Stockton station with the old Queens Hotel in the background.
Photograph and details courtesy of Gordon Armes.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Stockton station with the old Queens Hotel in the background.
Photograph and details courtesy of Gordon Armes.
Another good photo, Gordon! the train looks like the Doncaster working, to which I made reference to before on this site, the class 47, was the booked traction on these turns, but on the Darlington jobs in the latter days it could be anything from a class 40 to two class 31’s working multiple, note the motor parcels van on the dock near Stamp Street and all the infrastructure in place at this once busy location.
Sadly, a sign of those times, (1960s -70s) with extensive work necessary on the roof cited as leading to the decision, and also linked with the general run down of the station and its rail traffic in the 1960s and early 1970s. Don’t forget that not so very long previously British Rail had proposed demolishing St Pancras, London and selling off the site and witness also the less than sympathetic changes in Stockton High Street at around the same time. Pity also about the Queens Hotel, demolished due to fire damage sustained in mysterious circumstances.
Who in there right mind gave permission for this wonderful piece of building to be pulled down?