between 1913 and 1921, had recently been outshopped from her last major works visit having received a replacement 50A boiler during the overhaul. Although carrying a Thornaby shed (51L) shedplate where she had been based since June 1958, the following month a move to Tyne Dock shed (52H) occurred where the veteran continued to put in sterling work including assisting and banking 9F 2-10-0’s on the Consett iron ore trains.

Withdrawal came in September 1966 followed by a trip to the scrap dealer Draper’s of Hull who completed the dismemberment during December 1966. Barry Richardson

The ancient roundhouse at Darlington, seen here in May 1961, was authorised during 1864 and erected the following year for £6,000.

Throughout the subsequent decades it provided stabling for the smaller denizens of the shed’s allocation and despite its increasing dilapidated state (there were complaints about this as early as 1882!), continued to defy demolition courtesy of piecemeal repairs to see in its centenary in 1965. It survived miraculously for another year until finally succumbing with the closure of the shed. Clustered around the 45ft turntable and exposed to the elements is a trio of J72 0-6-0T’s - No’s 68744, 69017 and 69022 which, until displaced by J94 0-6-0’s and then 204hp diesel shunters in 1961/2, formed part of a small bevy of shed and station pilots. The roof, considered unsafe in 1939 but patched up, now exhibits a method of smoke extraction being no more than sections of corrugated iron sheeting installed with strategically-placed gaps. Presumably the ‘smoke funnels’ requested in 1882 had long fallen victim to time and smoke damage and had never been replaced. Barry Richardson

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Contrary to what one might expect, Darlington shed had few north and south diagrams along the ECML, with most being concentrated to the east and west. Consequently, a visitor expecting lines of gleaming Pacifics rostered for main line duties would have been disappointed.

However, there was some compensation to be had in that the shed was usually host to spotless Pacifics and other locos out-shopped from the works or about to enter it and those visiting from other sheds. Darlington also had to provide a pair of larger locos to cover northbound and southbound failures on the main line; this requirement dating back to May 1928 with the inauguration of the non-stop ‘Flying Scotsman’ express. From around 1948 this duty had been relinquished by two C7 Atlantics (No’s 2978/81) and invariably fallen to a pair of A3 Pacifics – usually those fresh from a Darlington or Doncaster works visit and subsequently rotated with other members of the class on a regular basis – usually over a six month period. A3 No. 60045 Lemberg had fulfilled this duty on four occasions during the 1950’s/early ‘62’s and is stationed at the usual ‘in readiness’ spot by the turntable at the south end of the shed. The photograph was taken probably during her fifth and last stint which, along with sister No. 60036 Colombo, lasted from December 1963 until November 1964 when both locos were withdrawn. The vacuumoperated turntable was of the modern ‘Mundt’ type built by Cowans Sheldon of Carlisle.

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As is well known, Darlington Railway Works was first established by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1863 with a workforce of 150, during the following year had produced its first loco and thereafter grew exponentially, so much so that by 1927 it was the town’s largest employer. BR’s workshop rationalisation policy in 1962 ushered in a decline in activities which saw 1965 as the last full year of operations followed by its closure on 2 April 1966. In happier days, during August 1955, a visitor recorded over fifty locos receiving or about to receive attention at various locations around the works including J25 0-6-0 No. 65687 of York shed, which appears to be undergoing a major overhaul and gradually assuming a typical Darlington Works finish that was customarily extended to even a humble 0-6-0 with over half a century’s work under its belt. After its release back to York the loco commenced a nomadic existence which took it to Whitby, Heaton, Blaydon, Gateshead, and North Blyth sheds before it was withdrawn from the latter during August 1959 having completed a career lasting almost sixty years since it was built at Darlington during December 1899. Rounthwaite

In September 1965, the last ex-NER Q6 0-8-0 to be overhauled at Darlington, No. 63395 of Sunderland South Dock shed, is seen at an advanced stage of a ‘Heavy Intermediate’ overhaul prior to being re-assembled and released. Built at Darlington during December 1918, she had entered the Works on 12 August and the overhaul (including a replacement 50A boiler) was finished by 25 September when she was seen in the yard ready for her return to Sunderland. Along with sister No. 63387 of Hartlepool shed, she was the last Q6 in service and after withdrawal on 9 September 1967 was moved to Tyne Dock shed pending the outcome of the purchase appeal from the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group (NELPG). This was completed on 1 April 1968. Following restoration work carried out at Thornaby during 1969 she was successfully steamed and fitted with vacuum brake and steam heating. On 25 June 1970 she travelled under her own power from Thornaby to Grosmont on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway where she is resident to this day.

The Riddles BR 9F 2-10-0 ‘Spaceships’ were only ever based at two North Eastern Region sheds – Tyne Dock from 1955 and York from 1963. Tyne Dock’s No. 92061 had passed through the Works during June and July 1962 with sisters and shedmates No’s. 92062/98 and was photographed in the yard during late August, shortly before being released home. New to traffic during November 1955, the locos were part of a small sub class of ten modified with a pair of Westinghouse air pumps for the haulage of iron ore trains from Tyne Dock to Consett. Both spent all their very short careers at Tyne Dock shed with No. 92061 succumbing in early September 1966. Although normally confined to their North-East territory, it wasn’t unknown for them to be seen way off their usual patch (as with No. 92064 seen by the author at Reading GWR shed over the Christmas 1964 period having brought in a parcels service from the north). Earlier in the month it had been at Crewe Works for attention which probably explains its appearance so far south having been ‘borrowed’ to cover services over the busy period. Barry Richardson

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An interesting occupant of the Works was No. 1699, built in 1906 and the sole survivor of the 40-strong NER Worsdell Class S (LNER Class B13) 4-6-0’s built between 1899 – 1909 which were the first passenger locos of that wheel arrangement in Britain. The last three members of the class had been withdrawn as long ago as October 1938, but on withdrawal during September 1934 as LNER No. 761 she was moved to Service stock to replace another of the class (No. 756) for counter pressure work for road testing other locos. She is seen probably within the Paint Shop premises sometime after October 1946 when renumbered to 1699 under the LNER Thompson scheme. The class had been built specifically to reduce the all too prevalent double-heading between Newcastle and Edinburgh, however, on express duties their performance proved disappointing and even before the Grouping were outshone by Class ‘R’ 4-4-0’s and ‘V’ Atlantics and demoted to secondary work.

Whilst at Darlington No. 761 continued a solitary existence until after Nationalisation when she was moved on 16 July 1948 to the Rugby Testing Plant where she did little or no work. By all accounts, the Rugby staff treated her as something of a museum piece and kept her remarkably clean until finally withdrawn in May 1951. During the same month she was sent on her final journey to the ‘Melts’ at Crewe Works.

All good things must come to an end as indeed they almost have for J77 0-6-0T No. 68391 seen in the scrapyard on 2 August 1957. The verdant backdrop hardly compensates for the summary feats of destruction which occurred at this location over the years and the J77, latterly of West Auckland shed, had only been withdrawn four weeks previously and has already reached an advanced stage of dismemberment. The loco entered traffic as far back as August 1874, built by Neilson & Co. as an NER Fletcher ‘BTP’ 0-4-4 bogie well tank for passenger duties but was rebuilt at Darlington during September 1908 as a Class 290 0-6-0T for shunting. As a testament to Fletcher’s rugged and dependable BTP design a total of 60 of the type were rebuilt prior to 1923 to form the ‘290’ Class which became LNER Class J77. With a service life just shy of 83 years No. 68391 could claim a remarkable record of 34 years as a passenger loco and almost 50 on shunting duties. The last survivor of the class was No. 68408 (old NER No. 1438 dating from November 1875) which was withdrawn from South Blyth shed in February 1961.

Rounthwaite

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Fighting Cocks Moving east from Darlington, the 1825 route of the S&DR passed through the Middleton St. George and Low Dinsdale areas which were once served by ‘Middleton and Dinsdale’ station opened during the 1830s. From 1866 the station was renamed ‘Fighting Cocks’, taking its name from the family emblem of the Cocks family whose descendants had owned much of the area for centuries. Closure to passengers occurred from 1 July 1887 in conjunction with the opening of the parallel route to the south which enabled direct access to Bank Top station as well as North Road. The line through Fighting Cocks remained open as a through route from Oaktree Junction with goods traffic continuing to serve the station until 1964 but complete closure occurred with the severing of the western end of the section as from 21 May 1967. A stub from Oaktree Junction as far as Fighting Cocks survived until c.1970.

Today, the trackbed is a popular path for walking and cycling into Darlington and has been resurfaced as part of Route 14 of the National Cycle Network to South Shields. Additionally, the 2016 Historic Environment Audit identified Fighting Cocks and the immediate area having significant heritage value - something which has gained even more focus given the imminence of the 2025 S&DR Bicentennial.

In happier days during the 1950s (when the line was known as the ‘Fighting Cocks’ branch), A8 4-6-2T No. 69855 approaches the level crossing over the Roman road to Killinghall and Dinsdale station with a service from Darlington to Saltburn. The 19-lever signal box dated from 1886 or earlier and closed also on 21 May 1967. Narrowing down the date of the photograph slightly, the A8 was based at Saltburn from August 1951 until September 1957 when it moved to Sunderland where, after a lengthy period in store, withdrawal occurred during January 1960. Until the mid-1950s there were various iron and scrap works to the north and south of the station, each accessed from the line. The largest was the Middleton Iron Works to the south established in 1864 by local bigwig and entrepreneur Squire Henry Cocks of Low Middleton Hall.

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Eaglescliffe Taken from the Witham Road overbridge, WD 2-8-0 No. 90517 of Thornaby shed clumps northwards through the generous layout of Eaglescliffe with a long rake of single bolster ‘empties’ on 25 March 1961. The S&DR were first on the scene here, but in 1852 the Leeds Northern Railway (LNR) built their Stockton – Northallerton line in parallel, but slightly to the west alongside the Yarm to Stockton road.

In 1853 a joint station was built with an island platform between each company’s tracks and named ‘Preston Junction’. At the same time the original route of the S&DR was dispensed with, lifted, and moved over the Yarm road and alongside the LNR. In 1878 the station name was changed to ‘Eaglescliffe Junction’ but was supposed to have been ‘Egglescliffe’ reflecting the name of the village to the south-east.

