K1 Class Steam Engine, No. 62041 passing Billingham Station signal box c1950s/1960s.
Photograph and details courtesy of Ivan Harrington.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
K1 Class Steam Engine, No. 62041 passing Billingham Station signal box c1950s/1960s.
Photograph and details courtesy of Ivan Harrington.
I feel like I could have been one of the trainspotters on the bridge. I spent enough time there.
If the load was bound for the ICI via Portrack branch, the loco would run around the train on the otherside of the Davis Bridge, then wait on the booking office platform until cleared to cross back in front of the signal box. A friendly driver would let you onto the platform and, occassionally the footplate.
I spent many an happy hour train spotting here.From about 1954 to 1962 I was a regular spotter, and stood on that bridge engulfed in smoke and steam many times. 62041 was a local engine, being shedded at Stockton for most of the 1950’s. Stockton shed shut in 1959, most of the locomotives moved to Thornaby shed, probably 62041 also, but by the mid 60’s was at Darlington. This picture could date from when the loco was at Thornaby. The young boy on the right looks to be wearing long trousers, not common in the 1950’s, although my eyesight is not what it was.