This photograph shows Stockton station at sometime during the sixties. Courtesy of Gordon Armes.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This photograph shows Stockton station at sometime during the sixties. Courtesy of Gordon Armes.
L1 tank locos ring a bell. After the Saltburn line was dieselised in 1958, a few steam trains remained on the branch, generally portions of trains heading to other regions,and these were shown as ‘steam trains’ in the North Eastern timetable. I recall getting up early at Saltburn on more than occasion to be sure of a steam run to Middlesbrough or Darlington. Stockton station must have been a veritable hive of activity in the early 1960s, particularly on summer Saturdays, with trains leaving for London, Bristol, Yarmouth, Blackpool/Southport, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. By the time of our last family holiday at Saltburn in 1965, these had largely or totally disappeared, and we were required to take the DMU to Darlington and change for our journey south.
Whenever I personally saw the Saltburn portion of the 07.53 Sunderland – King’s Cross it was hauled by Thompson L1 tank locomotives. The Middlesbrough-Newcastle expresses were usually hauled by V1/V3 Gresley tank locos shared between Middlesbrough and the Tyneside sheds, though I have had haulage by A8s and also ex LMS design tank engines on these services. When the coast service was dieselised in November 1955 the Middlesbrough Gresley V tanks transferred to the Hull area, though one or two did come back to Thornaby 51L towards the end of the steam era for a short spell. The V3 was a higher boiler presssure variant of the V1 many of the latter being re-classified as V3s as they required replacement boilers post-war. The last of the class were withdrawn in autumn 1964.
Anon, you may be able to remember whether the Saltburn through portion of the 07:53 Kings Cross train was hauled by a Gresley V1 or V3. I believe both these classes of locomotive were allocated to the NE but can’t remember which was common to Saltburn/Newcastle coast running.
The 07.53 Sunderland – King’s Cross train would attach a Saltburn portion at Stockton usually brought in from Saltburn by a tank locomotive. At holiday times or peak summer periods the Saltburn portion often ran as a separate train. On 25th July 1960 I arrived to find streamlined A4 Pacific 60005 ‘Sir Charles Newton’ waiting behind the station wall at the south end to take the Saltburn portion south, running independently on this day. The main train pulled up alongside as we stood, hauled by A3 60078 ‘Night Hawk’. On peak summer Saturdays there were a number of extra London trains running via Stockton, including an 09.20 South Shields – King’s Cross service with a Saltburn portion added from Stockton.
‘Flying Scotsman’ at Stockton brings back memories but earlier memories than this picture. In the early 1960s, as some readers may recall, there was a summer Saturday, Saltburn and South Shields to Kings Cross through service, and my family used to return south on this train after our summer holidays at Saltburn. The portions combined at Stockton before the train headed south. The Saltburn portion always came in first on the northbound platform, and my Stockton based grandfather used to board the train prior to it being shunted forward to await the South Shields service coming in on the south bound platform. The Saltburn portion then crossed over and backed on to the end of the train from South Shields, often with a bone-crunching crash (in those pre-H & S days), and my grandfather then got off the train before we headed south. I often wondered whether he paid anything more than the 1d cost of a platform ticket, or if he did, what he asked for at the booking office. It was August 1962 when, joy-of-joy, Flying Scotsman complete with its front ‘fenders’ (is that what they were called?) appeared on the South Shields portion, and I was pleased as punch as a 12 year old that I had the opportunity to ride behind this famous engine. Flying Scotsman came off at York or Grantham and was replaced by a diesel, and that was the last time I saw the engine in BR days,as it was withdrawn from service early the following year.
I think this is “Flying Scotsman” prior to its excursion from Stockton to Edinburgh on 25 May 1968, being serviced in bay platform four of Stockton Station. I took some poor b/w photos of the same scene, and my logbook shows D1110 and D9013 were the other highlights that morning. On 1 May 1968, the Grangefield School spotters went to see this steam loco roar through Darlington heading the 40th anniversary tour of the first Gresley Pacific to run on the East Coast main line, non-stop from Kings Cross to Edinburgh. For diesel fans, two rare Western Region “Brush Namers” visited Teesside on 7 May 1968, with D1675-Amazon going through Stockton at dinnertime and D1673-Cyclops emerging from Tees Yard at 6pm, causing disbelief at Grangefield School despite witnesses.
I remember the day of the photo, Flying Scotsman was waiting to take over a train which was brought in from the South. The station was packed and I got a few pictures of the event, but the lady and the man taking photo”s kept getting the way and when I got my photos developed they where in shot. The train ran via the coast to the North.
This is the Flying Scotsman, as preserved with an extra, water tender. This was the only steam locomotive allowed to run on the mainline after steam ended in 1968. It”s surprising to see very few people around to witness the event.