Allegedly, due to a misspelling of the instruction to the signwriter, it was produced as ‘Eaglescliffe’.

Another variation was that the correctly spelt sign arrived but was changed by the signwriter who believed it to be wrong. In the event the new name stuck and was adopted. The station was remodelled and resignalled in 1894 when ‘North’ Signal Box (seen in the photograph) was built and opened on 24 June 1894 with two frames containing 49 and 35 levers respectively (reduced to around 70 in the 1960s). The ‘box was closed and demolished during February 1969 with control passing to Bowesfield Junction. At the same time ‘South’ ‘box was also closed and demolished.

The station lost two of its four platforms during the late 1960s and the layout subsequently extensively ‘remodelled’ but remained open for passenger business. It was upgraded in the 2010s when it received a new ticket office and waiting room plus an improved access from the car park to the island platform. Services include local trains to Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Saltburn plus main line trains to Kings Cross via York and north to Sunderland and Newcastle.

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Riddles BR Class 3MT 2-6-0 No. 77012 had been based at West Auckland shed for less than four months when this late afternoon shot was taken of her at the south end of Eaglescliffe on 4 May 1955 with a stopping service to either Darlington or Northallerton. Completed at Swindon during June 1954, she was first allocated to Darlington until January 1955 before moving to West Auckland where she remained until transferred to Whitby, becoming a familiar sight there until December 1958. Afterwards she moved to York until September 1963, becoming something of a nomad thereafter with successive periods at Leeds, Bradford, Hull, Goole and Blyth sheds before returning to York in April 1966 where she was withdrawn on 12 June 1967.

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Hartburn to Stockton From Eaglescliffe on the 1852 LNR Stockton/Billingham extension from Northallerton, the line passes the long-closed junction of the Hartburn West curve on the left, Eaglescliffe Iron Works on the right to reach Hartburn Junction where a connection curves off to meet the Thornaby and Middlesbrough line at Bowesfield Junction. During the 1950s 9F 2-10-0 No. 92061 from Tyne Dock shed heads south from Stockton and at Hartburn Junction takes the Bowesfield curve towards Thornaby with a short Class F mineral train. On the right the houses of The Groves have a grandstand view of railway operations as indeed they still have today. Helping to date the photo slightly, the loco is carrying a ‘54B’ plate which was the Tyne Dock code until September 1958 when it changed to ‘52H’ . Apart from the first four months of its career based at Wellingborough, the loco spent all of its short working life of 10¾ years at Tyne Dock until withdrawn during September 1966.

Although the 1825 Teesside wharf terminus of the S&DR on Bridge Road was the first passenger station in Stockton, it was the LNR which opened the first bespoke passenger station amidst the fields and trees at the west side of the town on 2 June 1852 as part of their extension from Northallerton. In 1892/3 the NER rebuilt the station on the same site, renamed it from ‘North Stockton’ to ‘Stockton-on-Tees’, and added the magnificent overall roof. The photograph was taken from the favoured vantage point of the footbridge off Mill Street on 12 December 1955 and sees Peppercorn A2 Pacific No. 60538 Velocity (named after the winner of the 1906 and 1907 Doncaster Gold Cup) from Gateshead shed departing for the south with a 6-coach express.

Built in June 1948 as the penultimate member of the class, she spent most of her career based at Gateshead shed. After her last visit to Doncaster Works during October 1961 she was transferred from Heaton shed to Tweedmouth and used mainly from there as a standby loco in case of failures on the East Coast route. After a two-month period in store, withdrawal from Tweedmouth occurred on 12 November 1962 and she was cut up at Doncaster during the following March.

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Seen from the same vantage point as the previous photograph, on 13 September 1960 Q6 0-8-0 No. 63399 from Thornaby shed eases past the station with a Class J minerals train probably bound for the Middlesbrough line. In an act of legalised BR vandalism in 1979 the overall roof of the station was removed - allegedly because it was no longer economical to repair. At around the same time the layout through the station was rationalised and the platforms reduced to just two. More recent staffing cuts have reduced the station to an unmanned status. A small compensation occurred in 1989 with a Grade II listing for the main station building although this is no longer in railway use. To the left and beyond the station are the extensive sidings laid over the sites of the first loco shed, West Stockton, and Westbourne iron works running further on to North Shore Junction. Night shift workers living in the long since demolished houses on the west side of Stamp Street, the backs of which are seen on the right, must have struggled to get enough sleep being within feet of the busy tracks! The Q6 was moved to Tyne Dock shed during December 1962 and was withdrawn from there on 16 March 1964.

At the north end of the station on 13 September 1960, V3 2-6-2T No. 67687 from Gateshead shed prepares for departure with a Class C parcels service – a regular duty for the class at this time. The loco was one of a later batch of six built at Doncaster during late 1939 and one of five exchanged in December 1962 with five Scottish Region locos of the same class transferred to Heaton shed. However, the move north proved to be no more than a paper transfer for accountancy purposes as all five (the other four being 67657/85/8/9) were promptly withdrawn the same month and after being dumped at Blaydon were despatched to Darlington for scrapping early in 1963.

The ex-Scottish transferees fared somewhat better and enjoyed lengthier lives with four surviving at Gateshead until November 1964.

Stockton shed’s antecedents belong not to the S&DR but again to the LNR which from the mid-1850s had erected the first of three successively larger establishments opposite the station. With the station rebuilding of 1893 a new site was required and in 1889 this was selected to the north and opposite the North Shore Junction.

During 1891 a nicely proportioned, brick-built, gable-ended 8-road ‘straight’ shed was completed with a fitting shop, a coal stage on one side of the yard and the turntable placed (as was the NER fashion) inconveniently on the other – all for a total cost of £13,284. On 15 March 1959 (and just after 4.30pm according to the splendid shed clock!) the shed yard contained the usual assortment of incumbents including B1 4-6-0 No. 61220 and K1 2-6-0 No. 62001. At this date the shed only had three months to go before closing on 13 June with its stock of thirty-one locos dispersed – most to the widening embrace of the new shed at Thornaby. The B1 had been at Stockton since delivered new during August 1947 and, on closure of the shed, was moved to Thornaby with the K1 until separated during 1963 – the B1 going to West Hartlepool and the K1 to Darlington.

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Despite its size and occasional visits from Pacifics and V2s, in its final decade Stockton was something of a backwater – a reputation not helped by its relatively early closure date. That said, its responsibilities during WW2 received a boost with the reopening of Stockton marshalling yard (this had closed in 1930) and the need to deal with increased freight traffic. In 1947 the shed had more locos on its books than in 1923 and by 1954 no less than eleven B1 4-6-0s were allocated to deal with fitted freight services to York and other locations. Other duties included local passenger services to the likes of Battersby, Guisborough, Whitby and Yarm and in 1939 the allocation included four Sentinel railcars, Alexander, Britannia, Hark Forward & Swift. At Stockton on 8 August 1948 a war-weary D20 4-4-0, No. 2390 dating from September 1907, had only a few months left to run before withdrawal at the end of the following November. One of its last duties was known to have been the 7.20am Stockton – Whitby and the 12noon return to Middlesbrough via Battersby.

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Thornaby

Once across to the eastern side of the River Tees, Thornaby station was reached and on 11 August 1956, J26 0-6-0 No. 65758 is heading a west-bound Class H mineral ‘empties’ train consisting of NER/LNER 20 ton ‘P7’ type hopper waggons. Dating from 1905, the loco was one of the fifty ‘P2’ class built a year or so before the more well-known ‘P3’ J27 design. No. 65758 was a long-term resident of Newport shed until withdrawal from Thornaby in January 1959. The photograph was taken the year before colour lights were installed for most of the layout here and also shows the new brick-built relay room installed at the end of the 1908 ‘East’ signal box which had 96 levers and which was closed in 1963. The J26 is on the Up Mineral line and the ‘off’ signal announces the imminent passage of a train on the Down Main. Beyond the train are foundry works on the southern side of the River Tees which has described a north to east loop on its way to the sea. Although on the original S&DR extension to Port Darlington, the station was not opened until 1 October 1882 and named ‘South Stockton’ until November 1892 when it was renamed ’Thornaby’. The station once boasted a wealth of Victorian architectural features and also a carefully tended array of raised herbaceous flower beds partly seen to the right of the photograph. In an act of ‘institutionalised vandalism’ all this was swept away during 1981/2.

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A 1953 BTC Report approved a new loco depot for the area and by 1955 a 70 acre site to the east of Thornaby station on the north side of the main line and adjacent to the Newport marshalling yard was selected, levelled and a start made on other infrastructure such as the realignment of the main running lines and vehicular access roads. By November 1956 steelwork for the new 22-stall roundhouse with a 70ft turntable was almost complete and construction started on the mechanical coaling plant and 70ft water tower. On completion the project had cost around £1.25m and comprised the concrete-built shed inclusive of the roundhouse, a 265ft long 6-road straight shed, a 5-road repair shop of similar length with a machine bay, wheel dropping and weighing facilities plus an amenity block, offices, and a wealth of other facilities such as a separate 4-road covered inspection facility and a floodlit yard. The layout of the shed allowed for efficient movement through the sequence of loco preparation and disposal with a minimum of delay. The shed opened on 1 June 1958 as ‘51L’ in conjunction with the closure of Newport (51B) and Middlesbrough (51D) sheds when most of their combined allocation of 147 locos was absorbed. A similar operation took place on 13 June 1959 with the closure of Stockton (51E) and Haverton Hill (51G) sheds thus making Thornaby the only working Teesside shed. During the late 1950s, a bevy of ex-NER 0-6-0s headed by ex-Haverton Hill J27 0-6-0 No. 65790 is gathered outside the covered inspection and preparation shed.

