This photograph shows a WD locomotive passing by Bishopton Lane signal box on the goods lines. Stockton station can be seen in the background.
Photograph and details courtesy of Gordon Armes.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
I wonder if anyone remembers my late uncle Ralph Hamilton. He was a relief signalman in the tees side area 1960s/70s. He lived in the railway cottages outside Stockton station which was called Back Stamp Street
I remember Ralph very well we used to go drinking together he was a good signalman and a really nice lad he died at a very young age I believe he just collapsed and died after a night out with his wife. I went to his funeral along with a lot of railwaymen who thought a lot of him R I P Ralph.
A rarity indeed to see a WD locomotive clean and shining like this. As Ian Russell says it must be ex-works and very recently repainted. Usually they were indescribably filthy and neglected, but still managed to perform their work.
In 1956 and ’57 I worked as a signal lad in the Bishopton Lane signal box shown. I worked 3 shifts in rotation with a signal man called Tommy Tupling.
Presumably that photo is taken from the footbridge. Just behind the signal box was a wall my friends and I used to trainspot from would have been there in 1956/57 as well as from the path in front of the cottages opposite
It’s in damn fine condition. It must have been overhauled just prior to the photo being taken hence the shiny clean paintwork. You could hear them coming a mile away by the clink-clank of the big ends.
A girl in my class at Mill Lane School, lived in one of the houses on the right. Her name was Brenda Richie, I remember going there. I also recall another girl called Dorothy Pick living there. They were known as Railway cottages (I think.) and they were back to back with Stamp Street.