Stockton engine shed – 1949. Photgraph courtesy of Dave Summerfield.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Stockton engine shed – 1949. Photgraph courtesy of Dave Summerfield.
Grandfather worked on Stockton Station all his working life. Anyone got an inside picture of the station please.
I remember “Gnu” and 68142. An evening visit would usually find the “the shed” hidden away at the back of the shed. Who can remember the visits to 51E of Jubille “Bihar and Orissa” and A4 “Walter K. Wigham”,(the latter complete with white painted cab roof),on the occassion of the wedding of the Duchess of Kent? Anyone have photographs taken of these two during their visits?
Stockton shed also had one of the slowest locomotives as well.This was made by Sentinel and was numbered 68142. It looked like a shed on wheels,and was geared so as to give more tractive effort at the expense of top speed.One of it”s tasks was to shunt trucks on Corpoation Quay,which it reached by using the level crossing (St.John”s ?) on Bridge Road.It usually did this at approx. 7.25am., much to the annoyance of myself and dozens of others who were made late for work. Whether or not this was intentional,I never knew, but it happened many times!
Stockton shed is famous as it had the engine with the shortest name plate to run on British Railways after the closure of STOCKTON it moved to Thornaby. GUESSED IT YET? 61018 Class B1 named GNU.
Sir, you might like to try the Ken Hoole research centre at Darlington Railway Museum, they may be able to help.
Stockton shed (code 51E) was hidden away behind the embankment carrying the Stockton-Hartlepool line and the North Shore branch. To reach the main line the locos had to climb up to the branch then reverse down to North Shore Junction. My grandmother”s cottage was in Railway Street, opposite where the engines reversed. At the time this picture dates from, 1949, I would be 7 years old, but from the age of 2 would watch the engines here. I have always believed that the cottages, and those in in the adjacent Clarence Street were built by or for the Clarence Railway; see photo of the trackbed and my comment. There were other 1830 Clarence buildings in Railway St. until recently, but the area is now derelict. No one appears to be recording the history of the area around the branch, which is a pity as it is so historicaly important. I have taken photographs and collected old maps, but research needs to be done locally – I live 90 miles away.