On 6 September 1959, a quartet of Thornaby’s dozen or so extremely useful J72 0-6-0Ts for its many pilot and shunting duties is lined up by the side of the shed’s inspection and preparation shed with No. 69006 heading classmates Nos. 69019, 68729 and 68721. The loco was one of 28 of the class constructed by BR from 1949-51 - twenty-four years after the last batch of ten had been built at Doncaster and fifty-three years after the first had appeared in 1898! The new additions (Nos. 69001-28) were one ton heavier than their predecessors and incorporated updated modifications to their sanding gear, buffers and drawgear. The last eight were also built with vacuum ejectors. No.69006 was delivered new from Darlington Works to Middlesbrough in November 1949 and remained until the shed closed in June 1958, thus becoming one of the migration to Thornaby.

She finally moved to Darlington in March 1962 and was withdrawn in December 1963.

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In the late 1950s, a ‘Not To Be Moved’ J26 0-6-0, No. 65755, stands in the repair shop awaiting attention, with a ‘WD’ 2-8-0 at the rear. With the opening of Thornaby the loco was moved from Newport shed where it had been based since probably 1943 when a wartime measure concentrating locos of one class at as few sheds as possible was carried out. At that time no fewer than 39 of the 50-strong class were based at Newport – an expedient which lasted until the closure of the shed. Built in May 1905, the loco was withdrawn in June 1962 at the same time as nine other surviving classmates, which rendered the class extinct. The durable construction of the shed building is apparent in the photograph – a feature which would continue to provide a safe haven for its occupants beyond the closure to steam in December 1964 (other than a continuing commitment to repair and rebuild preserved steam locos) until closure as a traction maintenance depot (TMD) in 2009.

In the early spring of 1962 Thornaby’s V2 2-6-2 No. 60946 stands in the roundhouse. Since entering service during May 1942 at York, the loco gravitated between spells at Darlington before moving to Thornaby in September 1959. After some notable occasions during the early 1960s when she deputised for failed diesels on Newcastle to Birmingham and Bristol trains as far as York, she moved to Gateshead during August 1964 as part of the autumn clear-out of steam stock at Thornaby. She was withdrawn from Gateshead during October 1965 and was one of just seven steam locos scrapped locally at Ellis Metals, Swalwell, Gateshead. Attempts to fully dieselise Thornaby during 1963 proved to be premature as there were insufficient Type 1 and 2 diesels to cover all the diagrams. It was not until 13 December 1964 when snowplough-fitted J27 0-6-0 No. 65859 left for Darlington that the exercise was complete, leaving Thornaby with no active steam allocation. Barry Richardson

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The paucity of good quality views of Newport shed is partly explained by its relatively early demise in June 1958, a somewhat inaccessible Teesside position within the large Newport marshalling yard and a humdrum allocation consisting almost entirely of freight locos. The shed’s first site dated from 1880 but suffered from subsidence and it wasn’t until 1890 that its final composition of two roundhouses under one roof was erected on a new site. Each roundhouse had twenty stalls but in 1901 the shed’s capacity was enhanced with additional sidings and during WW2 further capacity was added with a lightly constructed 3-road repair shop built adjacent to the eastern wall of the main shed. From the late 1920s/early 1930s the shed had suffered a history of dilapidation and neglect which was tragically emphasised on 25 January 1939 when part of the roundhouse roof collapsed resulting in the death of Mr Harry Allen, the foreman cleaner. In this atmospheric shot of the interior taken on 28 September 1957 a typical line-up is clustered around one of the turntables. Peering from the gloom are, from left to right, J26 0-6-0s Nos. 65770 and 65744, Q6 0-8-0 No. 63371, J26 No. 65740 and J94 0-6-0T No. 68011.

The WW2 1943 scheme to concentrate locos of one type at as few sheds as possible resulted in no fewer than 39 of the 50-strong Worsdell J26 0-6-0 class being based at Newport – a theme which continued into the 1950s. Seen in the shed yard on 28 September 1957, three of the class await their imminent duty departures – Nos. 65766, 65734 and one other unidentified member of the family. Newport’s WD 2-8-0 No. 90373 and one other of the class supply a backdrop to the trio. With Newport’s closure on 1 June 1958, 38 of the class were transferred to the new shed at Thornaby along with thirty WD 2-8-0s, eleven Q6 0-8-0s and five J94 0-6-0Ts. In June 1962 when the last ten J26 survivors were withdrawn after long and ably performed careers, eight were based at Thornaby with most of these being ex-Newport migrants.

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This very rare shot of woebegone D17/1 4-4-0 No. 1629 taken at Newport on 6 August 1944 reflects a period from February 1943 when the shed was most exceptionally allocated six ex-NER passenger locos - five D20 4-4-0s and a solitary Worsdell Class M1 built at Gateshead in June 1893 and now running as LNER Class D17/1. However, these locos were not allotted passenger duties but solely, and far more menially, intended to assist heavy southbound freight trains up the 1 in 170 Picton Bank between Yarm and Picton en route to Northallerton and beyond. With her glory days on the East Coast expresses long past, during 1942 No. 1629 had been employed on Scarborough passenger trains from Middlesbrough and ultimately proved to be the last of its ‘/1’ category when withdrawn from Newport during September 1945.

However, classmate No. 1621, withdrawn two months earlier, was of course preserved.

Although the S&DR reached Middlesbrough in 1830, it was not until December 1877 that the present station was opened, replacing an earlier structure on the site. Designed by the NER’s chief architect, William Peachey, the station boasted an ornate Gothic frontage and an impressive elliptically-shaped overall roof. The latter was severely damaged by the Luftwaffe during a daylight raid on 3 August 1942 and eventually removed piecemeal with the last skeletal remnants taken down during April 1954. Looking west on 3 August 1957, recently ex-works A5 4-6-2T No. 69819 from Lincoln shed has just arrived with a stopping service while Stockton’s B1 4-6-0 No. 61303 occupies the central road on pilot duties. The Middlesbrough and Saltburn-based A5 locos were regular performers on the coastal services during the 1950s although the Lincolnshire-based No. 69819 was not often seen in the area. Despite a new boiler being fitted during its June/July Darlington works visit, the loco was withdrawn from Lincoln on 3 March 1958.

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An unusual shot taken at the west end of Middlesbrough station on 3 August 1957 captures B16/1 4-6-0 No. 61478 of Starbeck shed as it approaches the Sussex Street level crossing with an express service possibly from the Harrogate area and heading for the coast. It passes a J26 or J27 0-6-0 on the Down goods line with train of empty ‘flat’ and ‘plate’ wagons. The Sussex Street crossing signal box dated back to at least 1874 and may have been an S&DR survivor. The box was equipped originally with 4 levers, replaced by 7 in 1912 and closed in 1966. Just in view to the left is Middlesbrough West; a 26-lever box dating from either 1874 or 1877 when it may have replaced an earlier structure. The lever frame seems to have been dated from 1906 when the whole area was resignalled. The box survived until November 2021 while the Bridge St. West properties on the right, including the Papyrus Works of Dick Bros., have long since been demolished as has the level crossing itself.

Against a smoky backdrop of dockyard cranes and shipping, J26 0-6-0 No. 65763 passes sturdily into Middlesbrough station from the east with a lengthy train of empty goods stock. New to traffic in June 1905, the loco and its classmates were fixtures within the Teesside railway scene until the last were withdrawn during June 1962. No. 65763 was a long-term Newport resident until moved to Thornaby in June 1958, remaining there until withdrawn during January 1962. At the platform end is Middlesbrough East signal box which was opened in 1877 and given a new 50-lever frame in 1905. In 1957 the frame was replaced by a Mackenzie & Holland No. 17 of 45 levers which saw it out until closure in November 1969. Also of note and just visible beyond the goods stock is an LMS 4MT 2-6-4T in charge of an Officer’s Inspection saloon which has been identified tentatively as the 1906 Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway No. 1 which is currently housed at Embsay, Yorkshire on the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway.

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Ken Hoole, in his seminal work North Eastern Locomotive Sheds, described Middlesbrough shed (51D) as: ‘…undoubtedly the most decrepit building to be taken over by British Railways from the North Eastern Area of the LNER’. Years of neglect had left the buildings in a sorry state, no doubt hastened by the polluted atmosphere of Teesside, and bomb damage had led to one of the roundhouses being demolished, leaving the engines to stand around the turntable in the open air. The three roundhouses off Blake Street dated from different periods between 1866-72 and all survived (miraculously!) in various states until the shed’s closure on 31 May 1958. Demolition followed during 1959/60. A typical 1950s cluster of 51D residents gathered under the notional shelter of a skeletal roof comprises (from left to right) push/pull fitted G5 0-4-4T No. 67281 (until September 1954 based at Guisborough shed for the branch services), Ivatt 4MT 2-6-0 No. 43073, V3 2-6-2T No. 67663, Q6 0-8-0 No. 63340 and V1 2-6-2T No. 67685. Helping to time frame the shot a little, the G5 was transferred away in September 1954 to Sunderland.

A similar all-51D grouping, but this time comprising locos all having NER antecedents, is seen on 19 June 1952. From left to right, nicely cleaned A8 4-6-2T No. 69854 (1913), lurking and just visible, J72 0-6-0T No. 68689 (1899), J77 0-6-0T No. 68409 (1877) and another J72, No. 68740 (1922). On closure 63 locos migrated to Thornaby including the two J72s seen here. The A8 had transferred to Sunderland during October 1957 and the J77 was moved on closure briefly to North Blyth shed before finishing her 82½ year career at Hull Dairycoates during November 1959. Doubtless the Middlesbrough staff welcomed their new working environment and must have been thankful to have left a threadbare and distinctly unsafe 51D to the demolition crews who probably made short work of the old place.

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Guisborough Junction, the Eston Branch, and onwards to Redcar

Photographs of Guisborough Junction are uncommon, particularly during the LNER-era and so, despite suffering the indignity of decapitated signal posts and arms, this shot dated 7 September 1947 is nevertheless a welcome pre-Nationalisation image. The junction was the location where the Guisborough and Battersby lines joined the Middlesbrough – Redcar main line and this photograph featuring westbound J26 0-6-0 No. 5757 looks north towards the jetties and dockside cranes of Middlesbrough Dock. Immediately behind the photographer were the three roundhouses of Middlesbrough shed.

