Phoenix Sidings bridge.
Photograph courtesy of Alistair Smith.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Phoenix Sidings bridge.
Photograph courtesy of Alistair Smith.
Deck Pipes – When I was an apprentice welder at W T Seymour’s, Phoenix Sidings, Stockton, one of my menial tasks was to weld rings around pieces of pipe, this work was done for Fairless Engineering of Parkin Street off Bishopton Lane. The pipes were machine turned as were the flange like rings that the pipes fitted in to, the pipes came in two diameters two and four inch with each diameter having its own length, twelve inches for the two inch and eighteen inch for the four inch. A jig was used for accuracy and quickness, a separate jig was used for each diameter pipe, in the center of the jig was a hole the size of the pipe in to which the pipe was dropped to the required depth, around the hole on the jig was cut an insert to take the flange placing it at the right length on the pipe, two metal arms were loosely bolted on to the jig, these arms came across and held the pipe and flange in position for tacking prior to welding as the heat built up inside the tube was immense and had a tendency to move if not tacked. After completion the pipes were cleaned put back in to the hessian sacks they came in to await delivery or collection. The pipes after being received back at Fairless Engineering were re machined to remove the excess weld and sent off for a hot galvanized dip to prolong its life prior to shipment to the ship building yard that originally ordered them. Roy.
Hiya Roy if you link to ref; t8681 you will see a photo of the same bridge in perhaps the livery you would recognise;”Improved Stockton Grey and Rust”.
For Alistair Smith. Hi Alistair, just getting ready to shoot you down on this not being the target bridge you mentioned. No way, it is clean, painted and copious amounts of green foliage poking through, I clicked on to Google Maps and you are right. (I think that is what is called shouting before you are hurt, sorry.) Not setting foot on the bridge or seeing it since 1969, I was very dubious and sceptical. Remembering all those years ago going over the bridge and thinking that if someone was to remove all this grease and grime the thing would surely fall down, that is what I thought when I escaped Phoenix Sidings for the last time. A lot of years left in that. A great photo. Roy.
I”ve walked over this bridge many times, sometimes with a Bicycle. I remember Burn”s Dairy with the rattling of milk bottle machinery, also the noise from Whalley Welding.
This is a photograph taken last year. The bridge is still in use and leads from Stamp Street to Phoenix Sidings. There are also other images of this footbridge on the site.