This branch of the Clarence railway was built in the 1830s and was intended to serve staiths on the north bank of the Tees, just down-river of Stockton itself. The first photo was taken in 1969, when the use of the railway was on the wane, and looks northwards towards the gates of the level crossing, which divided Portrack from Bath Lane. The second picture was taken in the mid eighties from approximately the same position as that in 1969. The railway line has been lifted and the area south of the railway bridge, over Church Road, has been grassed over. The parapets of this reinforced concrete railway bridge are clearly visible. The bridge itself was cut down very soon after this picture was taken. The level crossing to Portrack has disappeared and seems to have been replaced with a concrete fence. The industrial buldings on the other side of the road, on the right hand side of the picture, began to be built inthe early fifites. Information and photographs courtesy of Fred Starr. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Scanning of Aerofilms’ photographs of Stockton and their publication on the “Britain from Above” website has now commenced. The image I have found most interesting so far is reference EPW038902 , which dates from July 1932 and shows almost the entire length of the North Shore Branch as well as other places of interest. Other photographs are also available and these are currently most easily found by browsing on the map. I strongly recommend this website to all who are interested in our town’s history.
Absolutely brilliant. I see from the wheelslip that some kids must have put grease on the line! Naughty!
Further to my last comment I have posted a new video on Youtube showing the latest progress on my quayside recreation. Search for ‘Stockton’s Quayside Railway’.
I think the Youtube videos Peter H. Rigg refers to are the computer simulations I posted on Youtube some time ago. I am recreating the entire line from Bowesfield Junction to the end of the line at Bishop St using ‘Train Simulator 2012’. The Picture Stockton site has proved invaluable in helping recreate many of the structures along the route. The project is much more accurate in it’s current state and I will post more videos soon. If anyone wishes to contact me about the project, especially if they have any photographs of the line, they can contact me via the Picture Stockton Team. Eventually I intend to give Stockton Library a DVD of the route as it might be useful as an education aid, showing how much the area has changed since the 1950s.
The article in ‘Steam Days’ is excellent and gives the history of this part of Stockton some much-needed publicity. The Sentinel shunters illustrated in the article were not the only ones in the area as a similar type were used on the North Shore branch. My earliest recollections of railway operations were the LNER/BR Y1 class which worked the coal depot at the bottom of Railway Street (Clarence Depot). According to ‘Yeadon’s Register of LNER Locomotives vol.12’ (6)8144 was new to Stockton shed in 1929 and worked from there until being condemned in 1954. It was replaced by 68142 which was itself condemned in 1957. They most likely also worked traffic down the branch to the many rail-connected businesses there.
Peter Gibson should also get some credit, as it was he who drew attention to the fact that there are very few pictures of the historic North Shore Branch. It was this that led me to contacting Steam Days a couple of years back following the first David Williams’ article. Peter H. Rigg may be interested to know that his father was my head master at Portrack Primary School, and who, with two other teachers, Mr West and Mr Johns, gave me a great deal of encouragement.
Fred Starr is too modest as the Steam Days article includes a valuable contribution from himself and another from John Ainsley. Copies of my photographs will hopefully appear on Picture Stockton some time soon. Incidentally, during my research I came across some videos on YouTube showing a train progressing along the line – an interesting, but not yet completed, series that can be found by Googling ‘Stockton quayside railway’.
Update – the remains of the North Shore branch can still be seen in a couple of places despite all the redevelopment that has taken place in recent years but it is getting more and more difficult. The abutments of the former bridge across Norton Road are still there but the remnants of the junction with the (original alignment) main line have recently been cleared away along with the old corporation depot, to prepare for the start of the new Queens Park housing development; the line can then just be made out in the bushes behind the palisade fencing on the north side of the former level crossing with Portrack Lane (Black Path Industrial Estate), opposite to The Cricketers pub; the south side is under a small car park and fenced off beyond, alongside Clarence Row; and the north abutment of the former concrete bridge over Church Lane still exists, heavily decorated with weeds and barbed wire, by the new traffic lights to North Shore Link Road/North Shore Road. The Malleable site itself down to the former river staiths (Tees Watersports Centre area) has been regraded ready for the forthcoming North Shore residential redevelopment and little of its former identity is left to see. Hope this helps.
Peter Rigg has written a five page article for the December 2011 issue of the magazine ‘Steam Days’ on ‘Stockton’s Quayside Railways’. It covers the history of railways in Stockton, with good maps, including the almost forgotten Clarence Railway and its North Shore Branch down to the river in Portrack. Although Peter has a comprehensive knowledge of the history, he has made good use of anecdotes from contributors to Picture Stockton in bringing the history to life. Although some of the pictures in the article are on the Picture Stockton website, there are others of some quite strange locomotives with vertical boilers that were used for shunting along the quayside. The article in Steam Days follows two others that have been published over the last four years by David Williams, which covered the main line network around Stockton and routes to ICI Billingham.