The nicely cleaned J26 from Newport shed has charge of a rake of single bolster wagons loaded with lengths of steel with a match or ‘runner’ wagon interleaved between the loco tender and the first bogie. Many of the 50-strong class survived into the early 1960s but were rapidly replaced by the arrival of Type 2 diesels. In June 1958 No. 5757 (now BR No. 65757) had moved to Thornaby shed and survived until April 1962, a couple of months before the last ten of the class were condemned.

Amidst an industrial topography so typical of Teesside, on 25 May 1961 Thornaby’s Q6 0-8-0 No. 63426 plods away from Cargo Fleet station and heads east with a Down Class F mineral working consisting of a rake of 20/21 ton hopper wagons of LNER design. The loco moved from Thornaby to Leeds Neville Hill shed during December 1962, then briefly to Normanton in June 1966 before finally moving to Tyne Dock shed during October 1966 where she was withdrawn at the end of June 1967. At the time of withdrawal the loco was one of ten survivors of the class of 120 first introduced in 1913. A note on the negative refers to ‘Pease’s Works on the right’ which are assumed to be those where demolition is on-going – a process confirmed at this time by another photographic source. The signal box distantly seen on the left and dwarfed by the towering edifice above it would be Cargo Fleet (Junction) which also controlled the link to the Normanby branch. The ‘box opened between 1882-6 and closed during 1973. Rounthwaite

From ‘Normanby Jetty’ on the southern bank of the Tees, the Cleveland Railway built a line in 1861 running south to the Normanby and Ormesby iron ore mines. In 1865 the line was connected to the Middlesbrough – Redcar line at ‘Inner Junction’ to the east of Cargo Fleet. On 1 January 1902 a spur from the Normanby line at Flatts Lane Junction was opened by the NER through to a terminus in the village of Eston for freight and passenger services. At Flatts Lane, seen in this rare July 1949 shot, the line split in three directions – from right to left, a short spur to a coal depot at Normanby (by now out of use and out of sight), the Eston branch, and the line to the Normanby and Ormesby ironstone mines and brickworks. Until 1873 a continuation of the line from Ormesby ran through Eston Moor to Guisborough. Beyond the crossing gates the NER Central Division ‘C2b’ 22-lever signal box dated from 1901 and was probably operated as a ground frame after the Eston branch was closed to passengers after which the line and its portions were worked as ‘one engine in steam’ with points and gates hand-operated by the train crew. Rounthwaite

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In this May 1959 view of Eston terminus, although the passenger service ceased on 11 March 1929 (an early victim of bus competition), the station was still clinging on to a residual goods service – evidence of which is seen in the siding behind the station fencing. The location is also a playground haven for some of the local lads and would continue to be after the line closed completely as from 3 October 1966. Situated at the end of a short spur off the Normanby branch at Flatts Lane, the station boasted a couple of sidings and a run round loop, but was not the first railway connection to reach the village; this being the goods only line running down from the Middlesbrough line opened in 1851 to serve the Eston iron ore mines owned by Bolckow Vaughan & Co. Although the two branches terminated within a few hundred yards of each other in the village, there was no physical connection between them. The rural charm of the location is in stark contrast to the Teesside industrial behemoth lying barely two miles to the north. Transport Treasury

One can almost smell and taste the atmosphere of this 1950s shot of the South Bank location with its looming concrete, slag and tar works on the left and iron works on the right. Adding to the industrial haze is J26 0-6-0 No. 65730 which appears to be carrying the nickname ‘Sugar Puff’ on the smokebox door! The loco is probably one of many of the class domiciled at Newport shed before its closure in June 1958 and is heading a very short Class F Up freight towards Middlesbrough. The view is east towards Grangetown taken from the platform extremity of South Bank station. The signal box dated from 1882, was originally fitted with a 40 lever frame (extended in around 1915 to 80) and just made its centenary on closure in 1982. Our ‘Sugar Puff’ was one of the first batch of ten built at Darlington during June 1904, spending much of her career at Newport shed before moving to Thornaby in June 1958 where she was withdrawn during January 1959.

Redcar acquired its first station, a terminus, in June 1846 when the M&RR completed its line from Middlesbrough, but a new through station was required when the line was extended to Saltburn in 1861 by which time the S&DR had taken over in 1858. The new station boasted an impressive frontage and an overall roof but only had a single platform which remained an operational problem especially during the summer seasons until, belatedly, a second platform was added externally from the train shed by the LNER in 1935. The second platform is seen to the left of this shot taken from the footbridge by the level crossing as A8 4-6-2T No. 69891 from Saltburn shed prepares to leave with a Middlesbrough stopping service during the summer of 1953. The loco moved to Middlesbrough shed in September 1954 and on the closure of that shed in June 1958 moved to Thornaby with four other classmates but was withdrawn from there three months later.

A classic scene at the ‘Redcar Central Special Platform’ on Raceday, 10 June 1957. Looking east towards the main station, A8 4-6-2T No. 69894 marshals empty stock while an Ivatt 2-6-0 has backed on to the rear of a recent arrival at the platform ready for their removal to form stock for a later departure. The Racing Illustrated Magazine for 26 August 1896 described Redcar and its races thus : “it has of late years become quite an institution among the north country racegoers, who in visiting the little Yorkshire watering-place are able to unite the pleasures of their favourite sport with the relaxation of a seaside holiday.” The popularity of Redcar’s twin assets continued unabated and in 1920 the North-East Daily Gazette reported that no less than 200 trains of various kinds were dealt with in conjunction with race events that year and, according to the Darlington & Stockton Times, on Whit Monday 1936 there were an estimated 60,000 visitors to the town with half of this number visiting the racecourse, which was a short walk from the station, over the level crossing and a short distance further south. The station with its original train shed is now Grade II listed, but the train shed itself and its platform are no longer in use, having been replaced in the late 1980s with a new platform placed alongside it.

Looking west from ‘Black Bridge’, on Monday, 10 June 1957, V2 2-6-2 No. 60915, from faraway Woodford Halse shed, approaches Redcar with a lengthy race special possibly from the Leicester area. Just visible above the first carriage an Ivatt 2-6-0 lurks in the siding ready to move towards the ‘Special Platform’ for carriage stock duties. The first race meeting at the new course occurred on 9 August 1872 and before that meetings were held on the beach. For one of the latter held on 30 May 1863 the Newcastle Daily Chronicle reported that: “Yesterday, the annual races were held at the beautiful little marine watering place. From early morn, an unusual display of excitement broke the monotony of the quiet village, and train after train, and carriage wagon, and steamboat, brought hundreds of strangers to partake of the festivities provided for the day. The races were held on the sands, and as the weather was delightfully fine, the whole affair went off satisfactorily.” In 2022 the racecourse celebrated its 150th anniversary and looks set to enjoy many years yet. In 2018 it was named the ‘Best Small Racecourse’ in Scotland and the North by the Racegoers Club. The V2 left the Great Central section for good in September 1959 to become a Thornaby ‘local’ and finished its career at Darlington during December 1962.

You never knew what loco was going to turn up hauling special trains during the summer and on 21 May 1956 ‘Crab’ 2-6-0 No. 42730 from Agecroft shed (26B) provided a talking point, arriving with a special from the Manchester area. The class were popular steeds with crews for cross-country work and in particular acquired a strong reputation for powering excursion specials. Our Agecroft example remained in the Manchester area and was withdrawn from Stockport Edgeley shed during June 1965. Carriage stock also provided some surprises during the running of summer season specials with some interesting assortments brought out of hibernation and pressed into use. Ex-Hull & Barnsley Railway carriage stock were known to have been used during the 1956/7 seasons.

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On 10 June 1957 a 4-car DMU service strengthened by an additional 2-car unit headed by Derby ‘Yellow Diamond’ Lightweight Driving Motor 2nd No. E79154 passes Redcar Central Special Platform and approaches the main station with a well patronised special from Middlesbrough to Saltburn. These 1st Generation diesel units started operations from late 1955 initially on the Middlesbrough – Newcastle services based at South Gosforth and totalled seven sets comprising 28 vehicles. Despite teething troubles and failures needing steam replacements, the units were soon seen on other north- eastern services such as this one at Redcar. No. E79154 carries the by now standard warning ‘whiskers’ which had made their first appearance early in 1956 and the remainder of the unit originally comprised Nos. E79329 (TBSL), E79404 (TSL) and E79512 (DMC). As a class, apart from a few single units retained for departmental use, after withdrawal from normal service none survived beyond 1969 to acquire the BR ‘TOPS’ classification.

Saltburn to Whitby Saltburn station was opened by the S&DR on 17 August 1861 and was part of Henry Pease’s plan to develop the immediate area as a seaside resort to be enjoyed by folk from industrial Teesside and further afield. The station was originally laid out with four platforms with a generous siding allowance for the stabling of excursion stock. Very much the icing on the cake was the Zetland Hotel which was positioned immediately behind the station (just visible in the photograph) with its own siding extension to allow first class passengers direct access to their accommodation. The hotel, now Grade II listed (but no longer a hotel), was designed by William Peachey, the NER Chief Architect, and opened in 1863. On 21 August 1957 A5 4-6-2T No. 69841 waits to depart from Platform 2 with a stopping service to Middlesbrough and Darlington. The GCR Robinson-designed loco was the penultimate member of the last batch of thirteen built by the LNER in 1925/6 and had been based at Darlington for the Saltburn services since September 1954. It had been reboilered at Darlington during May 1957, but the increasing tide of DMU introduction saw it displaced and placed in store from June 1958 followed by withdrawal three months later.

On 3 June 1958, Neasden’s L1 2-6-4T No. 67796 was a long way from her Metropolitan and North London haunts and an unusual sight at Saltburn heading a Class C parcels train. The sparkling 8-year old looks to have received a thorough clean, suggesting possibly a very recent Works visit. If the latter it may been employed on a running-in turn or even ‘borrowed’ by Darlington shed to fulfil the Class C duty as part of getting the loco back to its home turf. In November the same year the loco left Neasden for Gorton where it replaced aging A5 4-6-2Ts on suburban services from Manchester London Road. By 1960 these had given way to DMUs and the loco remained in store until January 1961 when another move took her to New England shed.

The end came on 6 November 1962 at Grantham shed where she had been based since November 1961.

