This is Haverton South Signalbox, with ICI and other factories in the background. The train has been diverted whilst they built the new Fussick Bridge. Courtesy of Gordon Armes. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This is Haverton South Signalbox, with ICI and other factories in the background. The train has been diverted whilst they built the new Fussick Bridge. Courtesy of Gordon Armes.
Good to hear from you Gordon and about your passing all those years ago. Freddie and my Father Joe were products of Oxbridge Lane School. Dad started with NER before the first world war as a lamp boy. He, like you, must have graduted to book boy, he served at Bowsfield Lane box. When the war came, Dad and Fred enlisted in the East Riding Yoemanary as Cavelry, they both trained at Hull and York for basic training ie learning to ride and jump without a saddle. They were both sent to Eygpt and served in the very place of the current troubles, Gaza Beersheba and Jerusalem. I do not know what they would make of it all today. On demob Fred returned to the railway, but Dad went to the Synthetic in 1922. They remained good friends all their lives, and to me they were Auntie Ivy and Uncle Fred. Freddie”s hobby was breading Budgerigars at his home in Marlborough Road next to his beloved railway. The Budgies he bred were carefully selected, my wife and I were given a green, yellow and black male called Sunny, My Mum and Dad a blue, grey and black male called, of course, Freddie! They were outstanding with speech. I have never ever, heard better, Freddie used to do “Little boy Blue” the whole first verse with proper emphisis on “where is the little boy” and our Sunny did, “Sunny Kidd”s a beautiful little boy” and his full address in case we lost him. They even had Teesside accents. I am glad you remembered Fred, lets hope a few more do or his relations, his Brother in Law was Squadron Leader Chesney who did a lot for the Air Cadets on Yarm Road.
I remember Freddie very well. In the late fifties and into the early sixties you needed special dispensation to become a signalman before you were twenty, nearly all signalmen in those days were recruited from the many book lads. I applied for this dispensation. I was told to sit with a signalman in Eston west and learn the block, this I did and was then told I would be passed out by, of all people, the feared Freddie Moiser, that is when the shakes set in. We met in a room at Stockton station and he was a gentleman, he set me at ease right away told me if I had studied it and knew it I had nothing to fear. The block exam lasted the full day and at the end of the day he told me I had passed, that he was very pleased with me, but if I let him down in any way he would kick my behind (or words to that effect) He then told me I would be going into Cowpen brickyard signalbox, donned his hat and came to my nanna”s for tea. He was a real gentleman who let you know by his demeanour that you did not mess with him. People like him are what the railways are crying out for now. gordon armes
My Dad”s pal was Freddie Moiser BEM who was Chief Signals Inspector for the LNER. I feel sure some of you must remember him although he may have retired in the late 1950s. When being passed to signalmen, it was part of Freddie”s job to make sure that the man was fully qualified and fit for the job. From the recent descriptions of train workings it was a complicated procedure which had to be planned with care. Obviously certain engines couldn”t run on certain lines without derailment. I would be pleased to hear any comments.
I was also a signalman in Haverton south at the same time that Gordon Armes was a signalman. I started in Belasis Lane, then moved to Haverton south, left there and moved on to Norton south. When I was working in Norton south, in the late sixties, there was talk of it being shut down but its still there now in 2009.
As one of the signalmen at Haverton Hill South I agree with Gordon”s comments that it was a heavy frame to work.
Further to the above working when trains came from the south they ran past the bottom crossover at Haverton station the spare engine which was stabled in the siding there came out through the top crossover the onto the diverted train and pulled it to billingham. I was a relief signalman and used to work the south and the station as well as Belasis Port Clarence box not to be confused with bell”s bank foot which was further down. These diverions went on for quite a few weekends. Richard – I knew J M Boyes who made quite a few visits to boxes I worked but I can send you a shot of me and my scooter took on the same day if you would like.
It was actually Gordon Armes who took the photo, during his long service on the railways, and he submitted it for publication on the site.
This photograph and the other images of the diverted train where taken by the late J.M.Boyes, who vast collection is now in the care of the Armstrong Railway Photographic Trust. On the day trains from the north stopped at Billingham Old station where another diesel was attached to the rear of the train. The train was then pulled to Haverton Hill where the train then continued via the Beck branch to Stockton station.
The box round the corner was Haverton station, not the North. It used to control the entrance into the sheds at Haverton which were situated on the angle alongside the goods agents office, I haved submitted a photo of this box to the site. The loop round to Belasis was one direction only and was mainly used by traffic from the south gird mainly coal. Haverton south was a very busy box and had a lot of push and pull levers, it was also a very heavy frame.
The way they worked it was, they went into the loop at billingham, spare engine went on the back, pulled it down to haverton station just past the crossover road, spare engine off then into the branch at Haverton station to Haverton south, then through Billingam beck branch which was in those days single line with electric token, then out at North Shore and on with their journey – pretty simple really.
This is an interesting bit of train working – has this train come from Belasis Lane or Haverton Hill North? Was it top & tailed or has it run round at Haverton? I”ll assume it”s heading on to the single line to North Shore…
That must have been quite a diversion. Trains from the north would have had to reverse at the Billingham goods loop, to access the Port Clarence line. Then along the Eastern boundary of the ICI complex, under Newport road, under Portrack Lane, past what is now Holme House prison, before eventually rejoining the main line at North Shore Junction.