Old North Shore Branch Line.
Photographs courtesy of Gordon Armes.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Old North Shore Branch Line.
Photographs courtesy of Gordon Armes.
I checked my photo’s after reading your posting, Bill and you are right in saying it’s South Stockton goods yard – I must be getting a little of that ‘old timers’. I hope you are keeping well, sorry for the mistake,
No problem Gordon, I am getting that way myself, you must remember the early and late shift South Stockton pilots, with working Bowesfield box, going towards the dumb end then propelling into the yard, with a mixture of coal, vanfits and scrap wagons. I’m still working on the book and still may need some help re-calling the proper days of the railways in the area.
I remember the pilot and the working well, but I have another photo of the coal stagings at the end of the north shore branch, and the two got mixed up. I will have to post that one, any help or recollections Bill? I would be happy to help, did you hear that Terry Wood had passed on earlier this year? Another good railwayman and a good bloke gone. Keep well Bill. Best wishes.
The middle photo is that of Stockton Goods yard, from the side entrance of the old S and D booking office at St Johns crossing, the Labour Exchange was on the opposite side of the road and the old Stockton bus depot was to the left, I remember as a guard shunting the coal drops, with a 350hp 0-6-0 diesel on the South Stockton pilot, we use to chalk the numbers of the cells on the sides of the wagons after checking the wagon labels for the customer, then shunt them into order, loco’s weren’t allowed onto the coal drops, the loaded wagons were pushed towards the drops to keep the loco off and the empties would be picked up and placed into the siding at one side then the loaded would be placed onto the correct cell, still with use of other wagons. I remember we had to shunt these drops nearly very day, it was usually the job of the morning pilot, because the coal merchants would have ordered more wagons of coal than the drops could handle so it was the norm to go down to keep replacing them.
The coal stagings are situated almost at the end of the north shore branch and the building in the background is indeed Hill’s factory. I believe you used to access them from a street on the left just before what used to be Strikes Mission hut.
The middle picture is of the coal yard near stockton goods station at St Johns crossing, I believe. You can see the new extension to the goods yard. The entrance was located behind the ticket office.
Super! More pictures of the only “branch line” in the UK which runs dead straight. Running from Norton junction down to the North Shore quay. The main line through the second Stockton station had to bend round to join the branch.
Does the first picture show an engine approaching the level crossing at Portrack and the third picture railway over the bridge over Norton?
Note that Stockton Library now has a copy of Steam Days, which has an excellent article by Peter Rigg about the North Shore Line and the railways round the Dockside Quay.
The centre picture looks like the coal drops in Clarence Depot at the end of Railway Street with Hill’s factory in the background. It is probably in later days as the nearest hopper wagon appears to have electrification warning flashes on the end, therefore after 1960.