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The two-road shed at Saltburn was situated in the ‘V’ of the Whitby branch junction a short distance west of the terminus. The first shed dated back to 1864, was extended in 1877 to hold six locos but was badly damaged by fire in 1907, needing a complete roof replacement. The shed’s responsibilities through the years were largely concerned with passenger services to Darlington, Whitby, and Scarborough and from the 1920s the allocation became synonymous with various classes of the larger tank locos drafted in to fulfil these duties. From the late 1940s Class A8 4-6-2Ts plus A5 4-6-2Ts tended to predominate until the shed closed on 27 January 1958 as a result of the introduction of DMUs. However, the shed remained intact and continued as a stabling and water point for visiting locos from excursions and Redcar race traffic and this postclosure view of the shed yard sees V2 2-6-2 No. 60968 from York shed suitably accommodated having brought in one of these workings.

According to Ken Hoole the shed was demolished during 1960. Rounthwaite

Looking south, an unidentified Q6 0-8-0 arrives at Brotton with a pick-up freight on 24 October 1959. The line from Saltburn through to Loftus opened for freight as from 23 February 1865 but not for passengers until 1 April 1875. The main station building on the Down (Saltburn) platform consisted of a two-storey brick-built structure inclusive of staff accommodation, and a single storey waiting room with conveniences. Both wings had bay frontages separated by a distinctive seven-bay arcade fronting the platform. The building was designed by William Peachey and mirrored that given to Loftus station. A substantial goods yard with coal drops was located on the Down side of the line at the north end of the station and featured a Peachey-designed brick-built goods shed. The station closed to passengers as from 2 May 1960 but retained a goods service until the 1970s. Traffic from the Skinningrove steelworks continued through the former station and was supplemented from 1974 by potash trains from the Boulby mine to the south of Loftus. The main station building, albeit in a bricked-up state, survives as does the goods shed. Rounthwaite

Stepping back almost thirty years, at Brotton on 1 July 1931 Sentinel – Cammell 2-cylinder chain-driven Steam Railcar No. 265 Neptune prepares to leave for the south with a Down service to Guisborough via Boosbeck. The NE area received its first railcars from May 1927 but it wasn’t until June 1930 that the coastal route from Middlesbrough was included within their remit. No. 265 was built in May 1928 and initially allocated to Shildon before seeing service on the coast lines and moving on to Richmond in May 1933. In June 1936 it was based at Saltburn for the Middlesbrough/Guisborough services but by December 1941 was at Hartlepool where she last saw regular use before withdrawal in November 1945. Nicknamed ‘Chip Vans’ by enthusiasts because of their bright colours and smoking chimney at one end (but for entirely different reasons ‘Sweat Boxes’ by firemen), the units required different skills and constant attention to generate (at best) an acceptable performance and were never popular with their crews.

By April 1865 the Cleveland Railway had reached Carlin How near Skinningrove where in 1848 the first iron ore mine in the area had opened.

Later in the same year the NER had absorbed the Cleveland and by 1867 had extended the line as far as Loftus thereby opening up rail connections to other mining concerns. Over the next twenty or so years the industry burgeoned with many more mines opening in the region with Skinningrove particularly benefitting by its investment in iron smelting from 1874 and from 1911 a steel works. Both interests were served by connecting sidings with exchange facilities and, until it closed in 1921, Carlin How loco shed, a substantial stone-built three-road structure built adjacent to the junction of the same name. On 4 June 1960 Thornaby’s WD 2-8-0 No. 90435 is seen on the turntable near Carlin How Junction before returning to Teesside with another consignment of finished steel products. Skinningrove (originally named ‘Carlin How’ until 1903) had its own passenger station until it closed on 30 June 1952, although it did remain open for workmen’s trains until 5 May 1958, the same year as production ended at the mine. The rail connection from the steelworks remained open back to Saltburn but the track from Carlin How to Loftus was lifted and the bridge over the A174 removed to reduce the sharp bend on the road. With the establishment of the potash mine, the track was re-laid from Carlin How and a new bridge provided over the A174.

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In the mid-1950s A8 4-6-2T No. 69880 descends the 1 in 49 gradient from Grinkle and enters Loftus station with a westbound Middlesbrough service from Scarborough. Loftus opened for goods traffic from 27 May 1867 (named then as ‘Lofthouse’ but changed to its familiar form on 1 November 1874) thus enabling connections to Saltburn and Middlesbrough plus to Guisborough along the route of the former Cleveland Railway via Boosbeck. The station opened to passengers from 1 April 1875 as the terminus of the line from Saltburn, but became a through station when the Whitby section was opened on 3 December 1883. The ornate multi-arched brick-built station building on the south side of the line incorporated the stationmaster’s house whilst on the opposite platform there was an equally ornate brick waiting room and toilet. The goods yard, comprising three sidings and a substantial brick goods shed, was situated at the Saltburn end of the station on the north side of the line. The signal box dated from 1883 replacing an earlier structure and from 1896 was equipped with a 16-lever frame until replaced by a ground frame in 1961. After the station was closed to passengers on 2 May 1960, the line remained open for goods traffic until 12 August 1963 but was re-laid from Carlin How and through Grinkle Tunnel to serve the Boulby potash mine with a new bridge over the A174. Rail traffic over this section commenced on 11 April 1974. At much the same time most of the station was demolished, although the wing of the building containing the stationmaster’s accommodation was retained, eventually to become a private residence. The large brick-built goods shed is also still extant.

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Well before the opening of the Loftus – Whitby line on 3 December 1883 the construction quality of the various viaducts along the route as carried out by the WR&MUR’s original contractor, John Dickson, was less than satisfactory and potentially dangerous. These faults were largely undetected by the company’s Chief Engineer, J.H. Tolme, and not fully realised until the NER had taken over the line in 1875.

What was not in question, however, was the design of the viaducts which proved to be sound. T.E. Harrison, the NER’s Chief Engineer, had the unenviable task of remedying the defects – a project which was prolonged by the fall of the Tay Bridge in 1879 and the ensuing need to tighten safety requirements for new bridges and viaducts. In particular, two levels of lateral bracing were added to the Staithes viaduct, an anemometer fitted to warn the signalman of prejudicial high winds and train speed across the viaduct was limited to 20mph.

Looking south and inland from the footbridge over the Staithes Beck, this atmospheric mid-1950s photograph records A8 4-6-2T No. 69867 from Scarborough shed passing across the jaw-dropping 152ft high, 790ft long, 17-span viaduct with a Whitby-bound service and approaching the station. Of all the viaducts on the line Staithes was regarded as the piece de resistance until it became a memory with its demolition in 1960.

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An LNER Thompson L1 2-6-4T 67754 from Middlesbrough shed awaits departure from Staithes with a southbound 5-coach summer service.

The shot dates between June 1954 when the loco moved from Hull Botanic Gardens shed and June 1958 when a move to Thornaby occurred after closure of the Whitby line. The station opened on 3 December 1883 and was equipped with a signal box, three goods sidings serving a warehouse, coal drops plus a 2 ton capacity yard crane. On the left a camping coach of possible GER origin (probably the 10-compartment 3rd class type) is stabled on one of the goods yard roads. The facility was re-introduced by BR in 1952 after the LNER 1930s scheme was interrupted by the war. A 1938 LNER Guidebook priced a week at such locations at three guineas or around £280 in today’s money – an amount most likely to have been out of reach for a Middlesbrough steelworker or labourer wanting to treat his family to a much needed holiday. The small 16-lever signal box seen on the right dated from the opening of the line and remained unchanged until its closure in 1958. Like others on the line, the boxes were of a unique design and presumably were commissioned by the WR&MUR, not the NER. The station building survives as a domestic residence whilst the goods shed and the coal drops also survive.

Sandsend (or Deepgrove) Tunnel at 1,652 yards in length was the longest of the three on the 16 mile section between Whitby and Loftus and situated on a challenging gradient falling southwards from Kettleness at 1 in 57. Seen here after closure during July 1958 at the south portal, the tunnel was straight except for the last 350 yards at the northern end and today, even after more than sixty years of disuse, the interior is still intact, proof of its sound construction by the NER, although the north end portal has now collapsed. (During the 1950s BR had to undertake remedial repairs at the same spot due to the distortion of the portal stonework and the out-of-alignment tunnel mouth.) During the construction period two spoil tunnels were pushed out from the main bore of the tunnel to the cliff edge so that excavated material could be removed and dumped onto the shoreline below. The tunnels were said to have elicited no contrary references during the three 1883 inspections of the line carried out by the Board of Trade.

A short distance south of Sandsend was the small village and beach resort of East Row with its viaduct over the East Row Beck. Looking south, Middlesbrough’s Ivatt 4MT 2-6-0 No. 43074 eases over the viaduct with a service from Whitby. Below, the resort with its magnificent beach is doing good business including donkey rides and just visible behind the train are two camping coaches which were a regular summer season facility at this popular spot since the 1930s.

Due to the viaduct being so close to the sea (within 35ft at high tide!), by 1894 it was suffering from major corrosion and during the following year to all intents and purposes it was replaced at a cost to the NER of almost £2,700 or almost £½ million in today’s money.

Afterwards, like others on the line, it was regularly maintained, painted, and gave good service but nevertheless was one of the significant reasons given by BR of the uneconomic nature of the line contained in their closure proposal of September 1957.

Against the magnificent vista of the coast looking north towards Sandsend, A8 4-6-2T No. 69879 crosses Newholm Beck viaduct with a Whitby Town or Scarborough service from Middlesbrough on 18 August 1955. The 5-coach composition of the train was typical of a strengthened summer season train whereas outside of this period and with traffic understandably sparse, two carriages usually sufficed – an uncomfortable statistic when factored in to the heavy ongoing cost of maintaining the line - particularly its tunnels and viaducts. The A8 was one of the last of the class to be built in March 1922 and had been based at Scarborough since July 1951 but had not long to go before leaving the area at the end of September for Hull Botanic Gardens, where she was withdrawn during November 1958.

