Tilery road bridge. We are curious about the locomotive numbered 63344 – any thoughts?
Photograph courtesy of Gordon Armes.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Tilery road bridge. We are curious about the locomotive numbered 63344 – any thoughts?
Photograph courtesy of Gordon Armes.
This engine was one of the last three of the class of 120 locos to work up to the final day of steam in the North East 9th September 1967. 63344 and 63387 at West Hartlepool and 63395 at Sunderland.
What a nostalgic shot this is. As Peter Trundell rightly says, this started life as a level crossing when the Stockton Branch of the Clarence Railway opened from Norton Junction in 1834. It became the North Shore Branch after the arrival of the Leeds Northern Railway in 1852 when part of the branch was used for the present day coastal route. Conversion to an overbridge came in 1873 after the NER received complaints about ‘the hold-up of road traffic’ due to the number of trains using the line.
The Clarence used the crossing at Norton Road as a pick-up/drop down point for passengers until 1835 when a station was built, even adding a waiting room in 1838. The Stockton and Hartlepool Railway, which eventualy leased the Clarence, had at first its own station at Norton Road. The track layout at Norton Junction suggested that the two Companies used a track each and the stations were on either side of the two tracks, although this cannot be verified. Early records also suggest that the Clarence ran on the right hand side on double track (there was no convention in those early days) so it is a bit of a mystery.
Looking at this picture, it can be seen from the bridge decks that the two tracks were at slightly different heights, and the remaining abutments (still there a couple of years ago) can be seen to verify this. Can anyone explain this – I think I may have asked this question before on another thread.
On reflection that any loco that was still serviceable would have been grabbed by any depot in the area to cover turns, towards the end of steam, its move to Neville Hill would have been to serve local trip workings in that area, to which the depot did not have locomotives to cover these turns, upon closure of Neville Hill, 63344 would have been sent back to its home area to see off its last serviceable revenue life, checking again my ABC’s I have actually seen this locomotive it may have been on a coal working in the 60’s passing Norton.
This is the view back towards Norton. When the railway (later known as the North Shore Branch) was constructed the road crossed on the level. To the right would have been the Stockton station of the Stockton & Hartlepool Railway. When I knew this line as a child in the 70’s it was all but disused and I never saw a working train on it; only a line of sorry looking coal wagons.
My copy of Yeadon’s Register lists the following shed allocations for this locomotive: Borough Gardens, Newport (12/4/39), Haverton Hill (10/6/56), Thornaby (14/6/59), Neville Hill (7/6/64), Normanton (12/6/66), Tyne Dock (2/10/66) and finally West Hartlepool (2/7/67). This listing does not appear to be necessarily comprehensive as I have a photograph of 63344, bearing a 51F shedplate, taken at West Aukland shed on 13 April 1963 (Easter Saturday). The same shedplate was being carried when I photographed the loco, on 12 August 1963 at Norton South coming off the curve from Norton West. It was condemned on 9 September 1967 and sold for scrap in October 1967 to T.J. Thompson of Stockton.
The sister to this Q6 locomotive numbered 63395 is preserved on The North Yorkshire Moors Railway and is often in steam from the shed at Grosmont.
I may be wrong, but with regard to Brian’s comments, and checking the history of 63344, yes it was built at Darlington January 1913 and became a bit of a nomad. It was allocated to Newport Depot 51B through 1948, 1951, 1954, it then was allocated to Haverton Hill 51G in 1957 moving to Thornaby 51L in 1960, from there it again moved to West Auckland 51F by 1963, ending up at Neville Hill 55H 1964 – 1966 and like Brian say’s it was scrapped in November 1967. During its time in the area it may have been allocated to other depots within the North East. But like stated I could be wrong but these movements where cross referenced with my ABC’s and Mark Longworth’s two books.
Note the ‘Pinta Man’advert for milk on the billboard dating the photo at around the mid-1960s. Steam traction on British Railways in the north east came to an end in September, 1967.
That was Clarks scrap yard behind there.
It’s an NER 0-8-0 Q6 – My trusty old Ian Alan ABC 1948 (price 2/-) tells me they were introduced in 1913 to Raven’s design. Used to see a lot of them on heavy goods trains (mineral) around Stockton when I was a boy.
Number: 63344 Class Code Q6 Designer: Raven Built: 28/02/1913 Builder: Darlington Works (LNER)
1948 Shed: 51B Newport (Yorkshire) Last Shed: 54A Sunderland South Dock Withdrawn: 30/09/1967
Disposal details: Baum M., Middlesbrough. Disposal: Cut Up Disposal Date: 30/11/1967