I believe the frieghtline that ran along holme house prison to be taken up about 1987 time i remember playing as a child around there watching the trains go past,
TRAINS DID RUN ALONG THE TOP OF THE ROCKS FIELD EMBANKMENT COMING FROM A LINE THAT RUN OFF FROM THE BACK OF NORTON. THIS LINE WAS PHASED OUT THEN BECAME THE FREIGHT LINER TERMINAL WHEN THE TRAINS DISPERSED THE COALS ONTO THE EMBANKMENT IT SENT OUT FIRE.THERE WERE TWO FARMS OVER WHERE THE PRISON STANDS NOW
THERE WAS ALSO A COAL MERCHANT AT THE END OF WATSON STREET CALLED SKIPPERS I BELIEVE.
My first job as a App Joiner at Head Wrightsons in 1953 was to make and fit “ticket blocks” to this type of wagon (Hopper). To fit them I had to sit on the axle under tha wagon to tighten the bolts. If I was late getting to them in work progress they had reached the spray tunnel and I was often covered in wet paint. If before, I sometimes had to dodge the white hot rivets thrown by the rivet boys to the Rivoters. Not forgetting being under the wagons when they were being shunted. “Health and Safety”. Wouldn”t be allowed these days, a young Apprentice working on his own. HW would make between 15 and 20 a week of these wagons. They also made 3 to 5 long flat drop down door wagons per week. Probably the length of a cricket pitch.
Could anyone tell me if North Shore House was a house for Railway Police Officers around 1916?
After the line closed in the 70″s, the ground frame which once controlled the level crossing remained in place for a few years afterwards. I shouldn”t really admit this, but a friend and I “liberated” the brass ID plates from the signal levers. I still have them, and they are on display in my house, here in the USA. I also have a few pics of the former station/goods shed and other parts of the line. Unfortunately they are in storage back in the UK, but next time I”m home, I will dig them out and submit them. I know I promised to do this a couple of years ago, but I still haven”t been back home since then.
P76 was the local trip working from Tees Yard known as the North Stockton Pilot, the time I was refering to was the 1973, the working of the crossing by then was the job of the travelling chargeman (no signalman) all the points by that time where hand points, the station was just off Norton road at Tilery before going under the railway bridge, it later became a goods yard.
The railway crossing gates into Portrack Lane, which can just be discerned in the black and white picture were, until the late fifties, actuated by a man in a typical signal box. You could see the signalman turning a wheel to open the gates.From his lofty position he could see everything, trains and road traffic. The signal box was on the Portrack side of the tracks, but close to the south side of the gates. The box was knocked down and replaced with a small shed from which the signalman had to come out and push the gates open. I am not sure how much the signalman had to do. I think he did control a few points on the Malleable side of the gates, but I expect his main job was handing stuff over to the man who ran the main line. What is a P76 and where was the other Stockton station?
Tommy Burr was the local coalman in the Portrack area, who took over the field adjacent to Portrack primary school and turned it into a big market garden. I remember Frank Burr, Tommy”s son. The last time I saw him in the late seventies he was still delivering coal.
Tommy was our coal man back in the day.
The branch was another of the shunts that P76 the North Stockton pilot, that I used to work. At the time there were two coal merchants to shunt, the first was Tommy Burrs coal drops at Tilery end and Pearts coal drops at the Malleable end, each way we had to operate the roads gates which had a lever frame to lock them into position. I remember going round the back of other Stockton station just off Norton Road at Tilery built by the Clarence railway.
During the early fifties the engines used for hauling the trucks onto the main line were of the 0-6-0 type, in which all the cylinders are out of sight. Much more interesting were a couple of small tank engines, presumbly belonging to the Malleable, which were used for shunting. At this time this was a day long activity. The shunting could be viewed from the blackened sandstone wall, immediately to the north of the reinforced concrete bridge over Church Rd. The area next to this was just a large grassed over field. I guess I got a lot of my basic knowledge of physics fom watching the trains being made up. Much of the rest was obtainied by occasionally helping to derail the bogies (trucks on the cableway)in Blacketts clay pit.
It was hard work putting the bogies back on the track if thy were full of clay I was the fire man on the steam navy fantastic experience for a 16 year old you probably played on that as well naughty boy
I certainly remember wagons being stored at this location in the late sixties and early seventies, very similar to the black and white photo. They were in poor condition, possibly awaiting scrapping. A green class 08 shunter hauled them in and out, thats the only type of loco I saw using the branch during this period, I have probably still got the shunter number(s). BR liked to photograph its wagons with pipes or unusual loads from the “South Durham Works” on this stretch of straight, quiet track. See photo s393 and comment of 23/10/2006 for more details.
I am pleased that this has been of interest. The old track bed of the line down to the part of the North Shore can just about be discerned to the left of the main track. Most of the tracks swept round to the east into the Malleable works
These are the only pictures that I have ever seen of the North Shore Branch, apart from the Norton Road Station building which appears in some of Ken Hooles” books. I blame my parents for not buying me a camera for my third birthday! Seriously though, I would ask anyone with photographs of the line to share them with us.
I vaguely remember level crossing gates next to the Tilrey pub as a youngster. And I remember the bridge across Norton Road next to what is now a tyre fitters. Talking of Railway lines does anyone remember the line that ran beside Holme House prison. What year was that taken up?