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Looking north-west at Whitby West Cliff station, Whitby-based BR 4MT 2-6-4T No. 80118 waits to leave either for the descent into Town station or further on to Scarborough with a stopping service from Middlesbrough. Opened by the WR&MUR on 3 December 1883, it was originally named just ‘West Cliff’ but with passengers not realising they had arrived in Whitby (albeit inconveniently at its outskirts) the prefix ‘Whitby’ was added. Passengers arriving from Teesside not having a ‘Town’ connection were obliged to use local taxis to convey them and their luggage into Whitby proper. The batch of Riddles 4MTs first introduced on the line from 1954 excelled over the challenging conditions of the route and remained firm favourites with crews until moved on to pastures new after closure of the northern section of the line from 3 May 1958.

West Cliff survived as the reversing location for trains between Whitby Town and Scarborough until 12 June 1961.

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Whitby’s first station was a single platform structure opened by the Whitby and Pickering Railway (W&PR) in 1836, but the far grander and expanded York and North Midland Railway (Y&NMR) building designed by George Andrews was opened slightly nearer to the town in June 1847. This boasted an imposing colonnaded frontage topped off with a ‘Euston Truss’ overall roof inspired by Charles Fox’s 1837 structure built for the London & Birmingham Railway’s London Euston terminus. Andrews also designed the Whitby goods shed and loco shed. The NER added two more platforms to cope with extra traffic generated by the openings of the Esk Valley line and the two coastal routes in the 1860s and 1880s. Until the savage cuts of the 1950s and 1960s Whitby (variously named ‘Town’ or plain ‘Whitby’ at different times) was a busy terminus but its appearance was drastically changed in 1953 when BR removed the overall roof and installed a utilitarian set of platform awnings – as seen in the photograph which sees A8 4-6-2T No. 69852 preparing to depart with a Middlesbrough stopping service along the coast. The photograph dates between October 1952 and September 1954 when the loco was based at Middlesbrough shed.

At around 7pm on 23 June 1957, ‘Hunt’ 4-4-0 No. 62731 Selkirkshire from York shed has charge of the RCTS ‘Yorkshire Coast Rail Tour’ which started and finished at Leeds City station. The route included a variety of coastal and inland locations and also employed three other locos over different legs of the itinerary. On departure from Whitby, the train headed for York via Pickering and Malton before the return to Leeds.

The loco finished at Selby shed where withdrawal occurred during April 1959. Seen on the right is the NER signal box which dated from new in 1884 with 21 levers, expanded to 30 from 1937. Its seemingly extreme height was necessary to ensure signalmen had an unobscured sight over the adjacent goods shed. The box closed in 1984 and was dismantled in 1991 for parts used in the reconstruction of Grosmont signal box on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

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The two-road Whitby shed had its origins with the Y&NMR in 1847 and was extended by the NER in 1868 to house a total of eight locos and, apart from extensive repairs during 1903, remained unchanged until closure on 6 April 1959. With the houses of Windsor Terrace forming the usual backdrop, in September 1938 long-term Whitby resident ex-NER G5 0-4-4T No. 1319 is seen in company with ex-Hull & Barnsley J23 0-6-0 No. 2460 in the shed yard. Since c.1930 the shed had three other members of the H&B class on its books which had been displaced from their former home turf and sent to Whitby to help out with the heavy summer traffic. However, the class became fixtures at the shed until 1938 when the photographer was lucky to have captured No. 2460 as it was withdrawn with classmate No. 2476 two months later, which rendered the class extinct. Their last duties included banking trains from Grosmont to Goathland. In 1938 Whitby had three G5s on its books including No. 1319 and this allocation had grown to five in 1947 but had dropped to two by 1954. No. 1319 dated from June 1901, became BR No. 67335 and was withdrawn from Whitby during August 1953.

A fine portrait of Worsdell 2-cylinder A6 4-6-0T No. 692 taken at Whitby shed on 1 September 1938. The loco was built at Gateshead Works during March 1908 and was one of the small class of ten 4-6-0Ts produced between December 1907 and April 1908. As NER ‘Class W’ they were the first six-coupled tank engines built for the company and specifically intended for work on the challenging Saltburn - Scarborough line. All were rebuilt and improved between 1914-17 with extended frames, a larger capacity tank, and a bunker holding 4 tons - all of which necessitated the addition of a pair of trailing wheels. During 1929 the class received vacuum ejectors and until the mid-1930s most of the class were still engaged on the work for which they had been built until scattered to other areas by the arrival of A8 4-6-2Ts. At the end of WW2 all bar one of the class (No. 694) were based at Starbeck to assist with the heavy freight traffic goods. No. 692 returned to Whitby from time to time, was superheated in July 1939 and the Westinghouse brake replaced by the steam brake in June 1944. While based at Hull Botanic Gardens shed she was renumbered as BR No. 69796 and remained there as the last survivor of the class employed on sundry duties around the area (including station carriage pilot at Paragon station) until withdrawn in March 1953.

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A short distance south of Whitby loco shed, Bog Hall Junction from 1883 was the point of divergence where the single line of the WR&MUR left the Pickering-Grosmont line to begin the sharp 1 in 50 ascent up to Whitby West Cliff station and further north along the coast route to Loftus.

On 27 June 1962 Malton-based Riddles 3MT 2-6-2T No. 82028 has made a vigorous start from Whitby Town station and passes Bog Hall signal box with a 3 coach stopping service to Pickering and Malton. The loco arrived new to Darlington in December 1954 and remained in the northeast until transferred to Guildford shed during September 1963, ultimately to finish at Nine Elms shed from September 1964 and employed on Waterloo empty stock workings until withdrawn in September 1966. The 33-lever Bog Hall signal box dated from 1910 and replaced an earlier structure further south until closed during August 1984. The box also controlled the goods lines serving Whitby Upper Harbour on the west bank of the River Esk.

Looking south along the timber walkway which followed the western bank of the River Esk at this point, J24 0-6-0 No. 5644 approaches Bog Hall Junction with a Class H short haul freight from the Pickering line in June 1951. The old timer entered traffic during October 1898 as NER No. 1960 and was the very last member of the 70-strong class to be built. At the time of the photograph she was based at Malton shed and was the last of the class to be based there, so the photographer was lucky to have recorded her last few months in action as withdrawal occurred from there during August 1951. Although allocated BR No. 65644, the number was never carried. To the right the single line connection commences its 1 in 50 climb up to Prospect Hill Junction and Whitby West Cliff station. Alec Ford

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Ruswarp to Battersby An unusual shot of B1 4-6-0 No. 61154 from Sheffield Darnall shed crossing the River Esk, having just left Ruswarp station to head south towards Grosmont with a Down stopping service from Whitby. Also creeping into shot on the right is the end of the bowstring road bridge over the river and in the far distance the magnificent (now Grade II listed) 120ft high, brick-built, 13 arch Larpool viaduct carrying the Scarborough line over the same river. The line through Ruswarp dated from 1835 when opened by the W&PR as a single tracked horse-drawn route between Whitby and Grosmont. It was converted to a double-track steam-hauled system by the Y&NMR who absorbed the W&PR in 1845. The B1 entered traffic in May 1947 at Gorton and subsequently spent the rest of its career at Darnall shed before withdrawal in September 1962. Helping to time frame the shot slightly, the shed code ‘39B’ denoting Darnall lasted only until May 1955 when the shed became ‘41A’.

‘Ruswarp’ was originally called ‘Risewarp’ (meaning ‘silted land overgrown with brushwood’ in Old English), and is the location of Ruswarp Hall, a fine Jacobean building dating from 1603 which once belonged to the Bushell family. One of the family scions (Browne Bushell) was a naval officer and a famously notorious turncoat between the Parliamentarian and Royalist sides during the Civil War. Later, his acts of treasonous piracy would eventually cost him his head in 1651. The hall is now a splendid hotel while the station survives and served by the Esk Valley Line.

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After 1½ miles, the next station south after Ruswarp was Sleights, seen here in August 1958 with Whitby-based LMS Fairburn 4MT 2-6-4 No. 42084 calling with an Up stopping service from Malton to Whitby.

Like Ruswarp, the station dated from 1835 as a simple W&PR halt and not acquiring the mock-Tudor main building, two platforms and a small goods yard until 1846. The modern bridge in the background carried the A169 across the railway and the River Esk and was built in 1936/7 after its predecessor had been washed away in floods. The name ‘Sleights’ derives from Old Norse meaning smooth or level fields – possibly a surprising choice given the hilly topology of the area! The Brighton-built loco entered traffic from February 1951 and spent most of the 1950s with classmates Nos. 42083/5 gravitating between Scarborough and Whitby sheds until transferred to Bradford Low Moor in April 1959. On 4 April 1959 (the last day of steam working between Whitby and Malton) it worked the 11.37am from Whitby and its 2.15pm return. The loco finished its career at Wigan Springs Branch during December 1964. The station remains open and served

by Esk Valley Line trains.

The junction at Grosmont seen on 1 October 1963 with the arrival of the monumental RCTS/SLS North East Rail Tour which had started on 27 September taking in a wealth of historic and scenic locations and hauled by seventeen different locos. Looking south towards the station, on the left B1 4-6-0 No. 61021 Reitbok from York shed has arrived from the Pickering line and will give way to B1 shedmate No. 61031 Reedbuck seen on the right which will then work the train to Middlesbrough and beyond via the Battersby and Nunthorpe route.

Perched upon its slender base is the site’s third and very distinctive NER signal box dating from 1904 which had replaced a similarly-built 25-lever structure from 1876. The enlarged replacement had a 50-lever Mackenzie & Holland No. 17 frame and after its closure on 22 October 1972 there was thought given by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to re-use the top gallery. This was subsequently lifted up in one piece and lowered to ground level. However, the idea was not progressed and it was later broken up. On the extreme right hand side of the shot are two camping coaches of NER vintage which were sited at the station between 1959 and 1964.

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With a wave from the Grosmont signalman, a smartly turned out 3-car Metropolitan – Cammell ‘whiskered’ Class 101 DMU enters the station with a service from Whitby in the late 1950s. The units were first introduced to the North Eastern Region in 1956/7 and eventually formed a large fleet of 760 individual vehicles which, with a refurbishment programme in the mid-1970s, resulted in many lasting into the 21st century.

The last units were withdrawn in 2003. The photograph was possibly taken after 6 May 1958 when a Whitby – Middlesbrough DMU service via Battersby was introduced as a consequence of the Whitby-Loftus line closure on 3 May.

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It would be difficult to imagine a more ‘green and pleasant land’ than this idyllic Esk Valley view of Glaisdale station looking south-east towards Limber Hill Wood in 1960. However, when the station was opened by the NER in October 1865 the area was a centre for iron ore and stone extraction. Close to the station and served by sidings were the Glaisdale Iron Works until these closed in 1875. The station itself had a short single siding goods yard on the southern side of the line and a longer double set on the north side running behind the signal box. The first signal box was opened c. 1876 with a 15 or 16 lever frame which was replaced in 1902 with a 30 lever frame. At more or less the same time the ‘box and its new lever frame were raised and moved back by about 12ft to allow for a platform extension. From 1933 until 1939 the station hosted a seasonal camping coach facility which from 1936 was increased to two units due to the area’s popularity. The station remains open for passengers travelling between Middlesbrough and Whitby but closed to goods in August 1965. The signal box closed in 1989 but survives, albeit now boarded up.

Rounthwaite

Two miles further west of Glaisdale is Lealholm station, situated in another green and pleasant corner of Eskdale. Like Glaisdale, the station was opened on 2 October 1865 by the NER as part of the Picton – Grosmont section originally proposed by the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway (NY&CR) and authorised in 1854. The station originally had two platforms, a passing loop with the main stone-built building featuring crow-stepped gable ends - a design much favoured by the NER in the 1860s and 1870s. A modest goods yard and shed and a coal depot were situated at the west end of the station on the north side of the line. The platform-mounted brick-built NER Type S1b signal box was opened in 1876 and contained a Mackenzie & Holland 12-lever frame which was worked as a ground frame from 1903. The ‘box remained unaltered throughout its life until it was closed in 1965 and subsequently demolished. This early 1960s harvest-time view looks north-west from the Eller Gates road bridge with the village out of sight to the left. Like Glaisdale, the station remains open for passengers but was closed to goods in August 1965. Henry Priestly

A post-steam era shot of the tiny Commondale station looking east on 1 August 1969 reveals little or no change since its official opening by the NER in c.1891. Two potential passengers (plus probably the photographer) wait to board one of the DMU services stopping here on the route of the former NY&CR between Middlesbrough and Whitby. Although this single line section between Battersby and Grosmont had been completed in stages from 1858 to 1865, this locality had to wait until the early 1880s when demand for a passenger service from the nearby Cleveland Fire Brick & Pottery Co. works, plus a corresponding increase of the local village population, prompted a pick-up and set- down point to be located at the junction of the siding which served the works. Subsequent passenger numbers over the next few years justified the creation of ‘Commondale Siding Station’ which was changed to ‘Commondale’ in around 1894. The NER 1910 timetable listed five weekday trains ( but no Sunday service) calling each way at the stations between Battersby and Whitby – a situation which has hardly changed today with four trains calling each way, including Sundays! Rounthwaite

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A busy scene at the remote outpost of Battersby looking north from the footbridge on 3 May 1958. A8 4-6-2T No. 69877 from Scarborough shed runs round the stock from a Whitby and Scarborough service which she had brought in earlier and once in position at the other end will return bunker first. Also performing similar logistics is Middlesbrough’s L1 2-6-4T No. 67764 with a Middlesbrough service via Nunthorpe. The station originated as ‘Ingleby Junction’ on the NY&CR extension of the Picton – Ingleby line through to Battersby and onwards in stages between 1858 and 1865 to Grosmont. As a junction it served the moorland mines in the Rosedale area, was renamed ‘Battersby Junction’ in 1878 to avoid confusion with Ingleby, and became a four way junction with three serving platforms when the NER link to Nunthorpe via Great Ayton was opened in 1864. Thirty railway cottages and two inspector’s houses were also built in 1877 thus creating a railway community. By 1922 there was an intensive passenger traffic averaging five trains on weekdays to and from Middlesbrough, Stockton, and Whitby. Despite the Esk Valley line now being the sole surviving line, the station is still served by six trains per day (with four on Sundays!) to Whitby and eight in the other direction towards Middlesbrough. Online Transport Archive

The magnificent NER C2b signal box at the north end of Battersby station dated from 1902 and was a new replacement for an earlier 26-lever box sited a short distance to the south. The new box exhibited all the design features of the type – a red brick base laid in ‘English Garden Wall’ bond with a timber superstructure, porch, and steps under a tiled gabled roof. The box was fitted with a Mackenzie & Holland 60-lever frame – an indication of how busy this location once was with simultaneous train arrivals, numerous iron ore standage sidings, an engine shed plus other sidings in addition to having a fairly complex junction arrangement. The lever frame was reduced to 36 in 1958 with the existing frame probably modified rather than replaced. During the 1980s the box, as with others on the Esk Valley line, had the distinction of being operated by signalwomen with two, Carol Shutt and Mary Bransby, sharing duties in 1986. The box closed as from 20 August 1989 in conjunction with the ‘No Signalman’ Key Token System introduced between Nunthorpe and Whitby. J. G. Smith

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The 3-road loco shed at Battersby opened in 1877 and subsequently followed a chequered career of closure a few years later, a re-opening in 1889 and final closure in 1895 due to the downward trend of the local iron ore traffic. Afterwards it was used to store condemned locos (in 1906 eight were said to have been housed there waiting for purchasers or to be sent away for scrapping) and in 1917 it accommodated six dining saloons (four East Coast Joint and two Great Northern & North Eastern Joint) laid up for the duration of the war. In the 1920s the building was used as a miniature rifle range and the tracks into it lifted. In WW2 it was used as a store but thereafter left empty. In this October 1963 shot this fine building was still remarkably intact and even included the doors (not surprising given that the shed had accommodated locos for such a short time!) but demolition soon spelled its end – this coming in 1965.

Ingleby to Yarm Plus Guisborough Ingleby station served the village of Ingleby Greenhow, picturesquely tucked away in a sheltered glen beneath Ingleby Moor. It was the last station on the double track Picton – Battersby section of the NY&CR route to Kildale authorised in 1854, but was not opened until 1 April 1861 by which time the company had been absorbed by the NER. The station was located on the east side of a level crossing on the village road and was provided with two platforms, a generously-sized stone-built station building with staff accommodation and a modest goods and coal yard on the north side of the line. A ground frame housed in the wooden building (seen on the left of the photo) controlled the signalling arrangements. In this charming early 1950s shot, the staff token is exchanged for the single line working west of Ingleby (this was introduced as an economy in the early 1940s) and G5 0-4-4T No. 67288 will be ready to depart for Picton and Stockton with a service from Whitby. Along with the closure of the Picton – Battersby section to passengers from 14 June 1954, the station was closed completely but the line remained open as far as Stokesley for a residual goods service. Concurrent with the closure to passengers, the G5 was withdrawn from Stockton shed on 28 June 1954.

After the passenger service was withdrawn from the Picton – Battersby section in June 1954, a goods service was maintained at Sexhow, Potto and Trenholme Bar stations until 1 December 1958 when complete closure of the section west of Stokesley occurred.

Goods services were maintained as far as Stokesley from Battersby until 2 August 1965 and until 1971 from Picton as far as Trenholme Bar for wagon storage. In this scene, increasingly to be repeated dismally up and down the country, track lifting operations are occurring west of Stokesley on a suitably depressing looking day during the early 1960s.

Picton station was opened by the Leeds Northern Railway (LNR) on 2 June 1852 and became a junction from 3 March 1857 with the opening of the first section of the Esk Valley route to Stokesley. The photograph was taken c.1967 after closure of the station and looks north towards Yarm. The substantial 2-storey stationmaster’s house facing the road and level crossing was attached to a single storey platform wing with an awning and a goods yard with a cattle dock, coal drops and an animal feed store which was located to the south of the level crossing on the west side of the line. The station closed to passengers on 4 January 1960 and to goods on 7 September 1964.

The original signal box on the site dated from c.1872, was rebuilt in around 1905 when the goods yard was expanded and lasted with a 51-lever Mackenzie & Holland frame until closed on 29 November 1997 when the line was resignalled. The carriage on the right is a Gresley suburban 4-compartment brake third converted in 1959 for civil engineering use and is stabled with an ex-NER box van, No. DE900832. The much extended station building survives in domestic use.

The magnificent 43-arch Yarm viaduct is the evening setting for the preserved V2 2-6-2 No. 4771 Green Arrow as it heads north on 4 August 1975 towards an overnight stop at Thornaby prior to moving on to Shildon for the S&DR 150 celebrations due to be held at the end of that month. The coaching stock forming the train was part of the National Railway Museum collection and were also intended to be part of the festivities. Special excursions were also run from different parts of the country during September and No. 4771 was known to have had a role in two of them between York and Sheffield on the 14th and 21st of August. The 2,280ft long viaduct (now Grade II listed) which spanned the town of Yarm and the River Tees was opened on 15 May 1852 by the LNR as part of their extension from Northallerton to Stockton. It was the last project of Thomas Grainger, the LNR Chief Engineer, prior to his untimely death on 25 July 1852 resulting from injuries sustained in a railway accident at Stockton two days earlier.

The viaduct cost £44,500 (or £7.9m in 2023 money) and was said to comprise 7.5 million red bricks in 41 of the arches with the remaining two bridging the river built in stone.

On the north side of the loop of the River Tees (and therefore in County Durham), Yarm station was opened by the LNR on 25 May 1852 as close as was possible to the town which lay on the south side of the river. Availability of land plus the challenge posed by the viaduct’s position over the town presumably influenced the choice of the site. The station was provided with a generously sized goods yard with coal drops and the interesting 2-road goods shed seen in the photograph probably predates the NER and probably was an LNR structure. The signal box was the third on the site dating to c.1892 and from 1901 was fitted with a 28-lever Mackenzie & Holland frame. The photograph was taken on 25 March 1961 looking south from the B1273 towards the Aislaby road bridge and the viaduct. By this date, like Picton, the station had been closed to passengers since 4 January 1960 but there was still some residual goods traffic which lasted until c.1964. The signal box closed in 1967. The goods yard now contains housing but the single storey station building on the left side of the tracks (hidden by the bridge) survives. A new station to serve the much expanded town was opened by Railtrack on a fresh site to the south of the town off Green Lane on 19 February 1996.

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Nunthorpe station on the M&GR line to Guisborough opened on 25 February 1854 and by the late 1890s it was equipped with a coal depot, sidings for various traders and a manually operated 2 ton capacity crane. An NER Type C2b 16-lever signal box replaced an earlier structure in 1903 and survived to become Grade II listed in 2013. Surprisingly perhaps for its (then) rural location the 2-storey, brick built, L-shaped station building with a platform veranda plus a single storey wing was a generous provision even allowing for it providing staff domestic accommodation. However, with the opening in 1864 of the Nunthorpe – Battersby line to the south at Nunthorpe Junction (later renamed by the LNER as ‘Nunthorpe East’), the station was elevated to a junction status. The station is seen just prior to its closure to goods traffic in August 1964 and also its loss as a junction for the Guisborough line which closed completely from 31 August 1964. Now, as a passenger station on the revamped Esk Valley line, it retains a passing loop and the signal box controls trains as far as Battersby and also (remotely) its junction with the Whitby section.

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Hutton Gate station was originally opened for the sole use of the Pease family who resided in the nearby Hutton Hall, a Gothic pile designed by Alfred Waterhouse and largely completed by 1866/7. Although the line itself opened in 1853, the station was assumed not to have opened until the completion of the Hall and with the Pease family taking occupation. Until 1904 when it was purchased by the NER and opened to the public, it experienced sporadic periods of opening and closure at the whim of the Pease family. The station was built in stone and was of a bespoke handsome design reflecting its elevated status as a Pease possession and survives today as a private residence. The 1901 signal box (seen to good effect in the photograph), although built in brick, was also of a unique design and possibly replaced an earlier structure called ‘Hutton Lane’ dating from around 1873 which may have been merely a crossing keeper’s hut. The 1901 ‘box had an 18-lever frame extended to 27 in 1909, was closed in 1959 and subsequently demolished. Apart from a short siding used possibly for local timber traffic, the station did not handle goods and was closed as from 2 March 1964, the eastern section to Loftus having already closed to passengers on 2 May 1960. During the early 1960s, LMS Ivatt 4MT 2-6-0 No. 43072 heads a westbound Guisborough - Middlesbrough service of mixed carriage stock away from the station.

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The original route of the Cleveland Railway to Boosbeck and Skelton passed over the 8-arch Waterfall Viaduct a little to the east of the tiny hamlet of Slapewath. This undated shot looking east from the A171 Guisborough – Whitby roadbridge sees V1 2-6-2T No. 67677 heading a Middlesbrough-bound service from Saltburn. The buildings on the right suggest a former station building but there was never one located here - just a single siding (now removed) to a coal depot on the right. It is difficult to realise these days there were as many as forty mines at different times within a five mile radius of Slapewath mostly served by sidings running off from obscure junctions now lost to memory and view. The superb 8-arch sandstone Waterfall Viaduct built by the Cleveland Railway between 1858-62 is now Grade II listed thanks to the indefatigable solo efforts of Mr Richard Murphy.

Helping to timeframe the shot a little more, the V1 was based at Middlesbrough from June 1953 until June 1956. Late in the day (September 1958) the loco was upgraded with a 200psi boiler and reclassified as ‘V3’ by which time it was based at Hull Botanic Gardens. It was withdrawn from Hull Dairycoates shed during October 1962.

Boosbeck station on the Guisborough to Brotton line, seen here looking north-east from the level crossing during May 1961, had lost its passenger service as from Monday 2 May 1960 with the last trains running on the previous Saturday, 30 April. The line was originally an extension of the Cleveland Railway’s Normanby line and opened in stages, reaching Boosbeck in 1862 (but bypassing the 1853 S&DR route to Guisborough), then Brotton and the Skinningrove area in 1865. Although serving numerous mines in the area, it wasn’t until 1 November 1878 and now under NER ownership (since 30 June 1865) that the line opened for passenger services using a new connection at Hutton Junction with the S&DR’s Middlesbrough – Guisborough line. Boosbeck station opened on the same day. The station building on the Up platform was a substantial brick-built 2-storey gable-ended structure to the design of William Peachey, the NER’s Chief Architect, incorporating the station- master’s accommodation and with a connecting single-storey veranda wing of station appointments to a single storey gable-ended building. Peachey also designed Middlesbrough, Saltburn and Sunderland stations and co-designed York. A goods yard on the north side of the line was well equipped to handle coal, general goods, and livestock. After closure to passengers, goods services survived until 12 September 1964, but the stationmaster’s house survives in private ownership and is now surrounded by modern housing.

To the east of Boosbeck was Priestcroft Junction where in 1873 the Cleveland Railway’s route to Brotton was joined by the NER’s Priestcroft Loop to North Skelton Junction; built to avoid Teesside-bound mineral trains having to reverse at Brotton and to allow traffic from the Guisborough direction to run directly through to Saltburn. On 15 June 1965 this shot was taken looking north in Stanghow Road (between Lingdale and Skelton) of the twin arch bridge on the Cleveland Railway’s route to Brotton and just seen beyond is an abutment and part of the arch of the NER 1873 loop to Skelton Junction. The twin arch structure was Bridge No. 14 on the branch and the lower arch was installed as an elaborate counter against mining disturbance. The wooden beams inserted above reinforce the support as does the concrete wing wall seen on the left. Proof of the ground movement can be seen in the lateral compression which has forced the crown of the lower arch upwards. Comparison of this shot with a similar one taken in c.1910 shows the lower arch as a conventional curve before its shape was irrevocably changed by ground movement. Cracks, crumbling, plus wall ties and pattresses are all obvious signs of ongoing deterioration, indicating demolition probably isn’t too far off especially as by the date of the photograph the track has been lifted. Currently, although the twin arch bridge has long gone, the bridge of the 1873 Skelton loop remains intact.

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The terminus at Guisborough lay 9 miles 49 chains from the junction of the same name on the Middlesbrough – Redcar line and was opened for freight on 11 November 1853 and to passengers from 25 February 1854. A compact single platform station built in stone was protected by a gabled train shed with an adjoining gabled roof goods shed. The station building also incorporated a substantial weather screen. Goods sidings were positioned on the east side of the line and a single road loco shed with a 42ft turntable lay on the opposite side together with a 14-lever signal box. Additional sidings were also provided for the Cleveland Steelworks. The loco shed was destroyed by fire in 1903 and replaced by a corrugated structure until this closed in September 1954 and soon demolished. Until replaced by push-pull fitted G5 0-4-4T No. 1883 (BR No. 67281) in 1941, from 1930 the shed was home to a twin engine Sentinel steam railcar, No. 2283 Old Blue. By the 1950s motive power was often in the hands of modern power such as this Whitby-based Riddles 4MT 2-6-4T No. 80118 which has arrived with a Middlesbrough/Stockton service. The Brighton-built loco had arrived new to Whitby in June 1955 and with others of the class was a regular performer on local services until transferred to Leeds Neville Hill shed in June 1958. A move to the Scottish Region occurred in November 1963 and it was withdrawn from Polmadie shed in November 1966.

By 27 August 1958 when this photograph was taken DMUs had taken over many of the local services and typical of these is a Stockton-bound service waiting to leave Guisborough in the hands of a 2-car Metropolitan – Cammell unit of the type first introduced in 1955. The terminus, despite a slight loss of glass to the gable frontage, still looks trim and well-kept but ominously, even at this date, is deserted apart from BR staff. The branch from Nunthorpe Junction was recommended for closure during June 1963, a public enquiry held in August, but approval for closure given during November and the last passenger train ran on Saturday 29 February 1964. A residual goods service lingered until this too was axed as from 31 August 1964. The station site now hosts offices, a car and coach park, a Health Centre, and apart from a boundary wall, there is nothing to suggest its former use.

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Looking north at Ormesby on 20 June 1953, A8 4-6-2T No. 69862 has climbed the 1 in 44 gradient up to the station and provides super power for a two coach stopping service from Middlesbrough to either Guisborough or through to Battersby with connections to Whitby. The station, at 3 miles ‘out’ from Middlesbrough, was the first on the M&GR’s Guisborough line opened on 25 February 1854 and, although named for the village a mile or so to the east of the line, was actually closer to the small village of Marton which was the birthplace of James Cook, the seafaring explorer and surveyor. The station was originally provided with two platforms, a signal box (in NER days a ‘C2b’ type) and a single goods siding with coal drops and a crane behind the southbound platform. The two wagons seen in the photograph occupy this siding. The A8 was a very recent arrival at Stockton shed from Middlesbrough (hence the lack of a shedplate) but would return there in the autumn for four years before being ousted by DMUs at the end of the 1957 Summer timetable. Withdrawal came in July 1958 from Sunderland shed. The now remodelled single track station was renamed ‘Marton’ by BR on 17 May 1982, thus establishing a closer bond with the James Cook heritage. A short distance to the south, another link to Cook was created with the May 2014 opening of ‘James Cook’ station to serve James Cook University Hospital and the suburbs of Berwick Hills and Park End.

Taking the Train from Darlington to Whitby

ISBN 978-1-913893-45-3

Drawing largely on steam-era images taken from the Transport Treasury collection, this book moves from the railway epicentre of Darlington to the industrial conurbations of Stockton and Middlesbrough and its concentration of loco sheds before heading east towards Redcar and Saltburn on the North Sea coast. The traveller then follows the stunning coastal route as far as Whitby before heading inland again for the dales and vales along the Esk Valley line via Grosmont and Battersby and also taking the opportunity to visit some of the more obscure and long closed railway locations en route.

Most of the photographs were taken during times when steam was largely unchallenged on passenger and goods services throughout the area, but added to the mix are a few images of ‘first generation’ DMUs which were introduced onto the routes from 1957.

Compiled by Nick Deacon

£13.50

Taking the Train from Darlington to Whitby Compiled by Nick Deacon